[GibbyTheMole]

Howdy.

I'm appealing to the wise old sages of sensor cleaning woes. Lately my K-x has gotten a few specks of crud on the sensor that the blower brush nor the Opteka tacky lollipop will remove. I even tried very very gently scrubbing the sensor with a clean cotton swab, which got rid of a couple, but about 4 stubborn specks remain. So here's a few options:

1) Try a Sensorclear Cleaning Pen. - This seems relatively safe & cheap.

2) Wet cleaning stuff - Expensive, and frankly scares me.

3) Have it professionally cleaned. ($40)

4) Remove the specks in post, if & when they show up.

I'm sure there are other ways to skin this particular cat, and I'm interested in hearing from others who have been down this road. I need some input from those more knowledgeable about this sort of thing than I.

Cheers,
Bobbo :-)

[JeffJS]

4 followed by 2. If your blower, brush, and lolipop devices failed to remove it, then it's time for a wet clean. The supplies will cost you as much as having it done in a shop but you'll have enough for a few times cleaning.

[GibbyTheMole]

What about the Sensorclear Cleaning Pen? Anyone tried one of these? They get pretty good reviews at Amazon.

[Nowhere Matt]

Have you tried a Dyson vacuum?

What do you suppose created such stubborn stains? Do you use extension tubes often or were you changing lenses at a mud wrestling contest?

I was once desperate and tried a cotton swab dipped in isopropyl alcohol. Some will warn us not to do this however. It worked well and I can see no damage. Again, some will warn us that alcohol can damage the sensors.

Im just trying to be helpful and make you think about how you can help reduce the chances of this happening again.

Good luck.

[GibbyTheMole]

Nowhere Matt: Maybe the high pressure spray at the car wash would do the trick, eh?

[kiwi_jono]

Like you, after a while I got blobs that would not move with a decent blower.
Dust was starting to drive me crazy (and sick of correcting in post - because I don't do much post work).

So I got some Sensor Swabs and Eclipse fluid.

I was very nervous about trying the swabs but saw enough encouraging experiences (and none to the contrary) to give it go. Very please I did! My sensor took 2 swabs to get it clean but they did a great job. I can now use f11 and above again!

[Nowhere Matt]

Nowhere Matt: Maybe the high pressure spray at the car wash would do the trick, eh?

And you can hang the PentaxForums.com air freshener on the lens barell.

[rawr]

I think the official sensor cleaning solution is the Pentax Image Sensor Cleaning Kit #O-ICK1. Lots of people recommend it.

So far my sensors have stayed pretty clean so I can't personally vouch for any solution though.

[GibbyTheMole]

I'll try the sensor pen & if that fails, probably just have it professionally cleaned. I bought this camera used & the sensor was dirty when I bought it. Using the rocket blower got rid of some, but not all of the crud..