Sensor cleaning

[madukan]

I've had my canon 40d for 5 months now and the inbuilt cleaning system has done a great job of keeping the sensor clean as I'm forever changing lenses however there looks to be a few bits that just refuses to shift.

I've never cleaned a sensor on a camera before simply because this is the first dSLR I've owned, I've just had point and shoot thingies in the past.

I don't mind doing it but I just thought I'd ask for advice here first about what's best to use, where to buy the gear and most important how easy is it and are there things I should or shouldn't do.

Any help will be gratfully received

[NickCantle]

I too would love to know more on this, so i'll be keeping my eyes open too! I ordered my 40D today My 400D sensor is getting speckly

[galanthus]

I got the arctic butterfly for chrimble and it's amazing, I don't use it much as sensor cleaning thing very good. Tho lots here use the cleaning fluid on swabs now and then which sounds v fab

[glsammy]

I've just cleaned my 40D sensor, I also do my 20D often.
I used the Eclipse E2 fluid,(It MUST be the E2 fluid, not the older one.)
plus Digi-Pads, type 1.
It's easy to do.
1) Make sure your camera battery is freshly charged. Go to the menu and select manual clean.
2) 3 drops of the fluid on the end of the pad.
3) Place on the sensor screen at one end, gently wipe in one smooth action to the other end. I then turn the pad and make one wipe the other way.
That's it, job done. With luck you'll have all the dirt off.

[pressld2]

I mainly use the Sensor Brush from Visible Dust. The Arctic Butterfly that Galanthus mentioned is from the same company and is a travel version for taking with you in your camera bag (although the version I have is not exactly huge). With both versions you spin the brush to give it a static charge and then sweep it very lightly over the sensor. This is remarkably effective in my experience but occasionally you do get stubborn specks that won't shift. Then I do like Graham and use sensor swabs and eclipse fluid.

I currently have one speck on my D300 sensor that the sensor brush won't shift. But as it's all on its own and doesn't show up below about F11 I'm ignoring it for now. When there's three or four of them I'l bring out the swabs!

Dave P.

[madukan]

Hi all, thanks for the responses.

Now I feel like a bit of an idiot but after a little research I've found that the sensor is fine, it's the mirror that's dirty
I thought the mirror was the sensor...... I know now that the image on the viewfinder isn't from the sensor but from the mirror which moves out of the way when the photo is taken. Of course I found this out after I ordered every cleaning system known to man.

Anyhow now that the laughing has died down I've got another question, should I bother to try and clean it or just leave as is.

[HowlinWolf]

Originally Posted by madukan

Anyhow now that the laughing has died down I've got another question, should I bother to try and clean it or just leave as is.

The mirror on an SLR is a very delicate mechanism, and should only be cleaned by a service facility. However, since you run the risk of some of that dust getting onto the sensor, you may try gently blowing air from a bulb blower across the mirror whilst holding the throat of the camera downwards. This will enable any dust dislodged to fall out of the mirror box, not into the camera.
Again, be warned about mirror cleaning, especially touching the mirror itself. If you push it out of alignment, you will get focus and metering problems, in which case it may cost considerably more to rectify the problem, and the camera will have to go back to Canon.

HW