dSLR users,,, Sensor Cleaning

[handicap18]

I finally got tired of the dust specs on my sensor. So I researched the internet and got a few recommendations off the nikonians.org forum. I went with Copper Hill Images . They had a great tutorial and very reasonable prices, especially compared to the local photo stores.

I had a very successful first attempt last week. I had approx 2 dozen dust specs and after my first attempt I got rid of all but about 1/2 a dozen. The majority that are left are on the bottom and haven't seemed to affect my images thus far. However, I will continue to do regular maintenance based on the amount of pictures I take each month. It is kind of nerve racking at first, but I do have a pretty steady hand and also had confidence that I wouldn't ruin anything. So far so good.

Prep work for it is along the same lines as the prep work for making home made beer. You have to be very anal about keeping things clean. With beer it was keeping things sanatized as anything not sanatized will ruin a batch of beer. With sensor cleaning, your environment has to be calm and as clean as possible. You don't want to attract more dust or touch anything that will touch the sensor. The oil from you skin could ruin the sensor.

Here are the before and after pictures.
Before: Taken 6/23

After: Taken 7/3

 

[tinksdad]

Great job Kyle!! Boy, you had a bunch of dust devils in there didn't you??

 

[Charade]

Whoa! That's a LOT of dust bunnies you got there!! I have one or two that I know of. One is obvious on a blue sky pic like yours but I haven't had the desire to clean it yet.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

what's the exposure for those pics? f/22?

 

[handicap18]

what's the exposure for those pics? f/22?

You are correct.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

that's still a lot of clearly visible dust for f/22. You may want to use Sensor Swab (the wet version)

 

[handicap18]

I did use the sensor swab with the Eclipse wet solution. First pass was right to left on the top part of the sensor. Second pass was left to right on the bottom part of the sensor but I didn't have the best of angles. Since you can only make 1 pass on each side of the swab I decided to call it a day after one try. I was happy with the initial results. I will make another cleaning again sometime to go and get the rest and hopefully not accumulate much more.

The 5 or so that are left at the bottom wont show up in probably 95% of my pictures. The ones that were on the top middle/right showed up in about 80% of my pictures. Those are now gone, so for the time being I am happy with the results.

On the web site tutorial he suggests not to be picky in the beginning. Even says that you might not get them all, but over time after doing it often enough you'll get better and more confidant and it eventually will be no big deal to swab the sensor. So I'm going with that for now.