You aren't signed in     Sign In    Help

Help - my sensor needs cleaning!

Help - my sensor needs cleaning! by *Hairbear.
best viewed large - any suggestions for cleaning methods gratefully received... 

Comments

view profile

.danimal  Pro User  says:

as stupid as this sounds. have you tried the manual?
Posted 46 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

*Hairbear  Pro User  says:

Not a daft question. Unfortunately the manual suggests blowers (tried it, but some of it just won't budge) or sending to a engineer (expensive if I have to do it regularly).
Posted 46 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

miss-sakamoto says:

www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/

basically, the dust is on a filter in front of your sensor, therefore you can clean it. in theory, not difficult, but if you mess up, all your photos will be messed up and it will cost almost as much as a new camera to fix it.
i will be trying to clean mine tonight or early next week. if you like, i can report back on the difficulty.
Posted 45 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

*Hairbear  Pro User  says:

Thanks, I'd appreciate it if you let me know how you got on!
Posted 45 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

miss-sakamoto says:

i will, but it won't be for a while. i decided to buy the prefab swabs after i considered the logistics of making something the same size as the sensor and the risks of it not being perfectly clean. it might take a while for them to arrive.
Posted 44 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

miss-sakamoto says:

ok. sorry it took so long. you've probably already cleaned yours, but i thought i would let you know what happened in case you are still deciding.

i used one of the pre-made swabs from microtools and methanol i got from work (sshh). the swabs and appropriate cleaners are described in the link i gave you, which was written by a microtools employee, btw. it worked really well as you can see here. top right is "before". top left was after one round of cleaning and the bottom was after two.

the swab was not lint free, so i had to shake it off a bit. the lint was from the swab itself, so i don't think it would have scratched the sensor, but it could hae ended up inside the camera. it was also not the correct size. that was pretty annoying. but it did work.

it was not hard. the filter in front of the sensor is like a piece of flexible plastic film, but i wasn't super delicate with it and didn't seem to damage it. you just have to make absoutely sure you don't get anything that can scratch the sensor on the swab or on the sensor.
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

view profile

*Hairbear  Pro User  says:

@miss-sakamoto

thanks for the update. Glad it went well. I'm still not sure I'm brave enough to try it just yet. Terrified I'll break my best ever toy.
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

Would you like to comment?

Sign up for a free account, or sign in (if you're already a member).

[?]
view photos Uploaded on April 11, 2006
by *Hairbear

*Hairbear's photostream

4,636
uploads

Tags

Additional Information

All rights reserved Anyone can see this photo

Add to your map