There is no way to keep a sensor clean, nor is there a way to safely clean a sensor. That is the conclusion I have reached, after trying all methods. There are many weak links in achieving quality from capture to fulfillment; the fragile state of the pristine sensor surface may by the weakest.
The word in various forums led me to think that Visible Dust’s sensor brush might be the safest and most effective method. Theirs is a highly refined nylon brush that is charged with a blast of air (though Peteri Sulonen thinks they’ve overhyped their technology and scaring people into buying overpriced brushes, and that a properly seasoned artist's brush is just as good). The soft bristles prevent damage to the sensor cover, and the charge attracts the dust particles. When my brushes arrived, I gave them a test run.
The first look after a cleaning showed a huge, scary goober in the corner. Where did that come from? Subsequent brushes failed to budge it, and I started getting scared. Did I just scratch my sensor? I tried a Speckgrabber, another allegedly safe sensor cleaner, and all I saw was the warbly-surface of some speck-grabber goo on the sensor surface, and the immovable goober. Eyee!
My other tool is a sensor swab from Fargo Enterprises using a swab and Methonol, which they claim is the most effective method in the world.. The Visible Dust site warns one of the deadly dangers of using methonol to clean your sensor. It has scared me off of using their swabs. If there is one element in common in the available sensor cleaning tools, it is their fervent belief in their superiority over all other methods. They are like fundamentalist sects in this regard.
I gave up. I took my camera into Cameratechs for another $40 cleaning. Bill says, "Oh, the big stuff is no problem. It’s the little dust that comes back and back, and that you have to make multiple passes to get." He peers into a microscope for an hour or more, and uses a formula with Windex as a key ingredient ("It’s what the Canon techs use," he claims).
I’ve been scared off of anything except the Canon-approved blower. And I’ll be making the trek to Ballard at least monthly for the forseeable future.
I've always used sensor swabs and HPLC-grade methanol (one of the few benefits of being a biochemist. :) I think the chances of ruining the low pass filter are incredibly low.
Posted by: Ian Rees | September 06, 2006 at 05:40 PM