d Sensor cleaning and the art of losing the will to live

[stigmundfreud]

I figured it was time to clean the sensor on the camera, i'm quite lazy at this as to be honest its hard push to see any real contamination under strong lighting in my experience but since I hope to do some landscapes I figured it was time.

First I took a test shot agains the ceiling and it looked not too bad:



I know, says I, I'll use the hamfisted approach



hmmm starting to wish I had left it as it was

then



what have I done?!? Why why why did you think you could do this, you idiot. You've just ruined it for tonight you smart boy



phew, final result not too bad - one annoying spot that I just cannot seem to get rid of but under normal contrast is hardly visible at all

[srider]

Get an Arctic Butterfly.

[stigmundfreud]

I mean to but today I got my new lens so thought I'll use what I have as I needed it now

been looking at them an if it makes the job easier, its a go from me

[SpydieNut]

srider said:

Get an Arctic Butterfly.

£65

[stigmundfreud]

SpydieNut said:

srider said:

Get an Arctic Butterfly.

£65

I'll just stick to andrex for now

[falcemob]

You need a proper cleaning kit of some sort, a cleenex is about the worse thing you could use. I use Digipads and a cleaning fluid.

[TonyHetherington]

Andrex is not lint free though, so will it not scratch the sensor?

regular tissues on sensitive equipemtn like that = baaaaaaaaaaaad!

Try a rocket blower for £8, very useful!

[stigmundfreud]

It was a joke guys! I use Bounty

[TonyHetherington]

you can get it wet and it doesn't break, unlike normal kitchen towels!


(disclaimer; don't use bounty either)

[srider]

SpydieNut said:

srider said:

Get an Arctic Butterfly.

£65

Yeah, but £65 doesn't buy many sterile sensor swabs.......

[gregorio!]

I've not touched my sensor yet, i use an airbed pump blower thing which works well.
I wonder if i could get away with a gentle dab from a packet fresh microfibre cloth? Anyone tried or have an opinion on that?

[Arif110]

Vacuum cleaner pipe - dexterously deployed.

[Famous Graham]

srider said:

SpydieNut said:

srider said:

Get an Arctic Butterfly.

£65

Yeah, but £65 doesn't buy many sterile sensor swabs.......

Blurb said:

Includes an elegant carry case for added protection and class.

Lol

[stigmundfreud]

well old wally brains here done a good un. Everything lookd perfectly clear on the test shots so off I went to take some shots, got back and now the top of every image has speckles and speckles of crap.

Yes thats right, I moved all the dust into one very fine condensed line at the bottom of the sensor so now I have shit in the sky

Guess it is time to invest in a decent swab of some kind, that artic butterfly at 65 quid isn't for me

[MonkeyHanger]

TonyHetherington said:

Try a rocket blower for £8, very useful!

Shifts the majority of sensor crap in my experience. I only need to "wet" clean the 20D once or twice a year and that's with plenty of outdoors lens changes.

[stigmundfreud]

well the brand snob that I am succumbed to the butterfly, fingers crossed it works otherwise I'll be very upset!