Digital camera sensor cleaning, if you will excuse the pun, is a “sensitive” matter. It requires patients and understanding of the delicate nature of the sensor itself. Some self-cleaning camera models like some of those made my Canon do a good job of “removing dust” or at least keeping dust from ruining your pictures.
Unfortunately they do more of a job of “hiding” dust than they do removing it. An expensive investment in a camera like the 5D (Canon EOS) can really hit the pocketbook. It would seem like a shame not to take good care of it like the high precision instrument that it is.
Digital camera cleaning of parts, like the lens and body are relatively easy compared to the delicate task of cleaning camera sensors. This is why extreme care should be taken at anytime you remove the lens from your camera body. A damaged sensor would be a costly repair considering some of the middle end models of d-SLR come in at around $2,000 to $3000. Even if you only purchased a “pro-sumer” model like a Canon Rebel XTi or a Nikon D40 for around $800 or $900. It’s probably a sizable investment for you so the best advice is just to be careful.
It is highly recommended that you avoid the use of canned compressed air, especially if you are inexperienced. There are chemicals involved that could damage the sensor if expelled into the camera. In the past, with film SLRs it was perfectly acceptable to use the compressed air as the internal nature of the camera was not as delicate. While there are propellant free compressed products available, I just as soon avoid them myself. I hate to beat a dead horse but since you spent so much money on your camera, you should treat it as you would any expensive investment. While blowing air into the camera housing is quick and easy, it’s not always the best solution and of course, as I have mentioned can be dangerous. Just avoiding compressed air all together would be my advice.
If you must use a product like this due to time constraints, etc. You should go with a CO2 and nitrogen cartridge based systems that are moisture free but can be very expensive.
There are many products on the market that I recommend and that I myself use. One can obtain digital camera cleaning products anywhere that sells cameras or optical equipment. However, one must be prudent since we are dealing with a large investment of money and don’t want to risk damaging our camera just to save a few dollars on cleaning supplies. There are camera dealers that I myself have been to that recommend products that I would never use on my camera. It’s not their fault. Generally they want to be helpful but are most often working for a large corporation and are hourly employees that, while well-meaning, don’t have the experience to dictate how you should handle your $3000 camera.
I talked briefly about automatic dust removal systems. While these will help you out of a situation where you get dust in your sensor and don’t have the ability to clean it right then and there, these will work fine. The methods used by the camera are things like vibrating the sensor to “kick” off dust, having a static charge around the sensor to attract dust away and in severe cases, the camera will electronically remove dust from the image itself. This works with a sophisticated algorithm inside the electronic brain of the camera that “detects” dust and uses neighboring pixels to fill in those areas. However, before every major shoot that is important to me and of course, my client, I use the following techniques.
So, how should you go about cleaning digital cameras sensors?
Step 1: Again, being extremely careful is the best policy.
Step 2: You want to use your camera’s mirror-lockup function. Consult your owners manual for “mirror lockup”. This function, as the name implies, will lock the mirror up out of the way when you press the shutter release button on your camera and leave it there until the shutter is pressed again. NOTE: You may choose to place your camera on “bulb” setting. This allows the cameras mirror to stay up until you choose to close it. Please consult your cameras manual to learn how to set a bulb exposure.
Step 3: You need to use a lint free wipe, often referred to as a “pec pad” and a fast drying cleaning fluid. Pec pads are 99.99% lint free pads that are non-abrasive and won’t damage or scratch your sensor. The cleaning fluids are generally methanol based, flammable and dangerous so you have to be careful. Some places won’t even ship these items in the mail due to regulations about mailing “hazardous materials”. There are some alternatives to the methanol based products but not as good. Also, if you are going to be traveling by plane with your cleaning fluid, you may have a problem unless it’s in a certified safe/non-toxic packaging. In all cases use these products in a well-ventilated area, don’t breath the fumes and don’t get them on your skin, clothes or any furniture.
At this stage you are also going to want to be in a dust-free environment. As dust free as possible. You don’t need to be in a room with a white suit on like the people who work on computer chips but at the other end of the spectrum, don’t go outside while it’s windy or to your coffee table while the kids are having a pillow fight in the room. Bottom line, the best place is probably somewhere like a dining room table while no one else is there and the house is relatively clean and quiet. There should also be adequate light. You will be able to see the dust on the sensor if you reflect an overhead light off it’s shiny surface.
Step 4: You should obtain either a wooden Popsicle stick or a flexible plastic fork knife, spoon, whatever. It doesn’t matter which, because you will be using the handle end. You will also need some masking tape.
You are going to place the pec pad in your hand and lay the handle into your hand on top of it so that the very end of the handle (or Popsicle stick) rests about in the middle of the pad. You then want to fold the left side of the pad over the handle, the top down over so that it rests on the top of the left half you just folded and then bring the right side over to the left and make it tight. (I know this sounds confusing so there are pictures available at the site listed above.) Once you have done this you should tape the pec pad near the base (closer to the top of the utensil’s “business end”. You want the tape to be far away from the camera as scotch tape is abrasive and you don’t want it to touch the sensor.
You want to end up with a flat end of pec pad with a relatively spongy feeling. It has to be soft because you’re going to sweep this across your sensor VERY LIGHTLY. You want it flat because you are going to sweep across the sensor from one side to the next in about 3 to 4 passes, moving over about the width of the pad with each pass, in order to sweep the whole surface. Of course, prior to doing this you should add a couple of drops of the cleaning fluid to the flat tip of the instrument you just made.
This should go without saying but NEVER pour the liquid directly into the camera. NEVER push hard on the sensor. Just lightly sweep across it. You are sweeping dust after all and not grinding off nuggets of dirt. VERY, VERY light pressure.
Now you are done! Dispose of the pec pad (safely. i.e., no kids or animals can get to it) and make sure the rest of them are sealed in the zip lock bag they probably came in (if not, put them in one that is new so there will be no dust in it). Seal up the fluid bottle and put it all away in a safe place.
To test to see if your sensor is free of dust, you can put on a lens (that you are also sure is free of dust) go outside on a bright day, open your camera to it’s maximum f-stop and shoot a few pictures of the sky. When you go to review them at high resolution on your computer, you should see a nice picture with no dust.
That’s it!