Sensor cleaning

[Dave McCormick]

I know this has probably been mentioned in the past, but last week I got my sensor cleaned on my Canon 600D because it had a lot of dust and dirt on it from when I was out at an island off shore at Strangford lough. It was fine until today when I noticed small amounts of dirt on the sensor. I only have one of those rubber squeezable air blowers (it came with a brush to brush of dirt but I lost it) and it won't take off some of the dust. Is there anything I can get that would do the job as I can't (and would rather not) have to take it to get cleaned every time I get a little dust in it, which to me, does happen often as I changes lesnes a lot, even though I try to prevent it as best I can. Anyone know of what I could do?

[GOLDENORFE]

Hi Dave

i use an arctic butterfly cleaner - http://visibledust.com/products3.php?pid=3

expensive but works superb! since i change lens constantly would not be without this! usually use once every 2 weeks, no liquid to leave smears on sensor!

phil

[dilettante]

I has some dirt that wouldn't shift with a little blower recently, so bought a wet cleaning kit, but at the same time bought one of those big Giotto's Rocket-style air blasters. The latter seems to have been effective, so I haven't had to use the wet kit. There's an argument though that the air blasters just distribute the dust around the inside of the camera rather than remove it.

[MikeOxon]

I agree that using an air blower (without a brush) is often sufficient for this job. If you look at the sensor through a magnifier, you may be able to see the dust spots and direct the jet of air appropriately. (Remember that it is upside-down compared with the viewfinder, so dust at the top of an image appears near the bottom of the sensor) It is a good idea to keep the mouth of the camera pointing downwards so that dislodged dust falls clear of the mirror box of an SLR. Take care not to touch the sensor with the tip of the blower, as it will leave a mark.

I have also used wet cleaning successfully and describe the process on my website at http://home.btconnect.com/mike.flemming/sensor.htm It has worked very well for me but does need a degree of dexterity and care!

Mike

[Dave McCormick]

Thanks all, ordered some sensor cleaning pads, I tried a lot to use an air blower but it didn't work to clean some of the small dust but most it worked well. Mike, thanks for the tutorial, will be useful.

[Wildmoreway]

I had the same issue on my Sony a65, in the finish it needed the wet wipes to cure the problem.