Sensor cleaning and compressed air?

If I'm not mistaken, and I rarely (usually in truth) am, camera manuals warn against using compressed air cans to clean sensors. I find sensor cleaning to be a real pain in the ass and very difficult to do a good job, no matter what method I use. I've never used compressed air.

But having just watched a YouTube of Karl Taylor doing exactly that and saying he's been doing it for years, including on a mega expensive Hasselblad, I think I'm going to give it a try. Anyone here use compressed air?

Of course he warns about holding can upright, shooting it in the air first to be sure no liquid comes out, and being gentle.

I used compressed air, but .... from a scuba tank (air is filtered and dried), i will never use from a can ....

But over all, now, i give my camera to Canon, it coast $ 10-12 only for cleaning and they clean everything, with compressed air sometime i got more dust than i took off, just because the air flow is strong so i put it a bit far from the camera (20-30cm) and it bring dusts from the surrounded environment with it ...

MDJAK wrote in post #17140057
If I'm not mistaken, and I rarely (usually in truth) am, camera manuals warn against using compressed air cans to clean sensors.

Even though some of the cans you're referring to are marketed as containing compressed air, that is absolutely not true. NONE of the disposable cans of "duster" style products contain air. They contain a liquid propellant which, in liquid form, can damage plastics and camera mirrors. The product in these cans is typically something like difluoroethane or dichlorodifluoromethan​e.

If used PROPERLY, these products can work to blow dust out of a camera's innards. However, if used improperly, liquid droplets can be blown into the camera and potentially cause damage.

I highly recommend a product that I bought to clean my camera's innards as well as some very delicate industrial optical systems that I used to work on. The product is the Hepa Jet II by Koh Global. This hand-powered blower is significantly different from the typical blower in that all the air it pumps is drawn through a very fine filter which removes airborne dust particles. Thus what you blow into the camera with this unit does not contain dust. All other hand blowers such as the very popular Rocket Blower sucks air into it from both ends and does nothing to eliminate dust which may be (and probably is) in the air.

I pay a lot of money for my equipment. If the manufacturer says not to use canned air, I'm not gonna' use canned air...

I'm not afraid to use canned dusters. I've tried them, but I've never noticed any advantage over a decent bulb style blower. (Such as the Giottos Rocket Blower).

Thank you, skip. Just ordered it. The filter is what makes the difference. Otherwise, a plain jane rocket blower is blowing dust into the sensor. Look forward to getting it.

I have carefully used can compressed air with good results after a bit of research. Before sensor cleaning, I never shake the bottle or even move it......I keep it sitting stationary in it's place. This keeps the propellant settled and prevents glops of liquid propellant from being expelled at the nozzle (which will happen if you shake the bottle before use). The other thing to be careful of is the "straw" accessory that bottles of air often include. It can easily shoot off the end of the nozzle and right into your sensor and create a nice scratch. I personally just avoid using the included straw. That said, I've cleaned my sensors many times over several years with canned air and have never had a problem....and I've gotten better results than I get from a rocket blower (the canned air just has more power than I can produce by squeezing a rocket blower). I've always figured that the worst that can happen is I get a glob of liquid propellant on the sensor that requires a wet cleaning but that has never happened. I also always use fully charged bottles....if the propellant is getting low, I won't use it for my camera sensor. I'm not sure if that matters but it makes me a bit uncomfortable.

http://www.amazon.com …words=sensor+cl​eaning+kit

Use these or similar. I was crushed when my sensor had dust that wouldn't come off no matter what, but this got rid of them. 100% clear sensor after a couple of tries.

I've seen 'em in photog magazines, and am thinking about one of these .... anyone else have one, and would like to share info?

http://www.amazon.com …J4ZOAW/ref=cm_w​l_huc_item

alphamalex wrote in post #17146068
I've seen 'em in photog magazines, and am thinking about one of these .... anyone else have one, and would like to share info?

http://www.amazon.com …J4ZOAW/ref=cm_w​l_huc_item

There's no way I would ever use that inside a camera. I have two reasons for this opinion.

1. The air flow stream is very likely too much for safety of the delicate parts in a camera.

2. There does not appear to be a filter on the air intake to the unit. This means that the unit will suck up dust that's in the air and force that into the camera along with the air stream.

The Hepa Jet II by Koh Global hand-powered blower is absolutely perfect for cleaning camera interiors safely. It's especially useful with a small diameter flexible plastic tube attached to the nozzle. It's also a lot less expensive than the Metro unit.

I use sensor swabs with Eclipse. I don't like the idea of blowing air or anything else around the innards of my cameras. Besides, it doesn't work with lubricant spots or fungus. When my 20D was my only camera, I had to clean it regularly. My 40D has a dust shake feature when you turn the camera on and off. I think I cleaned it once. Don't models after that have it?

I'm careful when I change lenses. I seek a relatively dustless low-wind area. In some settings, I have a different lens on my 20D and 40D. So I don't have to change lenses at all. From my experience, I get the feeling that some folks might be a bit over-sensitive about dust on the sensor. I clean my sensors when it's obvious in the images, which is not often.

See www.cleaningdigitalcam​era.com for everything you need to know about sensor cleaning... what to do and, perhaps more importantly, what to not do. That site is written and maintained by professional camera repair techs, including one guy who literally has written many of the books on camera repair.

For one thing, if your camera is new, it's almost always necessary that the first cleaning be a "wet cleaning". This is because the sensor nearly always has oil spots on it, extra lube thrown off from the shutter mechanism. If you use any other method you will merely smear the oil and ruin the tool being used.

And it's usually necessary to do a series of steps to properly clean a sensor...

1. Bulb blower or other low pressure puff of air to remove the "loose dust".
2. Wet cleaning (Eclipse and Pec Swabs or Pec Pads on a proper tool) to remove oils and some adhered dust.
3. Dry "adhesive" cleaning (Dust Aid) to remove more adhered specks.
4. Dry "brush" cleaning.
5. Repeat wet cleaning.
6. Closely inspect with a lighted magnifying loupe. If a few loose specks remain, use a tool such as Speck Grabber to remove them.
7. Once sensor is completely clear or all dust specks and oil spots, give it a final polishing with a Sensor Pen to remove the haze left by the wet cleaning. This will also make it more resistant to dust adhering in the future.

Biggest single cause of "dust issues"... using too small a lens aperture. There is rarely good reason to use f16 or f22 with a crop sensor camera. In fact, in addition to making dust on sensor much more apparent, at such small apertures there's likely a lot of loss of image quality to diffraction (http://www.cambridgein​colour.com …ffraction-photography.htm).

i myself will not do canned air,rocket blower only when needed,about a month ago i ended up sending one of my cameras to CPS for a sensor cleaning they by the way do a vary good job,along with other things,so now i can sleep a little better!

I followed Skip's advice and got myself that nice Hepa Jet II.

From the UK, for 45.70 EUR all told.

Will keep it in the safe between use.

SkipD wrote in post #17140127
The product is the Hepa Jet II by Koh Global. This hand-powered blower is significantly different from the typical blower in that all the air it pumps is drawn through a very fine filter which removes airborne dust particles. Thus what you blow into the camera with this unit does not contain dust. All other hand blowers such as the very popular Rocket Blower sucks air into it from both ends and does nothing to eliminate dust which may be (and probably is) in the air.

^^ I've been using one of them for the past few years now