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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

sensor cleaning (1 Viewer)

One thing not to do is use a can of compressed air. A friend of mine foolishly attempted to blow the dust off his 20D sensor with a prorietory air-can and ended up with water marks as the air condenses if you spray it for too long. The camera had to be repaired by Canon.

Interesting that Zeiss (UK) do not recommend using lens pens on their optics which are arguably less sensitive than a sensor. My concern is that the pad acts as a grinding wheel as it is used with anything between it and the surface beong cleaned.
 
Martin Thomas said:
One thing not to do is use a can of compressed air. A friend of mine foolishly attempted to blow the dust off his 20D sensor with a prorietory air-can and ended up with water marks as the air condenses if you spray it for too long. The camera had to be repaired by Canon.

Interesting that Zeiss (UK) do not recommend using lens pens on their optics which are arguably less sensitive than a sensor. My concern is that the pad acts as a grinding wheel as it is used with anything between it and the surface beong cleaned.
Click to expand...

Thouroughly agree about the compressed air - what it's NOT is any sort of air - it's a nasty chemical and if you spray long enough will freeze things.
Lens pens have a good reputation and the 'magic' dust they use seems to work fine - dunno what it is - maybe graphite ?? which is self lubricating.
Whatever you use to clean a lens someone is going to say because rubbing is always involved that something bad will happen.
 
Martin Thomas said:
One thing not to do is use a can of compressed air. A friend of mine foolishly attempted to blow the dust off his 20D sensor with a prorietory air-can and ended up with water marks as the air condenses if you spray it for too long. The camera had to be repaired by Canon.

Interesting that Zeiss (UK) do not recommend using lens pens on their optics which are arguably less sensitive than a sensor. My concern is that the pad acts as a grinding wheel as it is used with anything between it and the surface beong cleaned.
Click to expand...

Maybe Zeiss know their lens coatings will not take a lot of cleaning? I think we can assume though that any manufacturer will be loathe to recommend anything which works without their involvement simply as someone may have recourse to come back and say you said it would be OK to ruin my lenses with a so and so---

What we all have the benefit of now is the input of so many like minded people who are willing to share their advise and experiences on forums like this and for that I think we all need to be very grateful. (A Christmas type sentiment!)
 
Graham,

I see in a previous post you mentioned the Visible Dust system Warehouse Express sell. Happily my company required just such a system (!) and although its crazy money it does do what it says on the tin.

Sensor cleaning is a doddle if approached sensibly and with a bit of commonsense. I messed up the first time because I caught the mirror mechanism with the brush and smeared grease everywhere. It only took 5 minutes to sort though and since then with mine and assorted friends sensors there have been no problems. The longest job was cleaning a sensor with the residue of Sellotape stuck to it, so I have to say I wouldn't recommend Chris's method.

The thing to remember is you're cleaning a piece of glass, not a delicate electronic part. The item to be VERY CAREFUL of is the focussing screen. They scratch very easily.

Paul
 
two SensorKlear Lenspens arrived from 7dayshop on December 24th and I eventually managed a steady hand to try a clean on the 26th---things look fine with the big spots having gone and just a few small specks of dust on one edge which I obviously missed--seems like a good system--now all we need is some daylight and some birds!
 
sensor cleaning while traveling

Has anyone used the Visible dust Artic butterfly, Just looking at getting some cleaning gear ready for use while traveling.
any recommendations?

thanks
 
johnrobinson said:
I ruined a D70s with an compressed air blower from jessops. It put a layer of liquid on the underside of the viewing screen..
Click to expand...

Canned air has a propellent in it that causes the problem. I am told that CO2 versions do not and that these are the ones to use with cameras. Have you checked whether Nikon would clean it out for you?

There is an alternative way to get a cheap sensor brush...

http://www.prime-junta.net/pont/How_to/a_Brush_Your_Sensor/a_Brush_Your_Sensor.html
 
I bought a Canon 350D from Jessops and after a while noticed some specs on my images. So what did I do - I blew them off the sensor using my mouth... Bad move as I must have got some spit on the sensor making it worse. A trip to Jessops (camera still under guarantee) led to the camera being sent back to Canon for the sensor to be cleaned under the guarantee. I waited about 2 weeks and it cost nothing. It has been fine since. In the instruction manual it is recommended that all cleaning be carried out by the manufacturer. I subscribe to the monthly EOS magazine e-mail newsletter and their Aug 2006 newsletter contained details of sensor cleaning kits available from their website :- http://www.eos-magazine.com/Sales folder/Sales/sensorcleaning.html
 
Duke Leto said:
Hi I had the same problem and used the tutorials found at http://www.copperhillimages.com/index.php?pr=tutorials I then purchased a Digi-Pad starter swab kit from http://www.warehouseexpress.com/ these cleaning swabs are sized to a specific cameras CCD.
Be warned there are plenty of warnings on various cleaning methods, I choose this one and found it worked very well on my bodies. As with all DIY cleaning, its undertaken at your own risk and probably outside the manufactures guidelines.
As it happens the CCD's once cleaned have remained clean and anything since has been removed by a blower brush so still have 90% of the starter kit left for future emergencies...
Happy Christmas
Steve
Click to expand...

Hello Graham, I will add my bit in here.
I have used the same as Steve, cleaned my 10D 3 times first time was a bit daunting as Nigel Blake warned, I now find it dead easy but I have not been tempted to use the same swab again. Make sure your battery is fully charged, it just takes second to clean.

Great Worlably shots, hope to meet you there one day.

Regards

Roy Howell.
 
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