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05/26/2006 10:32:30 PM · #1 |
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Before you continue reading, there are a few things you need to understand and agree to. First and foremost, any attempt to duplicate, reproduce, copy, or replicate the procedures herein, you do solely at your own risk. Neither I, anyone I know, any company I work for or are associated with, or anyone I may or may not have come in contact with, other than the reader of this ducoment, can be held responsible for your actions. Remember, continue at your own risk. By continuing reading, you agree that all liability of any actions you take are those of your own, and in no part belong to anyone other than yourself.
---------- WAIVER ----------
OK, now that that's out of the way, shall we continue? Are you sick and tired of seeing those dust spots on your photos? Are you tired of cloning out that same speck on every single photo you've taken since your DSLR was new, but you don't want to be without your precious camera for weeks while it gets sent back to the manufacturer? Are you too cheap to buy a 'special swab' for $50 to clean your sensor with? Well I have good news.
The dp sensor cleaningâ„¢ method is quick, easy, and best of all, for the most part, it's free. This method is done completely with household items and doesn't involve putting potentially damaging liquids onto your sensor.
So here's what you need:
- roll of scotch tape (actually, only a piece about 8 inches)
- soft 'applicator' of some type or another
- a freshly charged battery
- and about 10 seconds of time.
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Yeah, that's right. It only takes about 10 seconds and can be done in your home, in your garage, in your office, in your car, or out in the field, all with the same greatness of ease.
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Anyway, let's see how much dust my sensor has collected over the past month since the last cleaning:
Moderators, please note that the below images are well under 10k...
It doesn't look that bad. Let's take a closer look with auto-levels:
click for 640px: 
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Wow...that's a lot of dust bunnies!!!
OK so here's what we do. Put your freshly charged battery into your DSLR, and choose your mirror lock up feature. Depress your shutter button to flip your mirros open (this process may differ between manufacturers, this works for the Nikon d70).
Now set the camera either on a table or on your lap. Pull out a nice clean piece of tape about 10 inches in length. Double it back (non-sticky sides together) and hold it in your left hand. Now take your applicator, and put it in the middle of the tape's non-sticky side and enter it into your camera. Align the top of the piece of tape with the top of the sensor in (or about in) the center. Now just depress it firmly across the entire sensor.
Now peel the tape off, don't just yank it, but start by pulling one of the tabs you have of tape and let it kind of 'peel' off of the sensor.
And that's it...you should be clean. Let's see the finished product that took all of about 10 seconds:
And a closer look with auto levels:
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05/26/2006 11:23:14 PM · #2 |
Sure works good.
I bought a used lens that although didn't look dirty and I did clean the rear element before putting it on the camera introduced a lot of dust on the sensor. Here is the before picture (auto-levels applied) -- thought you had dust bunnies!
I had no trouble with dust before this. Only having one lens I never took it off the camera. This was my first attempt at cleaning a sensor, but something had to be done. So over this last weekend I tried cleaning it. I tried the recommended way first, I bought a blower and spent a good hour puffing air into the camera only to succeed in moving the dust around. Wet method just 'glued' the dust to the sensor so the blower was effectively useless now.
I had been leary of sticking tape to the glass, but after doing a lot of research and testing the tape on less important glass. I found, after trying to get the tape to leave a residue, that the recommended Scotch Magic Tape left no trace at all unless it became creased -- such as it will do if pulled too fast. Armed with that precaution I locked the mirror up again and in two applications reduced the dust to this.
I used the tape I had at hand, which was 1/2 inch (12.7mm) wide. This is not wide enough to cover the sensor in one go, so the dust left is what moved around from one side to the other. I have since purchased 3/4 inch (19mm) tape and will be cleaning the rest off later tonight.
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One question for you David, what 'soft applicator' did you use? I used a small piece of plastic cut to size and smoothed earlier, and had planned on using a craft stick (think tounge depressor) cut to size this time. The small piece of plastic wasn't long enough to get a good reach and not strong enough to not bend alot while smoothing the tape. I am interested in hearing what you found useful for this.
David
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05/26/2006 11:37:10 PM · #3 |
I asked my girlfriend to pick me up a makeup brush (a while ago) because I was going to use that to 'dust off' the sensor. She got a pack that came with 5 and that soft foam applicator (pictured below) came with it.
After several failed attempts with the brush, which actually made it much worse, I gave the tape method a go...and it worked great.
It's basically like a soft spongey material on the end of a stick.
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06/05/2006 12:24:29 PM · #4 |
| just use a hurrican blower from any camera store, no liquid, no tape, and it works great. Cost under $5. It also took only a couple of seconds to clean. |
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06/05/2006 12:30:22 PM · #5 |
| You have bigger GAZOGAS than me... |
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