Throw away your old blower

"What have you been doing with your sensor?" asked Bill at Cameratechs. "There was soapy gunk all over it."

I take my cameras in to be cleaned before every assignment. The only cleaning I ever do myself is to blow the dust around with a blower. I won't touch a sensor with a pad or a brush--I've only ever made them dirtier that way. The professional cleaning is just another business cost for me.

"I haven't been anyplace particularly dirty," I said, meekly. I felt like I was being chided for poor hygiene. If I'm someplace dry, like an overheated building in winter on the East coast, I will run the shower for a few minutes to knock down the dust level in the air, then clean my sensor in the bathroom. "That wouldn't do it," Bill said. "It looks like something greasy was blown onto the sensor."

And it was me blowing it on, I figured out. It's my air blowers, which I've been packing around in my camera bags for years. Who knows what kind of crud has built up inside of them?

When I picked up my camera I also bought a new Rocket blower (with the fins trimmed off so it'll pack easier). When I got home I threw away all my old ones.