Almost wrecked my K-5 imager!!!

or Emergency DIY Imager Cleaning Tutorial

I occasionally do the blurry f22 shot to look for dust and noticed a few specs on my K-5 that needed cleaning. No problem, the Giottos Rocket Blower has always done the job. After a couple applications there was only a single tenacious little spot. I blasted it several times and took another shot. This shot had a new bunch of strange swirls on it! Took another and yep... the same thing. I popped off the lens and I could see with my unaided eye the marks I had made on the imager when the Giottos nozzle came in contact with it!!!!! :-O

I was really annoyed with myself at this point.

Knowing I might have trashed my camera I knew a wet clean should be attempted to see if the marks were actual scratches. I don't have a wet clean kit with all the fancy paddles and mystical cleaning fluids. I've never needed one and frankly been afraid of doing it. However I wasn't going to end the evening on that low point so I grabbed a Q-Tip and one of my Zeiss pre-moistened lens wipes. I laid the Zeiss wipe out flat on the shelf for about a minute so as to dry out most of the cleaning fluid. They are pretty wet to start with and I didn't want to leave a bunch of fluid streaks on the imager. I cut a strip from the Zeiss wipe about 5 times the width of the Q-tip and double the length. I then folded it over the end of the Q-tip and wrapped it sideways so that I ended up with a fairly flat zeiss cloth about twice the width of the Q-tip end.

Then came the anxious part. I lightly swiped the pad across the swirl marks a couple times and the marks remained! ARGH! A few more swipes and they were gone. I stopped the wipe about 3/4 the way across as I was only trying to see if the smudges could be removed. No traces even with a magnifying loupe! I figured this makeshift imager wipe probably left a ton of garbage on the imager so I took another shot. Amazing... virtually nothing! I didn't even do the whole top-to-bottom left-to-right regimen so this was not a full coverage cleaning. The ONLY thing I could see is a tiny smudge on the other side of the imager where I stopped the wipe and it's barely visible at f11.

Yeah... this all happened because I got too aggressive with my Rocket Blower, but I'm no longer afraid of making contact with the AA filter and it shows that the filter coating is pretty tough as I have read.

It turned out this cheap DIY technique worked exceedingly well! The combination of the cushioned tip of the Q-tip wrapped in the strip of "lint free" zeiss wipe makes sure that there is no pressure point contacting the imager. Only very light pressure was required to remove the nasty marks.

For anybody interested... here are the wipes I used. You can even pick them up at Walmart in the optical department.



I'm glad this story had a good ending.

IMO air blasts put your sensor in considerably more danger than any wet clean.

Blasting high velocity air that may or may not have conaminates in it !!!

I persoanlly use pex pads / eclips and a hand carved spatula from an old dlt40 case

I use the ziess clothes you mention to clean my camera and suspect they'd be fine on the sensor but I know elipse is.

ONce you've cleaned it wet once the fear is gone.

Good result for you

awaldram said:

awaldram wrote:

ONce you've cleaned it wet once the fear is gone.

Good result for you

Click to expand...

I would NEVER use anything but the Giottos blower but I have had many good results with it thus far. It is the only one I know of that has a one-way air flow and supposedly filters the air coming in the rear of the bulb.

It's MUCH easier and quicker than doing a contact cleaning when just a couple dust spots are present. However I think I will keep the nozzle further back out of the mirror box.

You are correct. I was always intimidated by touching the AA filter but... no longer.

Side note: Even with the new ultrasonic cleaning method the K-5 seems no stranger to dust. Whatever Olympus did with their cleaning system... it was the best I have seen yet. I simply never wrestled with dust spots on my Olympus 4/3 bodies.

i have been cleaning my sensors with cotton tips and lens cleaner for 6 years now k100,k10,k7 use a dry cotton bud to clear the smears from the fluid.



cheers don

The thing is, I have always found that Q-tips leave a smeary residue all by themselves so I never use them on lenses, mirrors, or anything else. The Q-tip in this case only served as a cushion for the Zeiss wipe.

The OP's story is why I continue to do routine dust removal with canned gas. I don't have to put the nozzle anywhere near the sensor, and don't have to run the risk of doing something clumsy and wrecking something.

I've used chamois tipped video head cleaning swabs like this: http://www.palsite.com/tools_hswabs.html

with good results using a good quality lens cleaner and have yet to have an issue.

I also hate the idea of blowing unfiltered air, so I've used, contrary to what a lot of people say, canned air, also with good results. However, before doing it, I use only a can that's fairly full and has been sitting still so there's no propellant "shaken up" Don't know if it makes a different, it's just how I've done it. Spray a quick blast at full force into a white sheet of paper before putting it in the camera, making sure it blows only air, then into the camera, blowing no more than about a quarter of full pressure, and holding the can upright. Never once have I had anything come out of the can onto the sensor.

awaldram said:

awaldram wrote:

awaldram said:

Wheatfield wrote:

The OP's story is why I continue to do routine dust removal with canned gas. I don't have to put the nozzle anywhere near the sensor, and don't have to run the risk of doing something clumsy and wrecking something.


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Click to expand...

You know how to send shivvver down a guys back !!

Click to expand...

Indeed - I see it as a high risk procedure.

I don't like the idea of a wet cleaning either - so I'm using the Pentax O-ICK1 "lollipop", which IMO is the safest cleaning tool. Well, it probably won't be able to remove wet cleaning residues or other such "accidents" but for regular dust it works just fine.

By the way, there are also 3rd-party "lollipops", for those who thinks the O-ICK1 is too expensive.

Alex

Hi,

The Raidl cleaning kit (35 euros),comprising of four spatulas,a square of cleaning cloth and a bottle of cleaning fluid in a nice woven nylon case thats even useful for UV filters and the like.I used the first spatula tens times or so before starting on the second,it's a breeze and no smears. It's dry and dusty here so I clean the sensor before every major shoot. I have not found that the K5 ultra sonic system sufficient to keep the sensor clean.

BTW. Compressed air cans do not have a propellant,it's just compressed air! However I agree it's not a good idea to blast the interior of a DSLR.