will jessops or jacobs do it?

I was in a Jessops a few days ago and the member of staff was brushing his hand with a standard lens blower brush and offered to clean my D700 sensor (I was in asking about kits). To me that was a scary proposition, surely finger grease all over the brush and subsequently sensor?

so its best learning my self? how much are they?

Expect to pay around £60 quid for a brush kit, maybe £100 or more with a loupe, and perhaps £45-£50 fluid with a supply of pads. Warehouse Express, Ebay etc.

And you do have to be very very careful! You may even be better off sending it away. There have even been some horror stories about that though - with them coming back worse than they went! :/

xx

am scared cant i just blow on it lol, its got dust on it

I recently did a huge posting about sensor cleaning, to save you looking here it is again

Quote"

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. I find are better than pads, as the are more precise and also bend at the head for more coverage

Those cleaning sticks as shown in the photo ( can be found on ebay)





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, with sensor cleaning fluid, 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 RUSH AT IT ALLOW PLENTY OF TIME) 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" unquote

Hope this helps

Bazza

I have read it before but thanks for that Bazza, consolidates a lot of info seen around the forums into one post (re-using the pads etc.).

Bc

HH was saying she was worried about doing it herself and having read the horror story of yours about the guy in jessops who obviously didn't have a clue about what a blower was for, I thought repeating the posting I made might help

Bazza

am wondering why i didnt take up a non expensive hobby! something like bird watching or train spotting! yet i had to go in to photography lol which is a hellish money eater that chargers £60+ to clean a small mirrory square thing which is tiny compared to my phones screen! not to mention i still need a charger which is another £30-40. Mightn't sound alot but college students who live on there own dont get much money lol

Rant over but

Thanks for the posts, they are really helpful and when and IF i gather the funds i will be using your advice and hopefully putting it in to practise. but it looks like my d200 is staying on the desk for a couple of weeks/months.

I might just have to sell my body for money JOKE!