Hi

Looks like I've got some sensor dust.  Appears on both my lenses.  Done a camera sensor clean from the camera settings and blown the sensor with a rocket air blower (gently).

So question is should I do a full sensor clean myself or get a professional to clean it.  Heard doing yourself is very risky but I'm looking at �60 for a pro clean.  We don't have any camera shops near where I live. 

Any comments appreciated - thanks

I'm constantly changing lenses on windy days, so I have an inexpensive sensor cleaning kit - get one with the brush and a squeeze air pump. Also, get a lighted magnifying glass so you can see what you're doing.

Thank you Schadenfreude I'll do a bit more research - might practice on a very old Nikon I have first.  Worth learning just nerve wracking.

As long as you're not experimenting with any of the wet wipes, you should be ok. Do yourself a favor and take an unfocused picture of a completely white computer screen at f22 (or whatever your smallest setting is) before and after you clean the sensor - if you did it correctly, you should see much fewer spots. I've been told not to "swipe" with the brush but to dab.

You'll get it.

Thanks again Schadenfreude good advice no wet wipes :-)

Quote from: Mantis on May 27, 2022, 09:07

Quote from: Pacesetter on May 27, 2022, 08:42

Here's the best way to clean a camera. Works like magic everytime... https://youtu.be/_xj1FlL-iAo

I've found that this technique only works with a steel brush, not a toothbrush. I mean, to really get those baked on sensor spots off, you need to really agitate them. Use stainless though.

Aah so that's the trick to really getting the sensor clean and shiny. I'll give that a go next time. That's what's so great about this forum - quality sound advice we can all rely on.

AMEN to the idea sharing. That's our years of experience talking.

Hi

Looks like I've got some sensor dust.  Appears on both my lenses.  Done a camera sensor clean from the camera settings and blown the sensor with a rocket air blower (gently).

So question is should I do a full sensor clean myself or get a professional to clean it.  Heard doing yourself is very risky but I'm looking at �60 for a pro clean.  We don't have any camera shops near where I live. 

Any comments appreciated - thanks

I see people in the press room, cleaning their sensors with swabs. If you air blow, hold the camera with the sensor facing down. Problem is, blowing air around inside the box, may be just blowing more dirt around in the same box.

If you wipe a clean swab, one direction only, you won't scratch the sensor. All the ninny's who say it's complicated and risky, are fear mongering and repeating old myths. I've been cleaning my own sensors for probably 16 years, and I know others who do that as well, on a regular basis. I know of no one who ever harmed or scratched their glass cover on the sensor.

That's right, the protective cover is glass. How hard is it to scratch glass? That's how hard it is to scratch your sensor. Yes a small grain of sand or grit, can scratch glass. With proper care and caution, there's not much chance of a problem.

I used Pec pads, and Eclipse fluid. There are others. You need a fluid that doesn't leave streaks or residue and paddles or pads or swabs that don't shed any material.

If the spot(s) are oil or parts of the mechanism, cleaning might be more difficult. If it's just dust, not a problem.

Thanks Uncle Pete - tried the rocket blower method again with a dry wipe with the swabs (no liquid) and it seems to have cleared it up.  I'll do a better test drive when there's blue sky.  Still got the liquid to fall back on.  Good thing to get confident in as it's a right hassle getting a shop to do it.  I think it's just a confidence thing like you say. :-)

Main point is, wipe one direction, once, never wipe back with the same swab, never wipe a second time, because anything you picked up, will now be on the swap and if that's grit and harder than glass, yes it's possible to save 15 cents and ruin a camera. But the saving $100 is a nice part.

You can wipe once, one direction, one side of the swab. Flip it, wipe again, with the other clean side, but same direction. That's it. Throw away the swab.

There are other ways to test for "dust bunnies" on the sensor. Whether it's plastic, loose metal from wear, grease or just dust. The whole sky at f/22 is just what people started with and what they read, and what has been repeated, over and over. (just like the doom and gloom and fears part)

"You can run this test against a clear sky, a white sheet of paper, or even your computer screen. Start by switching your camera into Aperture Priority mode, as well as matrix/evaluative metering, and the lowest possible ISO. Then turn off auto-focus and dial in the smallest aperture possible (remember� higher number = smaller aperture). Fill the frame with your blank target area, manually dial the lens completely out of focus, and click off a frame. When you open the image on your computer, look for dark spots� those are your culprits."

A good site that covers why and where. The whole CTRL+I for inverse or however you do it, will also make the spots easier to find sometimes.

Basically, exposure isn't important, neither is F/stop, but you need a bright, plain image, grey screen, white paper, blue sky, something with no texture or structure. Out of focus image... because what you are looking at is the sensor, not the image.

I've run tests using no lens and that works too, but I sometimes wonder about taking photos with no lens on, standing outside, aimed at the sky. I mean, what's in the air? Even a blank grey screen, in the office, can I be adding more dust?

Good luck, and have fun!

Why does cleaning the sensor have to be so different from cleaning a lens? You're cleaning glass, not the actual silicon - why not use a microfiber lens cloth?

A grain of dust on the sensor is very visible, while a grain of dust on the lens doesn't matter => what works for the lens may not work for the sensor.