Best Way to clean a Mark III sensor ?

:o What is the best way to manually clean the Mark III sensor? I have major contamination on the sensor as a result of using compressed air…yea I know I should not have done this.

Yikes!! not a good thing. Anyway, the best way to clean a sensor is to use a wet cleaning method like the Copperhill one. First blow off what you can with a bulb blower. Then wet clean with a sensor wand and a pec pad with a drop or two of Eclipse2. It might take a few cleanings to get everything off but take your time and be patient. After the wet cleaning I take one more pass with a fresh dry pec pad to take care of any remaining streaks. And finally one last blow with the bulb blower and all it spotless.

BTW. compressed air is not air. It is a compressed florocarbon gas and it can do two things. First, if you tip the can you can have some of th liquid come out. The second is that the gas does what all gasses do when allowed to expand. It gets real cold so it can form a frost layer on the surface of the sensor. Squirt some on your finger tip and you'll see what I mean. That stuff is cold.

Uhhhh... this is probably one for the repair facility as compressed air is a chemical compound which can potentially damage the sensor. You could try a wet cleaning using Eclipse and swabs but I doubt it's going to do anything as you've probably blasted the sensor into oblivion

I was lazy once and blasted canned air onto one of my filters to blow dirt off. Some came out in liquid form and left a huge mark on the glass. After a lot of rubbing with some pec pads and cleaning solution, it all came out spotless but it sure was a bugger to get it off. So with patience, it'll probably be fine.

smcclelland wrote in post #6670264
Uhhhh... this is probably one for the repair facility as compressed air is a chemical compound which can potentially damage the sensor. You could try a wet cleaning using Eclipse and swabs but I doubt it's going to do anything as you've probably blasted the sensor into oblivion

Using compressed gas will not damage the sensor directly. The gas is pretty benign and inert but it can leave a mess. A wet cleaning will get off the residue but several cleanings might be needed. I had an intern do this exact thing to me. He though he was doing me a favor and used Dust Blaster to clean the sensor. It contained tetrafluoroethane and left a hazy film. I cleaned it with eclipse and a pec pad wrapped sensor wand and it came right off without issue. I suppose if you leave it on long enough you can freeze the sensor and crack it, but the gas will not directly hurt it.

gjl711 wrote in post #6671839
I cleaned it with eclipse and a pec pad wrapped sensor wand and it came right off without issue. I suppose if you leave it on long enough you can freeze the sensor and crack it, but the gas will not directly hurt it.

+1.... Eclipse solutions and a swab. I clean all my cameras every 6 months or so. Just make sure you ge the right solution for your camera.....

I use photosol and sensor swabs.