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Canon Sensor Cleaning
ThatCanonGuy
Registered Users Posts: 1,778 Major grins
My 1D2 sensor is dusty, can't seem to get a couple particles off. About how much does Canon charge for sensor cleaning in your experience? It's not under warranty.
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The one tool I will highly recommend is a Visible Sensor Loupe. This is a magnifying glass with an internal battery powered light. You can see the dust, smudges etc. on on the sensor and know in seconds if what ever effort or method you used has done the trick or if you need to go to the next step.
My approach is simple:
1. Air 2. Brush 3. Wet clean
Sam
Has anyone had Canon clean their sensor?
http://www.copperhillimages.com
-Jon
Hmm... interesting. I'd try that, but wouldn't it risk condensation or something from going from cold temp to room temp?
I'll look into it.
I agree, use the copperhill or just get the eclipse solution and swabs (cheaper), it's easy to do your own sensor cleaning!
I've used the copperhill method with success on my 30D and older Rebel. But haven't tried yet on my 50D. Only recently noticed some dust on 50D images with slower, panning blur images. Will be investigating soon, but will be wary of the sticky stuff.
Canon 50D, 30D and Digital Rebel (plus some old friends - FTB and AE1)
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Lets say you send your camera in to Canon, or any other company to clean your sensor. No one I know of has a class one clean room. I don't think they even have a laminar flow hood, or negative ion generators.
They can clean the sensor and make it spotless and dustless. Once in the box and shipped back to you all the motion, and bouncing of shipping can easily jar loose dust, dirt from the nooks and crannies of the camera's interior.
So you receive your camera back and it still has dust on the sensor. Or you get your camera back and it is still spotless, then you change a lens. Ooops more dust.
If your serious about your photography and want to use DLSR with a variety of lenses you really need to learn how to clean your own sensor.
Face the fear. It ain't rocket science.
Sam
Sam, what you are saying makes absolute sense, but it's like diving off the high diving board for the 1st time when you were a kid. I need more hand holding than your post. What specifically do you use, brand etc, where do you get it, and do you know where there is specific instructions on the web as to how to do it?
Start here:
http://www.copperhillimages.com/index.php?pr=tutorials
it goes into tremendous detail of how to do it. And you can buy the materials, inexpensively from them.
I purchased this kit:
http://www.copperhillimages.com/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=3
it has the PecPad wipes, the cleaning fluid and the specially sized spatula you wrap the wipes around.
I also recommend this brush, for when you gotta get off a dust particle and don't have time or patience for the wet method:
http://www.copperhillimages.com/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=1
it is easy peaszy ....simple..........You can buy more than 1 Copper Hill kit for the price of just one cleaning by a store or especially if you send
a camera in for cleaning from the mfg'er.......really unless it is super gunked up with something the Copper Hill Method only takes a few minutes...
like 5 or 10 and then shoot a pic of a white wall at f22 (no flash) and check for the enemy.....
I have been cleaning my own cams for over 4 yrs now......plus I like getting the rainbow colored slinkys that copper hill sends you.....
Despite views to the contrary, compressed air blown straight onto a sensor has never caused a problem with any of the three dSLRs I've owned to date, and is always my first strategy. I've done it, successfully, dozens of times. It removes at least 90%, often all, dust first time. However I am extremely careful to ensure the can is never shaken or tipped up to prevent any propellant being carried on the air and onto the sensor.
This isn't just a cost issue as you're prepared to pay money to Canon!
Thousands of photographers are getting their sensors 'wet' every day (for the fraction of a second that it takes the solvent to evaporate) as they remove stubborn dust. Do you want a clean sensor, or not?
It's exactly the same dust, just reproduced differently depending on the aperture size (f/stop) used for the image.
