Camera Cleaning...

[Red Snapper]

Hi guys, I am still a newbie to photography but am getting into it quite a lot..

I got me a EOS-350D last year and it is my pride and joy at the mo... only recently a few flecks of dust have been showing up on pics, especially brighter ones when at a certain focus..


What would you guys suggest as the best method of giving my lenses etc a dust down..

I have had clean artist paint brushes suggested to me but just wanted to make sure...

Thanks in advance!

:hugs:

 

[Goldeneyes]

If you are getting some specs there are a number of things I would do first;

1. Clean the front of the lens first. If you have a filter on, I would clean that as well on both sides.
2. Bump your aperture up to F22 and take a picture of a white surface. I use my ceiling.
3. If the spots are still there, then clean the back of your lens.
4. Repeat Step 2 to see if spots show up.
5. If spots still appear, this is the tricky part. Connect your camera with a power cord to ensure that the mirror never goes down. See if your camera has a camera cleaning option. This will have the mirror pop up. Then take a hand pump (One of those squishy balls that has a nozzle on it), turn your camera upside down and start blowing air using the hand pump into the camera. This will take out 75% of the spots unless they are statically charged.
6. Repeat Step 2 to see if spots show up.
7. If spots still show up, you are going to have to clean the lens over your sensor. This is tricky and I wish I could explain how to do it but my vocabulary is very limited. Therefore, I would suggest taking it to a professional store and asking them how to do it. Talk to the store's tech guy and ask him what stuff he uses or even how much is it for him/her to clean it. I hope this helps out

-Pedro Alicea

 

[Alex_B]

It is most likely dust / dirt on the sensor ...

5. If spots still appear, this is the tricky part. Connect your camera with a power cord to ensure that the mirror never goes down. See if your camera has a camera cleaning option. This will have the mirror pop up. Then take a hand pump (One of those squishy balls that has a nozzle on it), turn your camera upside down and start blowing air using the hand pump into the camera. This will take out 75% of the spots unless they are statically charged.

well, this only works in certain climates and quite dust free environments. In 90% of all cases, the blower method fails utterly, and in some cases it makes things much worse.

There is a hell lot of "sticky dust" out there ...

7. If spots still show up, you are going to have to clean the lens over your sensor.

it is more like a filter on the sensor, not a lens to be precise. But I guess your point was that you are actually cleaning something glassy and not the semiconducting material of the sensor. that is true.

Therefore, I would suggest taking it to a professional store and asking them how to do it. Talk to the store's tech guy and ask him what stuff he uses or even how much is it for him/her to clean it. I hope this helps out

Well, shops/stores can help in some cases, in my case they made things worse, I lost the huge spots and gained lots and lots of tiny spots. not very professional (even though it was a pro shop).

If you take your camera to a proper workshop or service centre (like the canon service centres), then they will usually do a very good job, but at some considerable costs ...

Or you do it by yourself ... google for "copperhill method" and "speckgrabber", and what elase is out there. but get informed first, only start cleaning once you really know what you are doing ... there are a million ways of ruining a sensor

 

[darich]

I've cleaned the sensor on all 3 of my DSLR cameras.
i use lens cleaning tissues, lens cleaning fluid and cotton buds. I believe cotton buds are also known as q tips.

I fold a lens cleaning tissue long ways a few times so that it's 5mm or so wide. I fold it round the cotton bud so that it's inside the tissue. that way the i can use the cotton bud for reach and having the tissue around the cotton ensures no cotton is left on the sensor.

the tissue is moistened using the liquid and i wipe in a regular left to right motion starting at the top and finshing at the bottom.

it dries and leaves no streaks and so far, having used this method numerous times, i've had good results and not damaged anything.

it's important to take care because a damaged sensor is a dead camera so even though i've done it a few times i'm never complacent. I like a place where i'm not disturbed and can get it done in one sweep.

Less haste and more speed

 

[Alex_B]

I've cleaned the sensor on all 3 of my DSLR cameras.
i use lens cleaning tissues, lens cleaning fluid and cotton buds. I believe cotton buds are also known as q tips.

Brave you are ... or very talented. I personally would not dare to do it that way.
And I am certain there are lens cleaning fluids out there, which would leave a lot of residue on the sensors filter. So I guess not just ANY lens cleaning fluid would do the job, but you just happen to have picked the right one

 

[darich]

i don't believe the cleaning fluids leave a residue, otherwise your lens would be coated with the stuff.

i take great care while doing it and while not using any specialist equipment it's pretty much exactly the method detailed here and using normal cotton buds and lens cleaning tissues i have a swab very similar to this

Although I'm not quite brave enough to remove the protective filter from the front of the sensor itself. So in effect i'm not cleaning the sensor but the film in front of it.