Sensor Cleaning

G'day All.
I've just bought a *ist Ds.
I've been using it for the last week or so.
In the manual it mentions cleaning the sensor.
My question is this: How do you know when the sensor needs cleaning?
Also, How do you clean the sensor?

Is there a cleaning fluid or lens pen type of gadget?

are there any no-no's when cleaning the sensor?

Thanks.
Hooroo.
Regards, Trevor
Australia

Hi Trevor,

You will find the sensor needs cleaning when you have black specks/ small splodges on the pictures that aren't there in the original scene! Taking a photo of a plain sky will show up the dust (I have found whether its blue or cloudy!). If you see only one, maybe 2 spots, it's probably best to live with them! and they don't show up if the scene is fairly 'busy', ie contains lots of detail. Dust enters when changing the lens, and I think from wear and tear of the shutter and mirror mechanisms.

The manual gives you a way to do it - using a 'bulb' blower having gone through the menu to find 'sensor cleaning' function that lifts the mirror up and opens shutter. Ensure you have a good set of batteries in for this as you don't want the shutter shutting part way through cleaning.

by the way it is not actually the sensor that you clean - it is a glass anti-aliasing filter in front of it (I think).

The bulb blower worked for me on my *istD the first time I needed it. However I then found it that it just added more dust on the sensor, so I needed one of the other methods. I went for digi-pads (same as sensorswabs) with Eclipse fluid. Worked a treat for me, and I think it might be cleaner than when camera was new!

There is also a 'dry' method using a sensor brush that relies on static attraction of the dust off the sensor. It is important to follow their instructions carefully and to remember that the manufacturer does not recommend these other methods, and so could claim you have voided any warranty.

Try these to find out more:
http://www.photosol.com/swabproduct.htm
http://www.visibledust.com/

Google search will show up more about these and what people think of them. In the UK, you cannot buy these across the counter from a High Street shop - they are mail order as they are quite specialist.

hope this helps

Andy

Take a look at my blog at http://flink.formula9.net where you can see my experience in cleaning my sensor with a sintetic brush.

It is rather simple if you take some care (and don't do my mistakes!). Then again, I had no stuck dust, so you might actually need some moist method like the CopperHill.

Just try it out, you have nothing to lose IF you're careful!

Cheers and happy cleaning!

Very interesting. Question, somewhat hypothetical: What if you bought the istDS with the 18-55 (or, preferrably, with the 16-45) and never removed the lens. Would the sensor ever need cleaning?

Ted

Apart from missing out on the flexibility of the SLR side of things, from what I have read, you could still end up with some stuff - wear and tear bits from shutter/ mirror mechanisms (obviously much less tho'!)
Andy

The SensorSwab/ Eclipse fluid approach works really well - just takes a couple of goes to get the knack of not leaving streaks behind!

Just a word of advice about using compressed air - if you are tempted. The thing you are cleaning is actually a chromatic filter mounted above the sensor, so high pressure air could possibly force a dust particle between the sensr and the filter - then it's there forever!!

Speed Graphic www.speedgraphic.co.uk are stocking the new, if expensive Sensor Brush cleaning system. I have one on order, I'll let you know how it works out.

Ted,

Late reply to your question.

When a lens zooms or focuses, it enlarges or reduces the airspace between the back element and the mirror box. This means it is either sucking air in, or pushing air out. (The system is not airtight.)

This means that the lens is forever sucking dust into the mirror box cavity, and some will inevitably fall on the sensor.

Lens cleaning:

Clean compressed air is the best cleaning method, if used sensibly. Make sure you get pure compressed air, not some nasty stuff with oil in it which will coat your sensor with gunge.

Don't apply full force. All you need is a brief squirt to dislodge any dust particles which have attached themselves to the sensor.

If you operate in clean environments, this doesn't need doing very often.

Swabs are difficult to use, prone to streaking, and usually unnecessary.

Dust manifests itself as small see-through blobs on your image.

G

Well, all quite interesting. I shall be on guard. I'd never thought about air being moved about when a lens zooms or focuses. It should follow then that the same should occur inside, for example, a Pentax Spotmatic? Perhaps this phenomenon accounts, in part, for the accumulation of schmutz on its mirror in addition to what may wander in whilst changing lenses..

I ordered yesterday the *istDS kit (with 18-55 lens) from Willoughby's for $748USD, including shipping, and bought a 1GB SD card on sale for $59 from Staples. Now I am in the waiting mode.

Ted

Don't know quite how I morphed into a guest in the above post.

Ted

I have a big old squezze bulb, the old fashioned ones that just blast a bit of air over a surface. It's all I've ever needed, hope I don't get sticky dust!

You'll always get sticky dust... the CCD is charged so in the end the dust will stick by static.
Cleaning isn't that difficult though. The bulb blower gets most of the stuff away though
Matt