Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Reply
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
11-04-2020, 02:44 PM - 3 Likes   #16
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
Madaboutpix's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: North Rhine-Westphalia
Posts: 1,425
Doing one's own sensor cleaning? Yeah, absolutely.

For a number of reasons:
  • It can be learned. There's no rocket science involved, although you should maintain a level of respect and caution, and there's tons of advice out there on the internet (as usual, some of it sound, while a fair amount of it is better ignored).
  • If you avoid dusty and otherwise dirty environments, particularly when changing lenses, the odds are you won't have to do it all that often. So far, I've felt compelled to perform three or four wet cleans on my K-3 over the 6+ years of owning it.
  • Enabling Dust Removal as a standard start-up and shut-down routine is good but doesn't always do the trick.
  • You can save yourself hours of spot removal work in post processing when you act on sensor dust issues as soon as you notice sensor dust gathering. (Provided you care about dust issues in your images. I happen to find them irritating, as they seriously detract from the potential beauty of an image and frankly smack of laziness or lack of care on the part of the photographer/retoucher. But that's just me, I guess.)
  • A sensibly applied rocket-blower type of blower may save you from unnecessary deeper cleaning efforts, as will keeping your lens mount caps, the mount itself, and other critical areas meticulously clean. The neater you keep your stuff, the less actual cleaning you will have to do.
  • If I decide to do a real cleaning, the wet clean with tried-and-tested supplies is my go-to method. That's because it works and gives me 100% results.
  • I get these results because I care about what I'm doing. After all, it's my images and my gear that will be affected. If I hire someone else to do it, they will likely consider it as a job, and they may have to perform that job under considerable pressure, or not care as much about perfection. Fact.



Last edited by Madaboutpix; 11-04-2020 at 02:52 PM. Reason: Nuance.
11-04-2020, 03:25 PM - 1 Like   #17
PDL
Pentaxian




Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: PNW USA
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 2,126
I have cleaned my sensors since I first started with DSLR's in 2005.
I start out with a Rocket Blower.
Move to a D-SLR Brush - a off brand Arctic Butterfly like brush.
Move to wet cleaning if it is really bad.

I too have a 10x loop - Opteka SSC-85 10x CCD/CMOS LED Sensor Loupe for finding those "bits" that do not come off from the startup sensor shake and rocket blower. I also have a old Radio Shake anti-static gun i.e. Discotron Electronic Static Eliminator that I use to get static electric attracted dust neutralized. I have been using it for years on camera sensors, lenses and my old slides. I have a lens pen, used mostly for the brush, a retractable brush is a nice thing to have buried in the camera bag.

I have made reasonably use of Pentax's "dust finder" function.

Once a year - or before a long trip - I will do a Loop, rocket blower, loop, static gun, loop, brush, loop, wet cleaning if necessary. I have started carrying my Rocket Blower with me on vacations, to periodically dust stuff off.

For some reason I get dust under the ground glass (I know it's not glass) in the viewfinder. Cleaning there waits until I get home, but the Rocket Blower comes out and gets a through work out. I try to change lenses while being mindful of where I am and keeping the environment as dust free as possible.

Last edited by PDL; 11-04-2020 at 03:33 PM.
11-04-2020, 04:11 PM   #18
Pentaxian




Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Mississippi, USA
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 854
Rarely needed. over the years I've cleaned my ist D once, istDs once. K10D,K20D, KP, never wet, Rocket blower only.I think the OCD about cleaning sensors has calmed way down
11-04-2020, 05:43 PM   #19
Veteran Member




Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Ontario, Canada
Photos: Albums
Posts: 791
I have never done it and just use a blower. I don't change lenses too often either though. I can imagine humid conditions where you're always swapping to be more conducive to sticky dust.

