Cleaning Sensor and Lens

[MouseMat2004]

Had my Cannon 350D for about 3 years and I think its time the sensor had a good clean, I can visibly see it on some photos now.

Can anyone recommend the best (but cheap) way of doing it to a good standard. I've seen people sell blowers, swobs, and loads of other devices.

Suggestions and advice would be good

 

[King4aDay]

Rocket blower should get rid of the vast majority of dust blobs, plus they're cheap and you stand almost zero chance of hurting anything inside your camera. Probably you best initial choice, if you still have sensor dirt after that then consider some sort of swab kit.

 

[Munromax]

Rocket blower should get rid of the vast majority of dust blobs, plus they're cheap and you stand almost zero chance of hurting anything inside your camera. Probably you best initial choice, if you still have sensor dirt after that then consider some sort of swab kit.

Totally Agree! Try never to touch the sensor with anything if at all possible also don't use 'canned compressed air' as these often spout out liquid droplets.
A good tip is to avoid (where possible) tiny apertures like F22 as this exarcerbates the effect of sensor dirt. (as well as other effects)

 

[ChroniC]

Its a very well known but overlooked and offen ignored piece of information that you cannot touch the sensor in a camera. It is protected by an 8th of an inch of IR filtering glass, the only damage you can do to the inside of the camera whilst cleaning it is to scratch this or put smears on it, by using incorrect cleaning equipment.

 

[photoshop]

Its a very well known but overlooked and offen ignored piece of information that you cannot touch the sensor in a camera. It is protected by an 8th of an inch of IR filtering glass, the only damage you can do to the inside of the camera whilst cleaning it is to scratch this or put smears on it, by using incorrect cleaning equipment.

+1

I cant understand why people think they will damage the sensor when the sensor is protected!

Use a rocket blower to get rid of most of the dust. For stubborn bits use a lens pen

 

[D.P.]

Just use a swab. The blower idea rarely works, and all it does is blow the dust around the inside of your camera so it doesn't solve the problems. Pec pads + eclipse fluid. Safe and effective. And over a long time epriod works out much better as your camera wont fill up with dust since you keep removing it.

It is almost impossible to damage the sensor. The sensor itself is burred under glass plates and an AA filter, let alone the fact that the sensor it self is really robust. We develop vision sensor for robots in our lab and have lots of raw camera sensors. We tried scratch, snapping, bending, tapping them and they are really robust. Not saying you would want to take a chisel to the sensor but certainly you would have to be incredible strong to damage the sensor with a proper swab.

 

[kidscruff]

If you can, stick with dry cleaning first, and wet clean if you have welded particles.

I use a Dust Aid Platinum, with which you squish a silicon pad onto the sensor. It leaves nothing behind and pulls off the more stubborn dust. It's expensive though, but does save me fiddling around with Pec Pads and cleaning fluid.

I once blew into the camera with my mouth, and got spittle on the sensor. Took ages to clean it off once it dried - stupid me.

 

[Munromax]

+1

I cant understand why people think they will damage the sensor when the sensor is protected!

Use a rocket blower to get rid of most of the dust. For stubborn bits use a lens pen

Yes the sensor is protected by a filter, but you can't just buy a new one and stick it on the Sensor.
Nikon, for instance say:
"Cleaning the Filter:
The low-pass filter is extremely delicate and easily damaged."
So if you damage the filter, it won't be a fiver repair!

 

[MouseMat2004]

Thanks guy. Got loads of suggestions now, will try a blower first and see what happens!