Sensor Cleaning

[Bsmooth]

Well I've had my 20D for about 3 months and now I'm getting some small spots on my pics. First I'll get a Giottos Rocket blower(large size best?).Then I was thinking of getting the Sensor sweep brushes to just get rid of the pesky bits If I have to.
Do these sound like a good way to clean the sensor,because this will be the first time for me. Thanks!

[Prox]

Sounds just perfect!
You would probably want the medium sized Rocket blower if you are gonna carry it in your bag. If you just leave it at home, why not go for the big one? :D

[malla1962]

Blower made mine worse.got some digi pads and eclipse fluid and it cleaned nice.:D:D

[eos-rob-uk]

Blower made mine worse.got some digi pads and eclipse fluid and it cleaned nice.:D:D

could you remind me agian where you got your digi pads and fliud please?

RoB B

[Jesper]

http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning

Here's a long list of links about sensor cleaning:
http://www.ultimateslr.com/clean-image-sensor.php

[Radioham]

Hi
I am getting my sensor cleaned by Canon, The first one is FREE so I been told by Canon.
I hope they don’t take a long time; :( All I had to do is enclose a copy of the receipt of purchase and send it to my nearest repair centre which happens to be Borehamwood Herts, nice to get something for FREE :lol: :lol:

[foxbat]

could you remind me agian where you got your digi pads and fliud please?The blower made mine worse too. Started off with the sensor dust and ended up with more sensor dust and some viewfinder dust too. The pec pads/eclipse sorted the sensor out no problem. Bought from here in the UK:

http://www.crown-digital.co.uk/

I made my own swabbing spatula by dremelling the handle of a plastic canteen knife into shape.

[NeoDude]

The main use of a blower should never be to directly remove dust from the sensor but to charge a brush in order that the brush will pick up the dust via static. I use my Rocket air to charge a sensor sweep brush which I find picks up 90% of dust from my sensor. When the very stubborn marks accumulate too much I use Eclipse fluid on a Sensor Swipe & Pec Pad.

[Mitcon]

I do it myself, canon did say they would do it a couple of times free but I was told it would be a 6-8 week turn-around for me.

[grego]

Used the copper hill method just a few minutes ago for my first time. Of course the first time didn't go exactly as planned, but its a start.

[RNeudorf]

I am currently trying to buy the kit from the Copperhill guy, but the website goes blank once I choose a credit card.
This is not using the Paypal option, btw.
I was looking for a way to email the guy, but there doesn't seem to be any mention of his email address. Anyone know how to contact him?

Thanks.

[Patrick Erickson]

I do it myself, canon did say they would do it a couple of times free but I was told it would be a 6-8 week turn-around for me.

What exactly do you do....?

I have had my XT for about 5 months and am starting to notice dust specks on the images. I am terrified about the thought of cleaning it myself... Is it hard to do... easy to scratch... how exactly do you go about cleaning the sensor...?

I guess I'm looking for some kind of tutorial. I 've been searching the forums and can't seem to find a good enough explanation. Blowers... cotton swabs... other things.. I'm lost.

Honestly.. this scares me.



Any advice/help is greatly appreciated.



The End.





Patrick.

[Brianbar]

If our Canon sensors have a glass protecting the sensor as claimed (I have a 10D), why can we not use a VERY GOOD quality soft artist brush, or the cleaning fluid we use to clean our over priced prescription reading glasses?
What is so special about this piece of glass in our cameras?
I agree that the blower does make it worst.

Brian

[Mitcon]

I think an artist brush would work well it nylon, just be certain to wash all the glue out of it first. Some people do use the optical lens cleaner your talking about, most of those are just water and isopropyl alcohol I think. I think it's more a matter of how you clean it as there is a great deal of things that likely could be used with success as long as your very careful how you use them.

[robertwgross]

I guess I'm looking for some kind of tutorial. I 've been searching the forums and can't seem to find a good enough explanation. Blowers... cotton swabs... other things.. I'm lost.


Patrick, you haven't been searching adequately in this forum! Probably a dozen times per week it is discussed.

---Bob Gross---

[Patrick Erickson]

Patrick, you haven't been searching adequately in this forum! Probably a dozen times per week it is discussed.

---Bob Gross---

Sorry... I'm new to all this forum stuff...

I'll search harder.. ;)

[rklepper]

The copperhill site has the best tutorial you will find.
http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning

[Crypto]

clip from the XT manual. They may be similar?

[Mitcon]

Sorry Patrick, I missed your post.

As Bob said it has been said many times before, there is also alot of web sites about with detailed information with many different options. The first step is to read your manual, it tells you the least invasive way to rid yourself of dust. Get yourself a good squeeze bulb blower follow what the manual tells you and hold your camera so it faces down.

That doesn't always rid your camera of dust or pollutants so sometimes you will need to go a step further, there are many choices to follow down this path. I don't like to advise on anything when it comes to this as everyone has their own opinion or way they think is best. You have to look at the options and think which seems what your comfortable with.

Theres only 3 ways really,
1. brush your sensor (this is done with a totally clean nylon artist or makeup brush and then you charge it with static electricity by either blowing air with some force through it or rubbing it unpon litmus paper or something of this sort). There are purpose made brushes for this task which can be very expensive or you can research it and work it out for yourself.

2. Dry swabbing your sensor. This is done several ways as well, some people use a lens pen ( I don't like this as you need to throw it away after one use in my opinion). Other use a lens tissue ( I wouldn't use) or clinical grade tissue/pad free from impurities. The last is useing a bit of microfibe cloth, but you should only use whatever is used once so as not to re-introduce anything to contaminate/damage the lowpass filter.

