Sensor cleaning?

All this has got me wondering. I just got my K-r (love it) and immediately did a dust check. Found a spot, did a clean, it was gone. Anyway, I was wondering about the canned air that people buy for "cleaning" cameras. Before I waste my money, is it recommendable?

Personally I would recommend against using these.

They are fine for the outside of a camera or the front of a lens, but the air comes out at a very high speed and can cause damage. You can also get the propellant chemicals coming out with the air which would concern me.

You are far better with a rocket blower. Much easier to control!

As far as I know and I am no expert have read a lot on this the Giotto blower which is cheap but works well is the better option ,its only my opinion but I would not use any canned air on any of my cameras atm just the K7 but had 3 in past K 20 K200 and a Km I would not recommend it dust is something we have to in some ways live with and Im really paranoid about it but it still gets in no matter how careful I am my others had a professional clean after a season of work and I used the blower for everything else.... hope this helps its from at least one who has spent a lot on cleaning things from the Artic Buetterfly (dont bother) to the Giottos,been around a while and imho its very good hope this helps

I never use any sort of blower - all that does is blow the dirt around in the body. Canned air is not a good idea generally.

I use an Arctic Butterfly with excellent results. I have never needed anything else.

Why do you say don't bother about an Arctic Butterfly David?

Hi Gwyn I have one and it just was a let down and certainly failed many times so I actually gave up on it I think its expensive for what (in my case) it fails to deliver so in effect it just didnt work

Agreed all points.

My butterfly works excellently as well. Some people do seem to have problems with them though. At least one person on another forum was probably putting his into the body with the motor still running.

. Helps if you read the instructions first

I read the instructions and folowed the you tube video but made no difference love the thought of someone using it with the motor still running


I do hope your not implying that I have limited capabilities when it comes to following instructions.....Im very good at it as my wife will testify

Thanks for the information and tips. I, my camera and my wallet appreciate it.

Well tonight I did what many would consider a cardinal sin or pure stupidity.

I cleaned the "sensor" - by which we all mean the anti-alias filter in front of the sensor, using a cotton bud and some pure methanol.

I soaked the cotton bud in methanol then left it 10 minutes to evaporate. I then proceeded to wipe the glass in very small strokes being careful not to re-wipe with the same section of cotton bud. The many dust spots which were there disappeared and now the small aperture, white photograph (as described above) came out clear of dust specs.

I would definitely do this again, but will look for something to use other than a cotton bud as there is the potential for very small cotton fibres to come off and remain on the sensor. Ideally a microfibre or piece of silk on a stick would be used.

Incidentally, this was on an *ist DS which I just picked up on eBay for £50 with an 18-55 It was sold as spares/repair and I fixed it, so I was happy to take this gamble on cleaning the sensor - which was filthy! With something other than a cotton bud I think I would have a go at doing this on my K7 if it ever needed it but so far it's been crystal clear

I accept no responsibility for the wellbeing of your camera if you decide to try this out. I'm just relaying my experience

Well done but a cotton bud ? you have some bottle and very steady hands I am now equipt with the pec pads and the eclipse fluid ready for that day but with care I hope I will manage to save £50 a go

Well done sir

I'm pretty sure the eclipse fluid is just pure methanol or ethanol - though pure alcohol or is not always easy to get hold of. My Mum happens to work in the chemistry industry

I didn't have anything else to try out, so yeah a cotton bud Perhaps a cotton bud wrapped in silk would be better as there would be no loose fibres then. But I'm happy and now have a more than adequate second shooter for relatively little money - especially once I sell the kit lens.

This question about cleaning fluids consisting of alcohol always confuses me. To my knowledge there are three different alcohols, ethanol, methanol and isopropyl.

In this post we have reference's to people using methanol and isopropyl and that Eclipse consists of isopropyl, from what I've read they all have different effects on materials like plastic and lens coatings. I one tried to clean a plastic focus screen with methylated spirits (alcohol type unknown) and it was destroyed.

Which is the correct one to use in/on the camera ?

Greg

Eclipse is an optic cleaning fluid and has many good things written about it and also videos made it contains Methanol which seems to do the job.

3 drops seems more than sufficient for the sensor so thats about all I can say at this time as I have not used it yet but am confident that with care I will be OK although ,some of the methods used like hairdryers and cotton buds would have some pulling thier hair out
Me I will stick with the safer route

Not surprised your confused I read so much on this subject my head went into a spin took me ages to make the choice and it isnt easy for a novice like myself

Methylated spirits is not pure alcohol.

It's mainly ethanol mixed with a bit of methanol (to make it poisonous and thus less attractive to tramps who want to drink it), purple dye and bitters (to make it taste bad). This is all done to make it so you don't have to a) Have a license to purchase it and b) so the government can not tax it as alcohol. Imagine how much a bottle of ethanol would cost if they charged your normal tax for booze on it...

As a result of those impurities it is not great for cleaning optics as it will leave smears on the glass. I suspect whatever you cleaned with the methylated spirits is not wrecked (unless you soaked it and something underneath got damaged), but rather is just covered in smears. Clean it with some real pure alcohol (eclipse fluid if you have to...) and it should go away easily.