Fortunately dust on my camera sensors hasn't been a major problem with my DSLR's - and so I've just put off worrying about it. With all of the hype, complexity, nay sayers on the web, and even many suggestions that satisfaction has not always been a result when sending back to the manufacturer for cleaning - - - I have rediculously even considered that it is easier to just buy a new camera when my sensor becomes unbearably dirty to where I have to spend time on every frame cleaning up the spots.

At least early this spring I did end up becoming aware of what sensor dust looked like on my image files. That was major irritation and a relief in some ways because it wasn't what I expected it to look like (I have spent most of my career brush spotting white dust marks off of my traditional prints). My heavily used and abused Nikon D70s provided my first sensor dusted images for me. While dust was probably there for some time, it wasn't until I did a commerical event shoot where I was using the D70 along with my 85mm 1.8 shooting wide open for natural light. The background was predominately solid light blue painted walls. When I got home and unloaded the image files to my computer, I was forced to realise the work that would be involved in cloning and spotting many large and small gray blobs scattered across each and every image. It was the last time I used that camera. I was well aware that it was still a perfectly capable camera though and so gave it to my son for his non critical use.

Well I have a commercial event shoot tomorrow for an awards ceremony in Toronto with many prominant Canadian politicians , sports celebrities, and business leaders will be in attandance and some receiving awards - their will also be entertainment. Even though the venue will have many press photographers and reporters there to interview and take pictures of the attendees - - - I have been hired as the official photographer to document all of the happenings of the evening. As a result I needed an extra camera body so that I could be well equipped without having to change lenses, shoot flash and natural light, etc.

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That brings me to the Sensor cleaning. I was really hoping I could get away with using my sons D70 but did not realize how irritating the dust blobs were until he showed me some natural light shots he had taken last week and pointed out the gray spots of the mother and babies faces. I got home with the camera a couple of hours ago at 7:00PM. What a time to have to do all of the research necessary to find out what I should use to clean and whether it would even be feasable to do so - or whether any home grown methods would work. Along with that I had none of the specialty tools, swabs, or liquids that were the most highly recommended. My first effort was to use a camel hair lens brush and bulb blower to wisk off the dust. When I followed up with a test shot, I found that I now had ten times the dust spots and problems to deal with.

And then I came upon a couple of websites that mentioned that they have had very good success using Scotch Magic Tape and some sort of non-metalic burnisher to flatten the tape onto the sensor. Well when I checked my rolls of scotch tape, they were of the high stick type - and so I headed out for the 20 minute drive to Walmart (the only place open this late). When I got home, I went at it and 2 or 3 minutes later shot a follow up test shot to find the previous dust blotches all but gone.

Here is a before and after shot - using my 85mm 1.8 wide open on as plain a wall as I have available (while not the type of scene recommended in websites for seeing the dust, it's all I had to work with). While the dust was plainly visible in the shot that came out of the camera, I converted to black and white and pumped up the contrast equally on both pictures, to the extreme for the sake of comparison:



The method for the Nikon D70 was:

* Charge battery fully
* Take lens off camera body
* In MENU select Mirror Up and then hit the shutter release to cick the mirror out of the way
* I took a strip of about 6 inches of tape and turned the ends over in each other so that there would be tabs in order to pull the tape off of the sensor
* I uses the rounded plastic end of one of my retouching brushes to gently rub the tape onto every part of the sensor - startingfrom the center and working out
* using the tape tabs, I removed the tape from the sensor
* I turned off the camera power to release the mirror so that it closed

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For years I have used magic tape directly on my negatives and for taping paper masks to my negatives. Because of its low level of stickiness, it never left any residue on my negatives or other sensitive materials. Because of my personal experience with the Scotch Magic Tape (GREEN PACKAGE), I had no problems trusting using it in this type of application - - - but you may want to check into the safety of it further before trying it on your own cameras. I have no idea whether it is a recommended method or one that will cause issues down the road with build up on sensors. For that matter the plastic instrument I have used to flatten out the tape onto the sensor and the amount of pressure and motion that I used will be different that what others would use. While my quick research revealed that sensors aren't near as fragile as one is lead to believe - - - - I would do my own research and not depend on anything I have stated when working on your own camera investement.

All I can tell you is that this Scotch Magic Tape methods has worked extremely well in eliminating the dust off of my dirty D70 sensor. I hope this information is also valuable to others who have the same concerns as I did this evening.

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Here are a couple of links to get you going on researching this method:

http://www.dpchallenge.com/forum.php?actio...HREAD_ID=254457
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp...essage=13015113

Hummmm I'd never do this on my $8,000 1Ds Mark II.... but uh, glad it worked for you... whoa.

A FOLLOW UP

While doing some additional research since my last post on how I cleaned my sensor, I came across a website with a very good recommendation on "How To Create A Test Image To Check For Dust" using your computer screen:

http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/howto.html
(near the bottom of the web page)

Well it turns out that my initial dust findings after I had completed my Scotch Tape cleaning - while impressive compared to my initial results without cleaning - - - still showed some visible blobs and dark specs using this monitor method of testing. So I decided to give the D70 one more round of Scotch Tape - - - with much improved results.