11-04-2020, 07:57 PM   #20
Pentaxian
Paul the Sunman's Avatar

Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Melbourne
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 4,836
I had my K1 sensor professionally cleaned after it picked up a bucketful of dust from my brand new straight-from-the-factory DFA 150-450. It wasn't cheap, but she did a good job. Subsequently, I have cleaned it twice myself using the Pentax sticky stick. Although I had to go over it several times, it eventually worked well. Not too frightening if you take it slowly and carefully.
11-04-2020, 10:19 PM   #21
Site Supporter
Site Supporter




Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Arkansas, USA
Posts: 1,169
I think all the hype about having to get your sensor professionally cleaned is way over blown. It's no more difficult than externally cleaning your lenses.
11-04-2020, 11:03 PM   #22
Pentaxian
Paul the Sunman's Avatar

Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Melbourne
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 4,836
QuoteOriginally posted by DWS1 Quote
I think all the hype about having to get your sensor professionally cleaned is way over blown. It's no more difficult than externally cleaning your lenses.
I'm not sure I'd like to wet-clean a sensor myself. Leaving streaks would be worse than the original spots. The dry O-ICK1 process is less stressful.

11-05-2020, 02:45 AM   #23
Site Supporter
Site Supporter




Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: Lancaster
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 3,821
I use to do it quite often with my K30 but not so much with the K3 and very rarely with the KP. It is easy, just make sure you sit down, have the correct stuff to hand and give yourself time. I use to dry swab but there were some it just didn't move. As for sending stuff away, OK, you get your camera serviced but it isn't cheap. Go on YouTube, watch some videos, discard any that appear radical, you will be fine
11-05-2020, 06:07 AM - 1 Like   #24
Pentaxian




Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 673
QuoteOriginally posted by Mooncatt Quote
I use to belong to a newbie photographer Facebook group, and the general consensus there was manually cleaning the sensor is rarely needed. If it is needed, it's a very delicate process that should be left to a professional shop. Since being on this forum, I've seen a lot more threads about this that I would've expected, and the discussions on it seem relatively benign on doing it yourself.

Is sensor cleaning really a common practice? If so, is it as risky as I was lead to believe?
Yes, it is common practice. No, it isn't risky if you follow the standard procedure, with tools specifically made for the job.

With sufficient lens changes, every camera body eventually gets to the point where the sensor has dust specs that won't dislodge from the in-body cleaning mechanism (SR or ultrasonic, depending on which Pentax camera body you have - I believe everybody else has ultrasonic or nothing at all (Canon EOS x000D line comes to mind)).

It gets interesting if you look into the details. There is a "pad" (don't remember exact term right now) that's designed to absorb and hold the dust that falls off the sensor during built-in cleaning. Over time, that piece of equipment, having absorbed more and more dust, no doubt eventually becomes less effective. It's also claimed by some that Olympus has the only thoroughly effective ultrasonic cleaning mechanism. I've personally found the SR-based one to work better than the ultrasonic one on Pentax cameras. Often, if something is stuck after the first clean on an ultrasonic-cleaning camera, it will remain stuck no matter how many times you drive the cleaning mechanism. With the SR-based cameras, I've found I can often get rid of all the dust if I just run the mechanism 10 times, maybe 20 maximum. But even that doesn't always work, and a manual clean will eventually be required.

Before you go in for a swab, try a dust blower as an intermediate solution. Dust blowing is a bit of a skill in that you want to get fairly close to where the sh*t sits, but you ideally don't want to be touching the sensor glass.

Some swear by the Rocket-branded dust blowers that are specifically marketed to photographers, others will point out that the special valve it has doesn't work very well. I've used non-photographic "blowers" with success. I believe some are made for picking up liquids but work just as well for blowing air, and they cost pennies. Just make sure it's the right shape to get it close enough to the sensor to be effective.

When blowing air at the dust you see in your pictures, remember that left is right and top is bottom - the camera inverts your image back to how you experience it (your brain does the same thing with your eyes), so make sure you understand where the dust actually sits. You could spend a lot of time blowing at the wrong spot.

It is my current opinion that lens pens are best reserved for working on lenses, if at all, so if the built-in cleaning mechanism and dust blowing both can't get the job done, swabbing is the next and last step.

You want to buy the special equipment sold through the usual channels. The pokey thing with the microfiber end (I believe that's a fair description - I shall additionally refer to them as "swabs" hereafter) comes in different sizes for different-sized sensors. The liquid stuff, often bundled with it, will typically last you a long time. The trick is to only use a minute quantity of it, otherwise you'll be using a lot of extra swabs to pick up the remaining liquid off the sensor glass. In my opinion, you should leave no residue in the camera if you can help it.