Now there's no more to say. You've been offered good advice from the personal experience of others. Take your courage in your hands and just do it! When it's done, you'll wonder what you were agonising over
Rule number 1: This is NOT the way to get the job done (no cameras were harmed in the making of this image):
Hand-holding - check out this post of mine from about 3 years ago: (linkie). After three years of doing this on multiple cameras (20D/30D/50D/5DII), the only change I might make is that I would limit the amount of MeOH (I'm a trained chemist, google it
I usually only use about 1/2 a drop of the MeOH. This is accomplished by holding the swab in one hand and letting a drop of MeOH fall from the bottle to the swab - positioning each such that the drop just skims past the swab. About 1/2 the drop end up on the floor (no damage - it just evaporates) and the balance is on the swab.
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1. Don't use canned air. That can include impurities that will stick to the sensor. That may be why one poster above had problems. Use a blower. I use a large Giotto rocket blower. Hold the camera lens-opening down. That usually takes care of most of it.
2. When air is not enough, my next step is a high-static brush, which I bought from Copper Hill.
3. For wet cleaning, I use the copper hill materials and method. (they have a nice tutorial on line.) I never do this unless 1 & 2 don't work. I think twice, so far, because 1 and 2 usually work fine.
Good luck.
I just glanced through your cleaning list and it looks pretty standard to me.
The one thing I can't emphasize enough is how much easier the task is using a sensor loupe.
While you are tuning off the camera, attaching the lens. taking another shot, analyzing the results, and repeating. I would be able to easily go through the steps of blowing, brushing, and wet swabbing without the necessity of turning off the camera, attaching the lens taking a shot, etc.
Well worth the $$ if you own a DLSR.
Sam
Now, blowing isn't working. Looks like I'll try a dry static swab thing. But I don't want to do a wet cleaning. So I've been reading on Copperhill, looks like they say to do mostly wet-cleaning stuff. So what dry brush should I get? The lenspen is cheap, do you mean you have something like this and just rub the dust off your sensor Richy?
http://www.lenspen.com/?cPath=&products_id=LP-1&tpid=146
Copperhill has some brushes, is this a typical one? It says only recommended after you do a wet cleaning...
http://www.copperhillimages.com/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=1
Key word here..MOST.
Why you have a sociological phobia against wet cleaning is between you and your mental health professional, but there is no scientific, rational reason not to use the Cooperhill wet swab method when needed. That is what we all use. That is what Canon will use.
After you have the sensor cleaned, no matter who cleans it, it will need cleaning again. Maybe in a day, maybe in a week, or maybe a year, but it will need cleaning again.
Of course you could always buy 3 cameras. A main camera, a backup, and one in transit for cleaning.
Sam
But (addressing some of your other statements), here's the deal .... dry cleaning may or may not address the issue seen in your posted image - I kinda doubt it will. It looks like you've got a pretty good and soft something there. Dry cleaning has trouble with that sort of stuff.
The wet method will take care of it. It might take a couple of attempts to get the job done, but it will do it.
Additionally, the need to clean the sensor is a fact of life with a dSLR .... at least it is if you are going to be swapping lenses. For about $30, you can get the materials needed to do the job yourself (more if you also spring for the sensor loupe as indicated by Sam). The first time you do it, it is something of a chest-grabber. But, the second time it's "old-hat".
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It seems to work fine, and because it is a brush, the amount of pressure on the glass covering the sensor (if you use it gently) is very slight.
I have a Canon 50D and once I saw the sensor dust spots on some of my key landscape shots I was not a happy camper. After research I bought the Copperhill cleaning kit, including the lighted loupe that Sam has recommended.
It took me several tries to get it right but I now can effectively clean my sensor with ease and no ill effects.
Sure even Copperhill recommends air clean first, static brush second and wet clean last. My personal experience has been dry cleaning for me has not resolved my problems except for rare occasions. Wet cleaning once done properly per the Copperhill process has always left the sensor clean and ready to shoot again.
http://bgarland.smugmug.com/
You can do a one month membership on kelby training. If you do that, check out the series that kelby did in New York with Jay Maisel on street shooting. They are terrific. Those and the sensor cleaning ones are worth the price of admission for a month.
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