3. Wet swabbing your sensor, this is done using one of the above materials with 1 or 2 drops of a cleaning solution. Again many choices, 90%+Methanol, 90%+Isopropyl or lens cleaning fluid of whatever brand.

There are an endless list of how to do all of these on the web and who prefers what for their own reason. You need to work out what you feel your able to do and what method you think is best for your own needs. Be very careful as most manufacturers don't recomend you do any of these and you do need to be very careful in what you do.

There are so many choices and ways it can be done and it's at ones own risk to undertake this kind of cleaning, this is why I don't like to advise. Theres just too many options and everyone will swear by theirs, as I said, just work out what you feel comfortable with nd research that method. The only other choice is have Canon do it for you.

[BottomBracket]

I am currently trying to buy the kit from the Copperhill guy, but the website goes blank once I choose a credit card.
This is not using the Paypal option, btw.
I was looking for a way to email the guy, but there doesn't seem to be any mention of his email address. Anyone know how to contact him?

Thanks.

I bought my sensor cleaning kit from Micro Tools here: http://www.micro-tools.com/Merchant2/dck.htm . Scroll down to DIGI-KIT4-F.

It costs only 17.95, and is essentially the same kit from the Copperhill site.

[Trumper]

Dont be too frightened to use eclipse cleaning fluid and sensor swabs,it is easier than you think,just read the instructions and look for tutorials on the webpages.

[Patrick Erickson]

Sorry Patrick, I missed your post.

As Bob said it has been said many times before, there is also alot of web sites about with detailed information with many different options. The first step is to read your manual, it tells you the least invasive way to rid yourself of dust. Get yourself a good squeeze bulb blower follow what the manual tells you and hold your camera so it faces down.

That doesn't always rid your camera of dust or pollutants so sometimes you will need to go a step further, there are many choices to follow down this path. I don't like to advise on anything when it comes to this as everyone has their own opinion or way they think is best. You have to look at the options and think which seems what your comfortable with.

Theres only 3 ways really,
1. brush your sensor (this is done with a totally clean nylon artist or makeup brush and then you charge it with static electricity by either blowing air with some force through it or rubbing it unpon litmus paper or something of this sort). There are purpose made brushes for this task which can be very expensive or you can research it and work it out for yourself.

2. Dry swabbing your sensor. This is done several ways as well, some people use a lens pen ( I don't like this as you need to throw it away after one use in my opinion). Other use a lens tissue ( I wouldn't use) or clinical grade tissue/pad free from impurities. The last is useing a bit of microfibe cloth, but you should only use whatever is used once so as not to re-introduce anything to contaminate/damage the lowpass filter.

3. Wet swabbing your sensor, this is done using one of the above materials with 1 or 2 drops of a cleaning solution. Again many choices, 90%+Methanol, 90%+Isopropyl or lens cleaning fluid of whatever brand.

There are an endless list of how to do all of these on the web and who prefers what for their own reason. You need to work out what you feel your able to do and what method you think is best for your own needs. Be very careful as most manufacturers don't recomend you do any of these and you do need to be very careful in what you do.

There are so many choices and ways it can be done and it's at ones own risk to undertake this kind of cleaning, this is why I don't like to advise. Theres just too many options and everyone will swear by theirs, as I said, just work out what you feel comfortable with nd research that method. The only other choice is have Canon do it for you.

Thank you so much... you're the man. After I had posted that I went to the local camera shop and they said they do it for $60... I think I might just fork over the money for now and let them do it....

[Dami]

I'm probably over-thinking this, but I have a question using the Swipe and PecPads...when you're looking at a picture to see if you have specks, how does the top/bottom/left/right of the photo correspond to the sensor. IOW, if I have a cluster of dust in the lower left hand corner of the photo, which corner is that on the sensor?

[Mitcon]

I'm not certain but I would think the top left corner of an image would be the top right corner of the sensor. But it shouldn't really matter, if you going to swip/swab a sensor you should do it in a fashion that either covers the whole sensor or a 2 pass method being sure to not change direction so as to not re-introduce pullutants you may have just removed.

[Brianbar]

I always find this cleaning the sensor issue very interesting, earlier on this thread I asked what is so special about the glass covering the sensor, why we can't use lens cleaner that we use on reading glass.
Mitcon said he thought it was okay to use this fluid, but I'm still curious as to what is so special about this "piece of glass"

Brian

[Mitcon]

Brian, that bit of glass is quite thin and is a lowpass filter.

[RNeudorf]

I bought my sensor cleaning kit from Micro Tools here: http://www.micro-tools.com/Merchant2/dck.htm . Scroll down to DIGI-KIT4-F.

It costs only 17.95, and is essentially the same kit from the Copperhill site.

Thanks for the link.
I already got a hold of the Copperhill guy and the order is on the way.

Cheers!

[pcDigiMan]

New sensor cleaning tool... updated sensor brush

http://www.visibledust.com/self_cleaning_self_charging.html

[pfogle]

Somewhere I saw a post about getting the right sort of brush for the static brush approach, that didn't cost an arm and a leg - can anyone point me to it? I have a stubborn bit of dust that the copperhill method has only shifted around (it got rid of all the others) - I tried three times, but I think it's going to have to be lifted off.

Any advice welcome!
Phil

[rklepper]

One thought. You do need to make sure that the brush is clean, so you should clean it with distilled water prior to charging it. You should only go to the next step if the brush does not do a good enough job.

[Brianbar]

Another link for sensor cleaning.

http://www.photo.net/equipment/digital/sensorcleaning/

Brian

[phili1]

The Copper Hill system is first class, very easy to use. I highly reccomend it. The instructyions are flawless.