cleaned sensor, and I SCRATCHED SENSOR!!!

yea, so im feeling pretty terrible right about now.....I purchased a cleaning kit from copperhill after reading several good posts on the forums....well i got it in today and was excited to finally be able to clean my sensor. I read the instructions very carefully and then tried it....and to my horror after the first swipe over the sensor I SCRATCHED IT! I thought maybe it was residue and went over it again and nothing. I took a test shot and yup, there was the scratch! ahhhhhhhh i feel like just giving up on life. My 5d was everything to me....I paid $95 just to overnight it to canon so i would get it back sooner, but my question is, has anyone ever sent in their camera for sensor repair and how much was the total? thanks.

since you only scratched the filter that sits on the sensor, my guess would be in the area of $300 give or take. for example, LifePixel will replace said filter for $300 right here:

http://www.lifepixel.c​om …rt.php?m=produc​t_list&c=7

edit: i was wrong, the service for the 5D is $500...

Someone on here scratched their sensor and it ended up costing hundreds. Did you try blowing off the dust/dirt before the swipe?

obviously something when wrong if you followed the instructions and still owned the sensor, unless the copperhill package you bought was for screwing up your sensor and not cleaning. do you have any idea went wrong?

This stuff is scaring me. I'd rather learn to live with the clone tool after hearing all these horror stories.

sadatk wrote in post #3904109
This stuff is scaring me. I'd rather learn to live with the clone tool after hearing all these horror stories.

I may have to second that notion. I find CS2 has some dandy tools nowadays just for getting out dust As with anything in life I'm sure with the right guidance cleaning your sensor is a breeze but I am not that daring.

That and the dust mapping stuff they have started adding on. I wonder if anyone has actually tested dust mapping to find out how well it works, and if it causes other effects. Hopefully I'll never use it.

Most intrusive I've got so far is a rocket blower.

dou_b_14,
As I explained to you in our personal disussion earlier today, your guard must have slipped down somewhere along the line during your swabbing. This is a very unfortunate circumstance, but you jumped the gun and sent your camera to Canon before you reported the problem to me. You didn't even send me a test shot as I requested to have a look at the "scratch". Our protocol that is advertised extensively on our website is to have the customer send the unit to LifePixel for filter replacement. LifePixel will replace the filter and also try to determine the cause of the damage. They'll then return the filter to us here at Copper Hill Images for further testing.
Our ironclad guarantee still applies - if a third party such as LifePixel can conclusively state that the PecPad material that touched the sensor was the SOLE cause of the damage, we will pay for the total cost of the repair. Unfortunately, the course you chose to take will prevent you from ever knowing exactly what caused the scratch, if it indeed was a scratch.

Here are the possible causes of the damage as I see them:

1) The PecPads come out of the pack in an almost sterile state. The only way to contaminate them is to mishandle them somehow before you place one on your sensor.
2) There may have been a particle of some sort sitting on your sensor that you failed to notice before swabbing. Please look on this page for our warning in bold yellow lettering:
http://www.copperhilli​mages.com/index.php?pr​=Tutorials4
3) Using an inordinate amount of down-pressure on the sensor may damage the filter.

As per my e-mail to you earlier today, we feel terrible that you damaged your camera. But we have been around a long time selling the same cleaning kit that you bought. We at no time have ever said that it is impossible to scratch a filter using our method and we even encourage potential customers to examine themselves to determine if they should even attempt self-cleaning a sensor - it's the very first paragraph of our tutorial. Some people should simply use our SensorSweep or just leave it to Canon or Nikon to take care of. In hindsight, you may fall into that category. It's not a perfect world by any means, but we stand behind our products 1,000%.

Nicholas R.
www.copperhillimages.c​om

Rockfreak300 wrote in post #3904151
I may have to second that notion. I find CS2 has some dandy tools nowadays just for getting out dust As with anything in life I'm sure with the right guidance cleaning your sensor is a breeze but I am not that daring.

clone + healing works wonders.

Man, that sucks balls. hope its cheap to repair.....

While it may be too little too late for some it may not be for others so consider this site: http://www.cleaningdig​italcameras.com/index.​html

Lots of good info.

Nicholas R. wrote in post #3904170
2) There may have been a particle of some sort sitting on your sensor that you failed to notice before swabbing. Please look on this page for our warning in bold yellow lettering:

"#5) Take a couple of seconds to look at the CCD or CMOS. If you see any specks on your AA filter, try to blow them off with a blower before you swab ( I recommend using canned air if possible ). DO NOT swab your sensor if you see a speck on it and you cannot blow it off. If you just can't remove it, please send it into the manufacturer for service. This is the one area where you could cause some damage by forcing the issue."

Nicholas doesn't the underlined suggestion you make above kinda go against the grain from recommending not using canned air on the camera sensor? Certainly this method could create worser problems if the can blew moisture onto the sensor. Bit confused by that, although I own and have used your product several times to clean my EOS 30D sensor but no way I'm blowing anything in there other than a bulb type blower.

Tsmith wrote in post #3904590
"#5) Nicholas doesn't the underlined suggestion you make above kinda go against the grain from recommending not using canned air on the camera sensor?

Well it depends. The guy at the local shop used canned air. When I asked him about it he noted that the end of the can was never lifted from the counter. He also always did a test shot to clean out moisture.

To the OP. Bummer to hear about your sensor. Was it really scratched or just badly smeared? Had to ask. My 400D was really bad and smeared really badly until I used several pecpads.

Citizensmith wrote in post #3904166
Most intrusive I've got so far is a rocket blower.

I love my rocket blower!!!!! It rocks!!!!

dou_b_14 wrote in post #3903959
yea, so im feeling pretty terrible right about now.....I purchased a cleaning kit from copperhill after reading several good posts on the forums....well i got it in today and was excited to finally be able to clean my sensor. I read the instructions very carefully and then tried it....and to my horror after the first swipe over the sensor I SCRATCHED IT! I thought maybe it was residue and went over it again and nothing. I took a test shot and yup, there was the scratch! ahhhhhhhh i feel like just giving up on life. My 5d was everything to me....I paid $95 just to overnight it to canon so i would get it back sooner, but my question is, has anyone ever sent in their camera for sensor repair and how much was the total? thanks.

aaggh- that gut wrentching feeling! I really feel for you, what a downer. Oh well now you'll just have to wait for the bill , but how did you do it , everyonme has posted about copperhill has said how safe it was...????