Oh crap!!! Help!!!

In my 'wisdom', i bought a nice flat soft watercolour paintbrush to clean my sensor on my 350D. Gave the sensor a gentle little brush with it and then noticed a mark on it, like a smear. I am pretty sure the sensor isn't damaged, but it does have a smear on it. How can i get it off. I'm panicking at the moment cos i love my camera!

I have two options at the moment. The Jessops 'Pro' sensor cleaning kit.
http://www.jessops.com …eindex=1&CatId=​193&comp=n
which has he little pen thingy, but little else of use i think.
The Lenspen Sensorclear on its own:
http://www.jessops.com …eindex=1&CatId=​193&comp=n

and thats about it.

is this safe to use?

Also i am a photocopier tech and we use Isopropyl alcohol (also isopropanol, iso, rubbing alcohol, or the abbreviation IPA) to clean mirrors and glass on the copiers. Does anyone know if this is safe for sensor cleaniong using the swabs? (not going to try it, just curious?)
EDIT: Found this in Wikipedia:
It is also a very good cleaning agent and often used for cleaning electronic devices such as contact pins (like those on ROM cartridges), magnetic tape deck and floppy disk drive heads, the lenses of lasers in optical disc drives (e.g. CD, DVD) and removing thermal paste from CPUs. It is also used to clean LCD and glass computer monitor screens (at some risk to the anti-reflection coating of the screen), and used by many music shops to give second-hand or worn records newer looking sheens. It cleans white boards very well and other unwanted ink related marks. Isopropyl alcohol also works well at removing smudges, dirt, and fingerprints from cell phones and PDAs.
END OF EDIT

Thanks in advance for any help

Art brushes often have residual oils and fixitives on fibers. You should never use untreated art brushes on your sensor for the reason you discovered above. For now, to clean your sensor I'd suggest a professional cleaning by Canon, or if you insist on doing it yourself, the Lenspen Sensorclear or the Copperhill Cleaning Method (pec pads, flexible swab, and Eclipse solution - a search for Copperhill Cleaning will return many references). If you insist on using isopropyl, you'd better make sure you get lab grade alcohol and not the rubbing kind.

Mark

My problem is i don't have the money to send it to Canon for a clean, it'll cost around £50-£80, which at this time of year with kids and christmas, i just don't have. I feel really stupid for wiping it with the brush.

I took this pic of the frezer door to illustrate sensor dirt. You can see the smear to the right:
www.rgbrowne.co.uk/sto​rage/temp/smear.jpg

most sensor cleaning solutions are methanol. IPA or distilled IPA, is ok for lens cleaning and possibly mirror if you were careful, but I wouldn't put it near my AA filter(sensor)

You might have to find it somewhere if you intend to take any photos of Chrimbo...

I suggest taking it to your local camera shop (not a chain unless they're cheap). The local store near me only charges £20 and they do a fantastic job on my 5D.... only takes them a few minutes!

Hell, if I knew where in the UK you lived, and it turned out you were near to me, I'd do a wet clean on it for nowt - it really is quick and easy to do.

By all accounts though, the folk that use the Lenspen Sensor Klear really rate it, so for £15 it has to be worth a try. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY THOUGH.

I also understand that the business end of the pen can shed little carbon-like particles which have to be cleaned off on white paper first.

I doubt if its anything out of the actual brush, most likely is the dust particle on the sensor was greasy or was indeed a speck of grease, the brush has just smeared it across.

I have only ever used a blower on my cameras so far, but probably will need to do something more in the future.

Thanks for the help, I'm gonna try the sensor pen tonight.

Keith R...You mean i should rub it on paper before running it across the sensor?

I will read the instructions well, and i think from now on i'll use the
Rocket and Vacuum method! No more touchy leaning for dust specs!!!

Richy...

P.S.: I'll let you know how it goes, look out for a "EOS350D for parts or spares" on ebay...

Hi Richy,

just have a Google around. I've seen a few references to this - nothing to suggest it's a problem (there are a lot of very happy SensorKlear users out there) but just a precautionary thing.

For example, http://www.naturescape​s.net …product.php?pro​ductid=184 which says:

This page http://www.photosafari​s.com …aningWithASenso​rKlear.asp says:

Looks like I got it wrong with "paper", but the idea was right!

Thanks again Keith, i really appreciate you taking time to look that up

Also, have a read here.

richy5497 wrote in post #4030009
In my 'wisdom', i bought a nice flat soft watercolour paintbrush to clean my sensor on my 350D. Gave the

What you likely did was push dust/dirt around that was already on your sensor. You can use Eclipse Optic Cleaning Solution with Pec Pads.

If you want you can pay for the expensive Copperhill kit which includes the Eclipse and Pec pads along with an expensive plastic spatula. But a non-sharp small thing that will do the same thing as their spatula will work too.

If you're buying the sensor cleaning kits, buy the Lenspen kit over Jessops stuff anyday.

But seriously, an art brush? I feel for you but if the camera is that important to you, you really shouldn't cut corners on something so critical.

Gents, for those of you suggesting it wasn't the brush, there was an article written not long after the Arctic Dry Brush cleaning system was introduced that discussed how to convert an art brush to a cleaning brush. One thing the article made very clear is that there is a significant amount of oil and "sizing" which I guess is some sort of fixative used in the production of the brushes that must be removed before using an art brush anywhere near the sensor. The article show examples of streaking on clear glass when using a brush that hadn't been thourougly cleaned using their recommended processes. It seemed pretty clear to me that an art brush was nothing I wanted near my sensor.

Since the OP got a smear, it most likely came from the brush as a particle already existing on the sensor would have just moved around rather than caused a smear which has to be the result of some sort of oil or other sticky material.

Suggesting that it was simply something already on the sensor may give rise in the casual reader of these forums that using an art brush is an acceptible method of cleaning when it certainly isn't recommended.

Mark