It may be that I just was a little too shy and not thorough enough the first time - - - or it more than likely may be that this D70s had an extreme case of sensor dust from it's 2 1/2 years of heavy professional use including sandy beaches, rain, more than 60,000 exposures and a constant changing of lenses during all the assignments it was involved in. At any rate, the second cleaning was an even bigger improvement using the higher testing standards provided with this TESTING METHOD

Yes I'd make sure I did my own research and was comfortable with what I was doing before attempting any sensor cleaning method on my $8,000 camera. I have always respected Olympus for early on (with the E1) bringing out an effective solution to sensor dust elimination. It is unfortunate that we consumers and users of such expensive gear have had to wait so long for companies like Nikon to finally get on the band wagon and include such an ultrasonic device in their upcoming DSLR's - with the rest sure to follow. That should make it so that we don't have to be worrying about getting our fingers into the sensitive areas of our large investment.

A good friend of mine worked on rather large and expensive mirrors and optics.. This is one of the methods they used to clean their glass..
He mentioned the issue with using swabs and dragging them is, you're draggin dust and dirt along the filter and potentially causing microscratches.

The Dust-aid product works in a similar mannor.

It's quite effective.

I had these instructions saved for the last two years in my computer, but I have never dared do it! I am glad it worked for you.

I don't know why everyone is so freaked out by the whole cleaning your sensor thing.

You're not actually ever touching the sensor - you're touching a protective layer OVER the sensor. Swabbing, taping, or blowing on it is NOT going to damage it in any way. Not unless you're actually digging at it or poking at it ... that is.

I dont' get the paranoia.

Karen

that's funny, i was just about to post the same thing - whimps i say!

Well it's been an interesting evening and morning as a result of posting this thread on several photography forums. I have received many emails and replies to the post with opinions of support, to shear terror at doing such a thing. Among other comments, a few issues that have been brought to my attention several times - making sure that the battery is fully charged and not hitting the shutter for the fear of the mirror closing and jamming the tape inside and creating an expensive mess - and also that the Scotch Tape method is not a recommended cleaning method. I'll post my address to these thoughts . . .


. . . Because the websites I visited last night said so, I did have my battery at full charge. I laid the camera face down on my lap and made sure I was not near the shutter release (which is the way that you restore the mirror to its normal position), although I doubt that the soft tape tabs would be near as much a problem as the stick or burnisher that is used in all methods, getting trapped when the mirror comes down on it. Even with my inexperience the process of laying down the tape strip, rubbing it into all areas of the sensor and peeling it off took me less than 30 seconds to accomplish - - - it was extremely quick to do this way, and obviously effective.

As far as being a preferred or recommended method, all I have seen with all of the research that I have done over last evening and this morning are lots of opinions on whether it should be done with tape or not. Of course the camera companies want you sending it back to them. Most opinions outside the manufacturers are from companies selling their own products (many of which photographers have had mild to poor success using). Many other opinions reflect many of the comments I am receiving from posting this on the different forums I frequent such as "it shouldn't be used", "I would never use that on my expensive cameras sensor", "I'm too afraid to try such a method", etc, etc - - - - most follow up with "although I have never tried it" - - - even from writers that one might presume are authorities. So a lot of "opinions", a lot of conjecture, and a lot of fear. I couldn't find any hard facts that would suggest that camera sensor filters have been damaged from this tape method - which I would presume there would be many.

Except for the remote or real possibility of some subtle residue being left behind, I have found no information to give me any more confidence in all of the other methods that still require a spatula or stick of some sort running across the surface of the sensor filter, some sort of tissue covering it, and some sort of cleaning solution. There are just as many warnings with these methods such as causing streaks, hard getting all dust off, damaging the filter surface (which from what I have read so far is presuming that the filter is more fragile than it is). Most photographers are paranoid about using any of the methods to clean their sensor filter - - - I look at it, what do you suppose Nikon or Canon use if you send it back to them? I know - warranty - - - well maybe?





Here is some information on the Dust-aid product (which does sound a lot like the method I used last night). You may be more comfortable using a commercially available product instead of tape (I'll personally stick with the tape as I don't clean much and my cameras only tend to last a couple of years before they are worn out anyway):

http://www.dust-aid.com/

http://www.outbackphoto.com/workshop/photo...ay09/essay.html

Dust-aid Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFAGwI_afY0

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My research has turned up exactly what Karen has stated.

BUTT were you nekid?

i use a visible dust sensor brush... you know, the ones that are supposedly really super safe and of course very effective. yes, i use it correctly as per the instructions from the factory and may other professionals who use them.... HOWEVER..... when i had my 1D Mark II N cleaned by Canon Pro Services this summer, the guy straight up told me that they could SEE SCRATCHES (very very very very very minor, but still) on my sensor.... they asked me if I clean my own sensor and of course I told them how I do it. They don't recommend cleaning your sensor yourself. Sure, I still do it on the Mark II N, a bit more carefully now (as if I can be more careful) but I still refuse to clean the sensor on my 1Ds Mark II Body... I'll send it into CPS to have it cleaned over cleaning it myself.

I've used the Visible brand also, wasn't totally impressed. I may have try the tape method, seems safer than dragging something across your sensor and as long as it's not all that sticky, doesn't seem like it would hurt. Thanks for the information Robert.

Anyone ever try this?

http://www.sensor-film.com/

See, I don't get this. Your sensor is not open. There's no way you can scratch the sensor - the layer *over* the sensor, sure. But not the sensor itself.

Karen

A scratch the layer over the sensor is still a scratch, which if I had to guess isn't easy to fix