Gday all
How easy is it to clean the sensor on a camera as i am sick of taking it and getting it cleaned by a camera shop?
cheers
ozdevil
Gday all
How easy is it to clean the sensor on a camera as i am sick of taking it and getting it cleaned by a camera shop?
cheers
ozdevil
A good site:
www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com
Is quite a few posts on AP about doing it also
Cat (aka Cathy) - Another Canon user - 400D, 18-55,75-300mm Kit Lens,50mm f1.8, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Macro, Sigma 28-70 f2.8-4 DG, Tripod and a willingness to learn
Software used: PhotoImpact, Irfanview and a lot of plugins
We don't make a photograph just with a camera, we bring to the act of photography all the books we have read, the movies we have seen, the music we have heard, the people we have loved. - Ansel Adams
The short answer, Ozdevil, is that it is straightforward and not difficult, but you must follow the procedure carefully. Follow the instructions step by step: no hu-hu. Skimp or get sloppy: potential disaster. Just go step by step and you will be fine.
Great link, Cat!
I can understand the trepidation, I for example wouldnt dream of cleaning my own sensor - but one day I must
I do agree with Tony that I have heard once you have done it once it's a no brainer - but the best way first time is to watch another do it.
Darren
Gear : Nikon Goodness
Website : http://www.peakactionimages.com
Please support Precious Hearts
Constructive Critique of my images always appreciated
Ozdevil
How often do you need to get it cleaned?
Apart from the occassional blow out with a rocket blower, I only needed to clean my old D200 once and the D700 has never been cleaned.
Maybe you could look at where and how you change your lenses and where you store your kit?
Things like chenging lenses with the body pointed down or inside a clean shopping bag if needed. Also making sure the lens your fitting is clean before installing, and keeping the dust caps on as long as possible all goes to help keeping the dust at bay.
mark, the d700 has a dust cleaner doesnt it ?
my d300 gets zero dust, my d3 i might as well sneeze on it every time i change lenses in the field
Yeah it is a great site Tony - gives all the pros and cons on the different methods as well as how to do - Heaps of detail and info
I've got a sensor brush but have to clean it after the last effort which required a trip to a camera shop cause something smeared all over the sensor Stuff is prob still on the brush so not game to use it at pres - Air is my friend at pres lol (note 400d has the ultrasonic sensor cleaning but the 350d doesnt)
Ain't dat da trufh.
My {400D, 40D, other 40D, 50D, 1D III} get zero dust
My 20D I might as well sneeze on it every time i change lenses in the field.
Guess which one doesn't have a self-cleaning sensor? This trip just gone, I cleaned the 20D sensor just before I left, mounted the 100-400 on it, and left it there for the whole damn 4 week trip! Result: not one spec of dust on my 20D sensor. First time I have ever done a whole trip with a 20D and not had dust problems.
Cleaning is no big deal, but it's a pain to have to do, and you never know you need to do it until you have stuffed up some shots.
Yea it has
But I have only ever used it once - a quick puff with the rocket is better than some fancy contraption that I don't have a lot of faith in. Once the dust is in there then using the electronic dust remover wont do a great deal of good unless there's no lens on the front to get rid of the dust completely. Once the lens is off then I might just as well use the blower.
Last edited by MarkW; 11-12-2009 at 8:18pm.
Mark your fears do not apply. Trust me on this, I have considerable experience with self-cleaning cameras (many hundreds of thousands of actuations, 5 different self-cleaning cameras) and it does work. Inside your mirror box, there is some adhesive. Nikon placed it there specifically in order to catch the dust that the sensor self-cleaner throws off. Now unless you believe that Nikon can't get something right that Canon, Pentax, and Olympus have been doing successfully for years ....
Agree Kiwi, the D3 is the biggest dust hog I know. The D200 can happily go along for months without a clean, the D3 needs em all the time. My guess is bigger sensors, more static electricity..
But it is easy once you have done it once you will wonder why you thought it was hard to do.
"It is one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it is another thing to make a portrait of who they are" - Paul Caponigro
Constructive Critique of my photographs is always appreciated
Nikon, etc!
RICK
My Photography
Not scared of cleaning the sensor - only ever needed to do it once.
I didn't realise there was a sticky patch in the 700 to catch the thrown off dust particles - I thought that they would continue to circulate around the mirror box without any way to get out so that there was a 1 in 6 chance of hitting either the sensor again or the mirror.
Sorry Mark, I expressed myself badly - I meant your fears that the system would just move the dust around and not actually do anything useful. I shpuld read over what I write to see if it makes sense.
A couple of points to note:
1: You are supposed to operate the self-cleaning system with the camera held in a normal (horizontal) position. This (Canon say) helps the dust find its way to the sticky patch. I image it's the same with Nikon.
2: Self-cleaning is brilliant for DUST, useless for OIL or GREASE. Only wet cleaning can remove oily marks on the sensor. In general, you shouldn't have problems with oil. But we do hear of issues - Canon over-lubricated a batch of new cameras a while back and had to offer everyone a free sensor clean as a result. AP member Dan40 had something similar happen on his new ... er ... was it a 50D?
Last month, a guy from chipclean visited our camera club. He showed the difference between a self-cleaned and a professionally cleaned camera. We didn't believe the difference and 'accused' the guy of showing us an exceptionally bad example. That is, until he showed us the camera's we had cleaned ourselves. The difference between a professionally cleaned sensor and a home-cleaned sensor is mindboggling. Mind you, we had a couple of camera's that where cleaned by several professional service centres and the difference in quality is enormous.
So, even though I have always said that you could easily do it yourself, I'm now thinking otherwise. Home-cleaning, with whatever product commercially available, is not level par to a professionally cleaned sensor. Not by a long shot!
Ciao, Joost
All feedback is highly appreciated!
Depends what you are using. I use big rocket blower and a SensorKlear by Lenspen. Never needed to use wet cleaning and it couldn't be easier.