had to clean the sensor on the D300 as it had at least one big annoying dust spot exactly where you'd generally place the sky in a frame, and having to open CNX just to clone out a dust spot is annoying.

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So what you will need to clean your sensor properly is:

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at the least: PecPads, Eclipse fluid and the sensor swipe(spatula) a rubber band or sticky tape to hold the PecPad to the spatula. What I also use is a can of canned air. Dust Away is cheap, but not as Good as the CRC brand version(name of which I forget now).. twice the price but worth it. (it seems to have a bit more pressure and is less likely to expel the propellant too.
NOTE!! if your bottle of Eclipse has been sitting for a while, shake it well before use you may end up paying for it later!

First up what I do is to blow out the mirror box(ie. with the shutter still closed) to get out as much dust as possible. no point in trying to clean a sensor if there's a chance that a small dust particle could drop onto the sensor at the exact moment your trying to clean it.

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Hold the camera in the air face it downwards and use the supplied straw to direct a higher pressure air stream around the edges of the mirror box to remove as much dust as possible. looks like the inside of the mirror box is lined with some kind of light absorbing felt like material and dust seems to stick to it easily, but blowing it out with canned air works well. I used to try that with a blower bulb but the pressure is not as direct. Never shake the can-o-air violently around as the propellant will come out with air and your mirror will get dirty with some mucky residue.. you really don't want that. IF that ever happens it all comes off but you don't want the hassle. Try it on a UV/protection filter to see what this residue is.. after all what else are UV/protective filters good for, if not to protect you from your own self!

Once I feel as though there is minimal dust in the mirror box, I set the camera to sensor clean mirror up(not mirror lockup used for exposure purposes!!) and I'll use the can-o-air again first before I use the copperhill kit.

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(again) if you do try the can-o-air method, you don't need to get the end of the straw too close to the sensor. There's plenty of pressure to dislodge easy to remove dust particles. There's always the temptation to use a rocket blower or bub blower of some kind, but having done that once, the resultant dust spray on the sensor was a mess.. made it harder to clean with the copperhill kit. makes sense that the bulb/rocket blower will only blow dust filled air on to the sensor as the air it draws is from the air around you.. filled with dust.. and then concentrated. So I searched for canned air, and made sure it was purified before I did use it. AFAIK Dust Away and the CRC brand are both very good, clean.. as before tho, there do use a residue forming propellant, so don't shake before or during use, and to be sure I always expel a little burst into thin air(or onto my one and only UV filter ) to be sure.
** Camera is lying on the table for the convenience of taking these photos. In real life if you do this at home, and it's highly recommended that you at least try it once before you send it to a shop to clean!!... in real life you should be holding the camera up in the air, pointing downwards and doing all of this stuff. Dust generally falls down, not up, and while it can swirl around gravity usually takes care of most of the swirly particles. Minimize the risk in falling dust onto your sensor.
Also! you don't necessarily need cleanroom conditions or an air purifier to clean the dust out of the air. all rooms will have dust to a degree, close all doors, turn off fans, don't smoke whilst doing this(should only take 10mins or so.. and if I can wait that long, so can you! ) .... just do as much as you can to minimise the dust environment.. clean table.. etc.

Next post, we'll do the eclipse on the pec pad on the spatula on the sensor trick.....