Cheaper than Dust-Aid, and Artic Butterfly?

Since my LBA has hit, I've been changing lenses all the time. So now my sensor getting dirtier and dirtier.

So there seems to be a bunch of things out there. Seems like the Arctic Butterfly (WAAAAY to expensive!) is the most mentioned one. The next level down seems to be Dust-Aid, but 30 quid for a bunch of wipes seems criminal.

There any cheap safe ways to clean the sensor? The blowers seems like a bad idea, compressed air can spit stuff out if you're not careful. So yeah, any suggestions?

Have a read of this thread (from the Other Forum) its quite interesting, as its something I'm quite concerned about atm due to swapping lenses a lot and having problems with bits of pollen on the sensor and VF.

I'll just pinch one of the best quotes....

I looked a while back at this when I had the GX10. The cost of cleaning was a significant proportion of the value of the camera and there were no guarantees. IT could come back worse!!! with no come back! I decided to DIY.

Read and re-read all available web stuff. Google the top 10 suspects.

I bought Eclipse E2 and some "sensor swabs" from the ebay.
E2 was pretty standard and the swabs from the same seller looked OK and combined cost about half the cost of a professional clean. There are different Eclipse concoctions for different sensors. The seller did enquire what the E2 was for and agreed it was OK for my needs (phew)

A drop of E2 on the swab and drag it across in the prescribed manner and ... wet streaks.
A new swab, bit less E2 and it worked. Too much fluid and it can capillary behind the glass filter over the sensor and you're up a creek.

I took the used swab apart.
It basically was a glue spatula like there use to be in primary schools, double sided tape over the blade and cut and tied with cotton. The fabric looked like a pec pad. You could make one yourself but for this price it looks too fiddly to bother.

So I have about 7 swabs left and since cleaning I've been a bit more careful and luckily have no dust problem at the moment. I have a small blower in my camera bag always.

Its a bit nerve wrecking but if you do any kind of precision work you should be OK.

NB ped pads are NOT recommended for sensor cleaning (I guess this is to avoid law suits. NASA apparently use them for lens cleaning (the janitor cleans the bog mirrors)).

So, I think there is a risk/reward calculation, the risk of doing nothing or damaging the sensor vs clearing the dust. Given you probably won't get a "professional" guarantee to do the job right for quite a bit of cash its a tough call.

If I got dust on the K-7 I'd probably cry.

I've also read the compressed air cans (like air duster) may get oil contaminates from the compressor and you can end up puffing a fine film of oil over your stuff.

well it may depend on the type of canned air - the stuff used for keeping (movie) film cameras clean won't leave any residue!

Looking at Panavision's store (and they should know...) they have their own brand (naturally...) of compressed air for 35mm/SS-16 use, but have the Artic Butterfly for the Red-One (an over-hyped digital movie camera)

I see they also have Brillo Pads Mind boggles

I would imagine the glass cleaner they sell to be quite good.

Unipart used to do a really good glass cleaner.... never found anything like it since.

Algi

Movie camera's don't have sensors.

Ah - but the films have censors !

Hmm TOZZA27

is that your coat on the peg behind you - the one that's beckoning ?

I understand there is a new range of Antarctic-butterfly swabs.
Guaranteed ash free.

I have thought about making some sort of tool which you could attach to a vacuum cleaner - some sort of small nozzle which you would position near to (but obviously not touching) the sensor.

Soft art brushes sound a reasonable idea. At the moment I just use a rocket blower which clears 90% of the dust, but it can be a pain when fragments get up onto the focusing screen. And there is a lump of dust at the bottom of my sensor which won't budge.

I`ll get my hat too............................

Tony

Too hot for a hat

no of course they don't (Hence the point about them suggesting Artic Butterfly for Red-1s). But they DO have a lot of rather delicate film running over a lot of rollers at high speed past some very (very) expensive glass, and the last thing you'd want is a smear of gunge from a spray horizontally across every frame - its bad enough when you get a hair in it... (unless you like overtime :twisted

I guess the brillo pads are for getting mud off or something - I shall ask a camera assistant when I next see one!

Rocket blower and arctic butterly used here, there expensive, but then again so is your gear.