To that end, when you start, check that the swab wrappers tear smoothly. There is at least one brand that's a real joy to use - I don't have the name in front of me, sorry. If you need an extra swab, you want to be certain you can get to it and not start a fight with the wrapper.

Err on the side of using more swabs (i.e. pokey things) - if you use each swab for just one pass over the surface, meaning you need maybe two of them to cover the entire sensor, you're doing great in my book. If I were short on swabs, I'd consider using first one side then the other. You can certainly do that if the purpose is simply picking up liquid. The rationale is that you don't want to screech a sand grain over the surface of the sensor glass more times than you have to.

I may have gone into a fair amount of detail, but at the end of the day, it's really not that bad. You'll learn very quickly what to avoid, and how to fix things.
11-05-2020, 06:30 AM   #25
Loyal Site Supporter
Loyal Site Supporter
Mooncatt's Avatar

Join Date: May 2020
Location: Wisconsin
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 1,369
Original Poster
Thanks for all the feedback. Seems I was a bit mislead, but likely because this does sound like something beginners shouldn't try. Personally, I hadn't noticed any issues yet. I don't shoot a ton, and haven't even considered a manual cleaning, or even blowing it off. The automatic dust removal always seemed to work well.
11-05-2020, 08:58 AM   #26
Moderator
Loyal Site Supporter
Wheatfield's Avatar

Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: The wheatfields of Canada
Posts: 15,903
QuoteOriginally posted by Mooncatt Quote
I use to belong to a newbie photographer Facebook group, and the general consensus there was manually cleaning the sensor is rarely needed. If it is needed, it's a very delicate process that should be left to a professional shop. Since being on this forum, I've seen a lot more threads about this that I would've expected, and the discussions on it seem relatively benign on doing it yourself.

Is sensor cleaning really a common practice? If so, is it as risky as I was lead to believe?
I rarely need to clean sensors. Where I live has near perfect conditions to keep dust off the sensor. When I do clean a sensor, my go to method is canned gas.
It slays the sniveling kittens to read this, they will come on and say don't to it. As soon as you squirt a shot of benign, and relatively inert, compressed gas onto your sensor, you will start a chain reaction that will end with the sun going nova.
But they will have difficulty citing a single certifiable example of canned gas damaging a sensor.
Don't use it to clean your camera's mirror, but this goes for any compressed gas, be it what comes in a can or what comes out of an air compressor. This can knock the mirror out of alignment.
Don't shake the can prior to use or turn it upside down and shoot it. The liquefied gas isn't all that cold, I think something like -25ºC, it's not cold enough to hurt anything in your camera, but it's not going to do what you want it to do either.
Other than the mirror, which is easily scratched and misaligned by clumsy handling, and the shutter itself, the inside of a camera is reasonably robust,

I think I have only wet cleaned a sensor a couple of times since I bought my first DSLR in 2003.
11-05-2020, 10:08 AM   #27
Lev
Veteran Member




Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Tbilisi, Georgia
Posts: 1,197
QuoteOriginally posted by Wheatfield Quote
I rarely need to clean sensors. Where I live has near perfect conditions to keep dust off the sensor. When I do clean a sensor, my go to method is canned gas.
It slays the sniveling kittens to read this, they will come on and say don't to it. As soon as you squirt a shot of benign, and relatively inert, compressed gas onto your sensor, you will start a chain reaction that will end with the sun going nova.
But they will have difficulty citing a single certifiable example of canned gas damaging a sensor.
Don't use it to clean your camera's mirror, but this goes for any compressed gas, be it what comes in a can or what comes out of an air compressor. This can knock the mirror out of alignment.
Don't shake the can prior to use or turn it upside down and shoot it. The liquefied gas isn't all that cold, I think something like -25ºC, it's not cold enough to hurt anything in your camera, but it's not going to do what you want it to do either.
Other than the mirror, which is easily scratched and misaligned by clumsy handling, and the shutter itself, the inside of a camera is reasonably robust,

I think I have only wet cleaned a sensor a couple of times since I bought my first DSLR in 2003.

