Full frame people - how do you clean your sensor?

What methods are you using to clean your sensors folks? Full frame particularly so I can buy the same stuff! Some people seem to advocate Pecpads and Eclipse fluid as best? However some people suggest crop sensor pec pads on a full frame are better than the proper size pads?

Also, i can't believe the cost of those pads being approx £11 each??? £34.99 at Warehouse express for pack of 3.

What do you do?

I'm not fullframe, but am very happy with the Arctic Butterfly!

xx

Really? The reviews don't seem very good at all

Oh! Well, when I asked a couple of years ago, I was pointed towards it as the best, and then read several very nice reviews... :/ I'm certainly happy with mine! People are fickle. Maybe there's better stuff out there now, but it suits me fine and does the job well!

xx

I'm all ears, I just happened to read a couple of reviews that said otherwise... if it works that's nice to know.

BC

I purchased the Visible dust Artic Butterfly 724 with the Sensor Loupe as a kit. All I can say about the "Loupe " is what an amazing bit of kit this is. In my book a "Sensor Loupe" is just as important as a good lens if not more so. I wouldn't dream of attempting cleaning a sensor without it and I can't recommend strongly enough getting one.

AS for what I use depends very much on what is on the sensor. A light hair can be blown away with a "Rocket" blower, but I am a bit wary about using it as it can blow onto the sensor dust settled elsewhere within the camera body.

Like Zounds I prefer the "butterfly" but it is no good on more serious types of contamination. I then go on to using " Vdust Plus " cleaning fluid with either a swab or cleaning stick as shown in

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sensor-Cleanin...efaultDomain_3

Those cleaning sticks as shown in the link I find are better than pads, as the are more precise and also bend at the head for more coverage.

Now for a bit of cheating, the claim is to use a swab once then throw it away, I don't. I use one of the pec pad sheets (which are lint) cut down and wrapped around a swab held on with an elastic band, far cheaper than keep buying new swabs.

The next question is how much does it cost? yes the Visible Dust kit I got is expensive when I got mine some years ago, then there is the cleaning fluid and pads/swabs to buy as well. So you would be looking around the £150 mark ((( OUCH ))).

But hang on a minute and stop and think, how much does it cost to send away a camera for a sensor clean and the time without the camera? do this a couple of times and my bet is it works out about the same as doing it yourself if you bought the above.

Next, people tend to panic big time about cleaning a sensor and think it can only be done by professionals, RUBBISH is all I can say to that, I am no expert but when the need arises I do my own just as well as any company. The thing is to watch a video of which there are many on youtube etc on how to do it.

The art is doing it in a clean enviroment, Kitchens are usually the best as the don't have carpets etc, just hard surfaces which don't hold dust. My first thing is when examining the sensor is to use the "Loupe" . You can take a picture of a white sheet of paper then look at the photo blown up to discover any dirt, but this is time consuming and you still don't really know which part of the sensor contains the dust/dirt.

With the "Loupe" its so much easier, then I either use a lightly dampened swab or stick
very gently over the sensor, checking after each pass. The trick is to allow yourself plenty of time and don't rush it, don't expect the contamination to go on the first pass it can take a couple of goes depending on how hard it is stuck to the sensor.

So care-time - gentle - is how to do it. Don't be afraid of having a go, by following the above its easy and you get the satisfaction of knowing you can do the job as well as any professionals.

Warning- DON'T TRY USING EAR COTTON BUDS- they are made of cotton and you will land up in all sorts of trouble if you do

Sorry I am off on one of my ramblings again and boring you all stiff

Bazza

I've not had to clean a sensor since my Nikon days but the arctic butterfly did the job.

Hi BC

I've not had to clean the 1Ds yet, but I had a Canon 5D for about 3 years and cleaned it on a couple of occasions using Eclipse solution and full frame sized swabs, although the first time it took about 3-4 swabs, so quite expensive.

One thing I will add, I found a got better results doing outside on our patio table because of the level of dust that floats about in the house.

Thanks Ken. Having done quite a bit of reading up it seems that the loupe Bazza mentions is very good, but quite a few thumbs down for the Artic Butterfly 724. So, the general consensus seems to be loupe and wet cleaning, with pec pads (or similar) (full frame for full frame, not crop as one or two seem to prefer) and the newer version of Eclipse fluid (for tin oxide sensors if you have a Nikon).

Just because it's what I use, can you point me to some of the negative AB reviews you've read? I'm a little concerned about it now!

xx