How to clean the sensor in a DSLR?
 

Any suggestions on this? Have it done professionally? Do it yourself with a dedicated kit? Do it yourself with stuff from your garage? If a kit, any recommendations? Mine definately needs cleaning. Camera is an EOS 20D. Thanks for any suggestions.

First off, try a squeeze-bulb blower. Hold the camera so that the lens mount is pointed at the ground (so anything blown free falls out of the shutter box). Here's the blower I've got:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...r_Blower_.html

Next step would be wet cleaning - I'm pretty pedantic about being quick, careful, and clean about changing lenses, so I've never had to do this. However, the "Copperhill" method is generally recommended. Here's a link to their site:

http://www.copperhillimages.com/index.php?pr=products.

You'd probably just need the Basic Kit.

Just curious how you got yours dirty?

I guess that's the advantage of the Olympus and Sony dSLRs as they have sensor shakers.

As noted above, the blower bulb (not a can of compressed air) is the first step.

I've done wet cleaning on my Canon 10D. It must be done carefully because it carries the potential of destroying your camera. Unfortunately, my supplies are up in the Bay area, so I can't see what I'm using. However, I bought a special solution for this purpose, as well as specially-designed cleaning swabs -- as I recall the kit cost upwards of $70 to $100. There's also a technique to it, i.e. you clean in a continuous swipe across the sensor, rather than rubbing at it back and forth.

Only handles some of the dirt. Some particles (pollen in particular) are sticky enough that even the sensor shaker can't get it.

That's basically the Copperhill kit I linked to above. They're only ~$30 or so. The cleaning solution is straight methanol, and the wipes are clean-room type.

Wow. It must have come down in price (I bought my kit a few years ago). I suppose I should add that, with all of our cautionary tales, sensor cleaning isn't that difficult or risky. It's just important to follow all directions and do it right.

If you switch lenses, it's impossible to avoid dust getting inside. The smallest particle of dust will look like an immense glob on a large print. Usually, the blower bulb is enough to dislodge these, though sometimes all it does is move them around. Also, as bdjohns noted, some contaminants are sticky and won't be dislodged by the blower. Sensors are delicate and can be damaged by the force of air from a can of compressed air. Also, the propellants used in the compressed air cans can cause chemical damage to the sensor.

My D40 has gone back to Nikon for some professional TLC. I don't know what got on the sensor but even a wet clean only manages to move it (and I'm half expecting bad news from Nikon on this point :().

Still, if it is bad news, it's a good excuse to go out and buy something :).

Lets be careful out there!
 

First stop normally is a blower (A Gitzo rocket is HIGHLY recommended). Nossel near the mirror box, but not in it)

Work left to right, and going back to the left and starting again.

Do this in a clean enviorment.

When it comes to a wet clean, I prefer to send it to a pro cleaner (My 20D and 300D tend to go off toghether when I'm in London for a day trip for a clean out. (I use a company in London called "Fixation" http://www.fixationuk.com. Costs £25+VAT.

There are lots of solutions out there (hovers, spinners, brushes) ... but if you're NOT confident (like me), PLEASE DON'T DO IT YOURSELF. YOU DO RUN THE RISK OF PERMENANTLY DAMAGING YOUR CAMERA!!!!

Nikon will service their cameras within the warranty period at a Nikon service point depending on workload.. Canon would charge £60 or so.

Be warned that if you have an anti dust solution on your camera, it still wont' deal with ALL of the dirt, so account some time for cleaning for your camera.

Thanks to you and to all the others. So I will give the blower a try and if that doesnt help I think I will take it to a pro cleaning place. Does anyone know of one in New York City that does a good job on this? Thanks again.

I bought an Arctic Butterfly for sensor cleaning after collecting some dust the rocket blower could not shift.

It was a bit nervewracking the first time I used it, but only the first (well, maybe second time).

GadgetFreak, I know you like to travel so it may be to your advantage to be able to clean the sensor yourself. No shops in the outback. . .

I gave up on using a blower after I got 10 times the dust on the sensor after using a blower. It blows unfiltered air and if the air is not clean - and it's hard to get a dustless environment - you are just putting more dust back. I know lots of people who use canned air but this needs to be done carefully due to the propellants in the can. Professional cleaning is usually done with dry nitrogen (99.9999% pure) at controlled pressures. You can buy everything you need for this but it will cost you a few hundred dollars.

I use a few steps depending on how dirty my sensor is. First step is with a visible dust sensor brush. This works very well and usually gets all the non sticky dust off. If there is any dust left then I use the Copper Hill cleaning method and that gets off the rest - though it may take a couple of goes.

I also use a dust reduction regime for minimising the dust I get in the first place. The sensors are statically charged when the camera is turned on and this attracts dust to it.
If I know I will be shooting with only the one lens I change it before turning on the camera.
When changing lenses I turn off the camera and turn my back to the wind to reduce dust flying past.
Minimise lens changes where possible.
If possible, I brush the rear of the lens with a lens pen before changing lenses.
I keep my equipment clean - this includes cleaning the lens caps of any dust.

This has reduced the need to clean the sensor - as has the automatic sensor clean system in my Pentax K10D.

I use this method to check for dust - it shows up any dust on the sensor.
Get a lens with a very small minimum aperture - I use f32 on my macro lens. The smaller the aperture, the sharper the dust appears on the image (dust visible at f16 is invisible at f5.6).
Set the white balance to room lighting, aperture to f32 (or as small as you can get), ISO to lowest you can set it to and set it to overexpose by 1.5 stops (do this by your favourite method).
This should give you a shutter speed of about 2-3 seconds.
Point the camera at an evenly lit piece of white paper and move it in a figure of eight movement that keeps it wholly viewing he paper and press the shutter. By moving the camera during the exposure you remove any imperfections in the paper and get a good plain backgound.
Transfer the image to the computer and look over it at at least 100% magnification. The dust will be obvious.

This may seem a involved but I got tired of Photoshopping dust off my macro images. I hope you found at least some of it useful.

Leon

These are some great tips. Thanks!

I took a class to learn how to use my Nikon D200 - well worth the cost. One of the topics was cleaning the sensor. Everybody else in the class freaked out but I volunteered. Comparing to handling and cleaning a $10,000 lens for a Zeiss microscope, cleaning the sensor is a piece of cake. See above.

Of course, if you are accustomed to using only 4 letters of the alphabet in your work, this may be a more challenging experience. :p

LOL! :cool: