Who Uses The Lenspen For Sensor Cleaning

I am waiting for my order to be delivered. I bought a couple of sizes of Lenspens and one for the sensor and wondered how they work. For the first time in years, I have some small specks on my sensor that the Copperhill swabs just can't seem to get. I'm hoping the lenspen will do the job.

I have a LansPen and SensorPen and love both products. I also have a wet swab kit from CopperHill for the really tough stuff. Once I have determined I need to clean a spot or two off my sensor. I first blow it with a rocket blower then reinspect. Next I use SensorPen brush end, followed by graphite end. If this has not removed the speck or two, I get out the Eclipse and swabs. I have used my CopperHill swabs twice. SensorPen get it done a couple times a year.

canonloader wrote in post #13283476
I am waiting for my order to be delivered. I bought a couple of sizes of Lenspens and one for the sensor and wondered how they work. For the first time in years, I have some small specks on my sensor that the Copperhill swabs just can't seem to get. I'm hoping the lenspen will do the job.

Be very careful going forward. Shane has followed the proper sequence using the pen first and then the wet tools to get what's left. If you're using QuikStrips and Eclipse according to the directions, you should not be leaving much at all unless it's right on the very edge. Have you done a "brooming" just on the trouble spot? This is a concentrated back-and-forth cleaning with moderate pressure followed by a regular swabbing.

My feeling is that it's just a stuck-on particle or two that will eventually come off with the procedure I've recommended.

Nicholas
http://www.copperhilli​mages.com/index.php?pr​=galleries

Thanks Shane and Nicholas. It sounds like your saying that the wet method is better than the carbon? Usually the wet method is plenty and does a good job, but this time it doesn't seem to do anything. I have a regular swarm of new spots that just won't come off. And it's not like I change lenses often, in fact, I almost never remove the camera from the mount on the microscope. It sometimes stays on there for months at a time.

Here is a recent, three days ago, video that I made and you can see the spots quite clearly. I even swiveled the camera on the mount and moved the slide up and down and side to side to point out the spots from the other small stuff on the slide. Watch from about 1:10 onward. I have wet cleaned the sensor now, 5 times, to try and remove these specks, and they are still there, and of course, you can't see them with the eye. And yes, I did the brooming method the last two cleans, in desperation.

Since the Lenspen manufacturer states that carbon dust might be left behind on lenses and it would need to be blown off, why would anyone even think of using it on a sensor where the carbon dust is left within the body of the camera, to later get onto the sensor?!?!?!

Art Morris sells a small lens pen for cleaning sensors. He describes a method for knocking off excess caron from the pen, but I find it still leaves carbon specs on the sensor, seen as dust like particles.

https://store.birdsasa​rt.com/shop/item.aspx?​itemid=13

However it is more convenient than the wet cleaning method, and about the same effort as the brush method.

Because, I can get lose carbon dust out of the mirror box, what is stuck to my sensor now, won't come out. It's an act of desperation.

I have bought the Pen designed for the sensor. The lens cleaners are concave shaped, dished in, to fit the convex shape of the lens, dished out. The Sensor Pen is flat and triangle shaped, so the points can get into the corners. It's not going to become my preferred cleaning choice, I just want to use it once to get whatever is stuck to the sensor, off.

Do you really think you can get all the carbon dust out of the mirror box, and not get it blown into other locations, like the pentaprism housing?!

How much do you think there is going to be? I'm not going to blow it out, I'm going to scratch around with the carbon impregnated chamois tip, then wet clean it. I'd worry more about dust behind the filter than inside the pentaprism. But, if anyone has a story about carbon dust being a problem with the sensor pen, I'm listening.

I hope Shane is not referring to the SensorKlear Pen when he talks about his SenorPen. The retractable brush is NOT meant to be used on the sensor, it is for brushing away dust at the lens mount.

I use the SensorKlear pen with great success. The trick, however, is not to use the pen in a way that causes a lot of dust to come off of it. Use the rocket blower and a SensorKlear Loupe to see if there is any stubborn dust. If there is, use the SensorKlear pen very lightly to get the dust loose, then rocket blow it out. That is the trick. If you use the SensorKlear pen to wipe all over the sensor, or you use a lot of pressure (which is not necessary) you will leave carbon dust on the sensor. However, I seriously doubt it is going to cause you any major issues, especially if you do a wet clean as well.

Yeah, that sounds reasonable. My spots are not dry dust, if they were, they would come off in 4 wet cleanings. This is more like that lubricant that comes off a new out of the box camera and gets on the sensor, have you seen that yet? I've gone through two of those and it's not pretty. This stuff is sticky, wet and I have no idea where it came from. Maybe it is lubricant that just got flung off late.

I have a few days yet before the pen gets here, so maybe I will try a few more wet cleans.

On the Lens Pen web site is a page of FAQ:
"> Why does LensPen leave a black mark on my finger, but not on the lens?
LensPen's cleaning compound is carbon based, similar to a pencil lead. It leaves black marks on all surfaces which are not very, very smooth. "

The sensor filter is smooth as glass though, the only not smooth stuff ought to be the dirt. Believe me, I have read every word on their site and watched every YouTube video on the subject, before I ordered and now, a week before the thing even gets here, I am asking about it in the forums. So far, I have not heard anything really bad about it from people with first hand experience.

Since Lens Pen has special sensor cleaning devices, that might be why no one has attempted to clean a sensor with something stated to be for lenses and filters. Be sure to report back the results of you attempt to clean the sensor, good or bad.

Wilt wrote in post #13299972
On the Lens Pen web site is a page of FAQ:
"> Why does LensPen leave a black mark on my finger, but not on the lens?
LensPen's cleaning compound is carbon based, similar to a pencil lead. It leaves black marks on all surfaces which are not very, very smooth. "

LensPen and the SensorKlear pen have two different tips. The tip on the SensorKlear pen is flat.

I have been using this thing for months and it NEVER leaves a black mark on my sensor filter, ever. If it leaves a mark on the finger that is noticeable to the human eye, don't you think I would see it on my sensor filter?

The tips are different, which is probably why the LensPen is not recommended for cleaning sensors.