Some folks are saying that canned gas is dangerous as it can deliver some unwanted particles on sensor. I'm afraid sooner or later I will have to do it. But maybe I'll try with soft charged brush to gently remove dust.
11-05-2020, 11:10 AM   #28
Loyal Site Supporter
Loyal Site Supporter




Join Date: May 2007
Location: Flagstaff, Arizona
Posts: 1,625
QuoteOriginally posted by Breakfastographer Quote
Some swear by the Rocket-branded dust blowers that are specifically marketed to photographers, others will point out that the special valve it has doesn't work very well. I've used non-photographic "blowers" with success. I believe some are made for picking up liquids but work just as well for blowing air, and they cost pennies. Just make sure it's the right shape to get it close enough to the sensor to be effective.
I use my wife's turkey baster - after making sure it's been well-washed since the last turkey! It has always done the job.


QuoteOriginally posted by Lev Quote
Some folks are saying that canned gas is dangerous as it can deliver some unwanted particles on sensor.
I'd be more worried about tiny drops of oil or some other liquid. If I was using canned anything, I'd do a test spray on a piece of clean glass (corner of a bathroom mirror) first and look for any residual.
11-05-2020, 11:20 AM   #29
Moderator
Loyal Site Supporter
Wheatfield's Avatar

Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: The wheatfields of Canada
Posts: 15,903
QuoteOriginally posted by Lev Quote
Some folks are saying that canned gas is dangerous as it can deliver some unwanted particles on sensor. I'm afraid sooner or later I will have to do it. But maybe I'll try with soft charged brush to gently remove dust.
I think the nature of the beast makes this pretty unlikely. A rocket blower is more likely to leave particles behind, and I suspect that a brush is as or more likely than a rocket blower to deposit particles.
I also suspect that anything left behind by any of the aforementioned methods would fall off with the first sensor cleaning done by the camera.

---------- Post added Nov 5th, 2020 at 12:23 PM ----------

QuoteOriginally posted by AstroDave Quote
I use my wife's turkey baster - after making sure it's been well-washed since the last turkey! It has always done the job.




I'd be more worried about tiny drops of oil or some other liquid. If I was using canned anything, I'd do a test spray on a piece of clean glass (corner of a bathroom mirror) first and look for any residual.
Where does this sort of thing come from? Canned gas is just a mixture of gasses with a high boiling point (for gas). Do people really think the manufacturers are putting diesel fuel in the cans? The used turkey baster has a greater chance of having residual oil in it than anything coming out of a can of Dust-Off.
11-05-2020, 11:54 AM   #30
Veteran Member




Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 2,009
When I cleaned my sensor for the first time, I read a reputable French technical site who advised to use compressed air in a bottle.

Worst advice ever.

It tends to fire icy water drop on the sensor!

Fortunately, it was quickly gone with a wet swab.

Really, you only need a rocket blower (to push off large particle), a magnifying glass (with leds) made for sensor (not strictly needed, but it helps to locate the dust and make sure the sensor is clean after the cleaning), and disposable wet swab.

The first time my sensor was really dirty. I had to use several wet swab, until I had a perfectly clean sensor. Since that day, dust only came back once, which could be removed with just one wet swab. It's easy with the right tools! Just stay away of compressed air in bottles. I would also advise against making your swab wet with a separate cleaning liquid since you could potentially put too much liquid and not being able to get rid of the extra liquid on the sensor.
Reply

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Tags - Make this thread easier to find by adding keywords to it!
blower, brush, gas, particles, photography, rocket, sensor, turkey
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Cleaning Sensor niklas Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 22 10-30-2019 04:06 AM
sensor cleaning k70 Dani Pentax K-70 & KF 6 06-07-2019 08:02 PM
Sensor cleaning: Pec-Pads or Sensor Swabs gadgetnu Pentax Camera and Field Accessories 29 09-24-2007 10:52 AM
Sensor cleaning > Sensor Swab > void warranty? Twinky Pentax DSLR Discussion 2 07-28-2007 01:10 AM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 09:13 AM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top