That's not a dirty sensor, THIS is a dirty sensor

18K image 50D.

I knew it was dirty but never shooting a bland sky at F22 I never really noticed until a few months ago. I decided to get a sensorklear pen and give it a go cleaning after blowing a big chunk of crap on it a couple of months ago with a blower from a cleaning kit. You can see the chunks it left at the bottom left, 3 big pieces close together. Those spots and a couple others were actually showing up at normal open aperture settings, so I knew I had to get rid of it ASAP.

Well, the pen finally showed up today after a long delay, so out for a current pre clean sample photo to show what I was up against.......scary! Sorry about the tree in the first shot btw!

Anyhow, It took quite a few attempts to get it to where I am happy enough with it. Shoot/clean/upload to PC/look, and repeat....... I seemed to be doing a bit of spot "moving" as opposed to REmoving. I'd sort out one annoying spot, then I'd find a different one on the other side for example.

Finally I came up with what you see in image 2. I can still see a couple of spots which are on the sensor as (it's the same two spots on 2 different lenses), but I'm not going to worry about them for the time being, I think you will agree it's like night and day!

To be honest, all this gunk on my sensor and it was only one or two I actually ever saw in 99% of photos, but I feel better knowing it's clean LOL! (j/k) .......or near enough to clean anyway

oh, so much for auto sensor clean, may as well turn it off I reckon

oh and to those who are scared to clean theirs, just do it, it's no biggie

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Nice!

what a difference.

You've played knifie spoonie before then.

that WAS such a dirty sensor haha. glad it's nice and clean now

yep it was absolutely filty. It looks like a cat has walked across it

I guess my second shot should have been exposed the same, but I think it still speaks for itself.

xarqi wrote in post #9852843
You've played knifie spoonie before then.

LOL! Actually I was thinking croc dundee first, but I do love the Simpsons version

i've never been able to get my sensor as clean as your "after" image, nice work

Good job!!

ozadam wrote in post #9852978
i've never been able to get my sensor as clean as your "after" image, nice work

Cheers, ozadam, There are still some small gerbils I want gone. It was my first time doing this too and it did prob take 8 or so goes to get it to this point. The photo below was after the first clean with the sensorklear pen, better but still not good enough. I couldn't get a clear shot at the sky with all this wispy cloud drifting through, and got a little slice of the house too in the top right. It's actually a nice piece of cloud IMHO!

Thing I have concerns about with this pen is where is all the crap off my sensor gone.....on the pen I assume? see where I am going with this?
How many uses are these things good for before they become a sensor engraver with all the collected crap?

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You've certainly done well as for how long the pen lasts, no idea, but I personely wouldnt like to use any cleaning surface twice. The sensor swabs and pec pad type things seems best, you use the pad once. You wrap it around the swab, saw a good demo somewhere on the net about that system, someone will hopefully post a link

The proper way to clean a sensor

I bought a cheap rubber bulb blower quite a few years ago and gave my 10D sensor a few good puffs.. The blower had some sort of powder in it. The powder blew out and coated my sensor.. The image below is the result..

ALL that dust came off with a couple of swipes of a Sensor Swab moistened with Eclipse fluid.. I've used Swabs and Eclipse ever since.

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pixelbasher wrote in post #9853407
Cheers, ozadam, There are still some small gerbils I want gone. It was my first time doing this too and it did prob take 8 or so goes to get it to this point. The photo below was after the first clean with the sensorklear pen, better but still not good enough. I couldn't get a clear shot at the sky with all this wispy cloud drifting through, and got a little slice of the house too in the top right. It's actually a nice piece of cloud IMHO!

Thing I have concerns about with this pen is where is all the crap off my sensor gone.....on the pen I assume? see where I am going with this?
How many uses are these things good for before they become a sensor engraver with all the collected crap?

Pixelbasher,

The manufacturer states that the pen should last for 50 cleanings, but you're right about having the same tool touching the sensor over and over. The cleaning of the tip happens when you twist the cap a couple of times, a graphite pad goes across the pen's tip. It's logical to assume that this pad inside the cap WILL at some point have a buildup of dust, debris and gunk and maybe even a hard particle. Unfortunately there is no way to clean this pad.

Also, when the pen goes through lubricant, I don't see how the graphite can get all of it out of the pen's tip. But even with these shortcomings, we still see the SensorKlear being a great adjunct to wet cleaning. A swab should stay away from the sidewalls by about 1 mm. and then you can come back with the pen (or a static-brush) just along the sensor's edge.

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

SMP_Homer wrote in post #9853710
The proper way to clean a sensor

I tried that the other day, now all my images come out wavy with no focus.

Thanks to Nicholas and his "copperhill mehtod"

After my 1dmkIII came back from Canon they were generous in lube. My sensor was splattered with oil.

My first attempts using eclipse and pec pads and nick's applicator the sensor is immaculate. Ridiculously simple method and unbelievably fast.

I purchased a lenspen and I've never used it.