Sensor cleaning

[jimmy156]

Hi all,

How much of a risk is it to use of the do it yourself cleaning kits you can buy online? Also, if i take the camera to a shop such as the London Camera Exchange, or a local camera repairer, are they just going to have a bloke with one of the afore mentioned kits doing it themselves, or will they have other methods/more trained people doing it.

Cheers, James

[jimmy156]

My 50d self cleans as well, but i still managed to get some dust on there! only had the camera six months or so, so im not very impressed with its sensor cleaning abilities!

Hmm maybe i will try with a rocket blower first (I would be way to scared to use compressed air ) but im not sure i woul feel comfortable using a wipe, but maybe im just being a wimp! And like you say, id rather not pay someone to get the saturday boy who doesent care about my camera like i do have a go at it!

Edited by jimmy156 on Sunday 12th September 15:29

[GetCarter]

I'm way too nervous. Send mine off every year.

[jimmy156]

I'm thinking i probably am too, i was going to leave it and get it done yearly, but having to clone out spots on hundred of air show pics (and forgetting on some and having to re-edit ) has made me want to get it done earlier.

I'm guessing the place you send it steve wont be relevent to me! but do you have any reccomendations?

Edited by jimmy156 on Sunday 12th September 16:03

[SamHH]

I do it myself with one of these. It's pretty easy and I don't seem to have damaged anything yet.

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-visible-dust-a...

[GetCarter]

jimmy156 said:

I'm thinking i probably am too, i was going to leave it and get it done yearly, but having to clone out spots on hundred of air show pics (and forgetting on some and having to re-edit ) has made me want to get it done earlier.

I'm guessing the place you send it steve wont be relevent to me! but do you have any reccomendations?

Edited by jimmy156 on Sunday 12th September 16:03

I send mine to http://www.calumetphoto.co.uk/ (though I'm not sure they still do it)

Edited by GetCarter on Sunday 12th September 16:48

[LongQ]

jimmy156 said:

I'm thinking i probably am too, i was going to leave it and get it done yearly, but having to clone out spots on hundred of air show pics (and forgetting on some and having to re-edit ) has made me want to get it done earlier.

I'm guessing the place you send it steve wont be relevent to me! but do you have any reccomendations?

Edited by jimmy156 on Sunday 12th September 16:03

You can't avoid dust but of course shooting airshows is probably the most likely subject matter ever to give you a problem with spots that others will have but never see.

So either you get it cleaned regularly; you get kit to do it yourself (I can recommend the Arctic Butterfly); or you clone things.

Canon provide a dust delete option that allows you to record yuor current dust infestation and use the resulting file to automatically clone out dust spots if you use Canon software. Never felt the need to use it myself but I think if I was shooting an airshow and felt I was likely to have a big problem then I would. Then export the results to my editor of choice.

In theory you should be able to set up a standard clone layer for an edit session. However whather that would really save much time would depend on how variable your skies might be.

Edited by LongQ on Sunday 12th September 20:29

[jimmy156]

Cheers for the link, but i cant find anything about it on thee site so it looks like they have stopped doing it.

That tool looks pretty good (if quite expensive!) but i would still be nervous of doing it. Less so with a "dry" cleaning tool though i suppose.

[Toyless]

Fixation will do it

Ive used the wet kits at home with no problems at all.

[MartinP]

I've never had any problems from cleaning my sensor myself. Usually an air blower does the trick, if not I use Photographic Solutions Sensor Swabs (you just need to make sure you have the right fluid and sized swabs for your sensor).

I found this website really useful when deciding which product to use:

http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/index.html

[Hedgeman]

LongQ said:

So either you get it cleaned regularly; you get kit to do it yourself (I can recommend the Artic Butterfly);

+1 for the butterfly

Great bit of kit - very easy to use.

[pernod]

My local camera guru used to do mine for relatively little so I'd get it done whenever needed. However last time I went in he said after trying almost all the various products he was now using something so easy to do that he recommended all his regular customers just buy one and do it themselves...

LensPen

I swear by it (a lot more effective than they old 'wipes' I used to use before the camera shop) and have used it many times without any issues at all.

[chim666]

Hedgeman said:

LongQ said:

So either you get it cleaned regularly; you get kit to do it yourself (I can recommend the Artic Butterfly);

+1 for the butterfly

Great bit of kit - very easy to use.

Another vote for the Butterfly (I've tried swabs, but the Visible Dust gizmo does the job (usually) at the first attempt.