SENSOR REDLIST FOR CLEANING

LifePHOTOGRAPHER wrote:

Does anyone know about a list detailing which sensors may be clean with pretty much any and or all wet products ? Every time I get a camera dating from before 2008-2010 I wonder if I may apply alcohol to it's surface as a wet cleaning surface. And every time I check the web I get lost in irrelevant results and no one with a proper list of "sensitive sensors" lets say...

Wet cleaning should always be the method of last resort and when I've heard of "sensors" being damaged, it's generally either because (1) the sensor/swab had grit on it that could and should have been removed before wet cleaning dragged it around or (2) the cleaning was too wet, and fluid went where it shouldn't go. Leaving streaks is much more common, but doesn't really inflict permanent damage.

Of course, the sensor is nearly always under a cover glass, so all you're really looking for is which cameras have coatings on their cover glass that could be damaged by solvents, which is probably very few. That said, generic alcohol is not recommended for any sensor I know of, but I believe the issue is potential residue, not attack of coatings. Usually they'll specify something like Eclipse -- which comes in a bottle that says "guaranteed safe" on it, i.e.,

"Photographic Solutions Inc. guarantees that their Products will cause no damage to your sensor."

There is, however, one note at http://www.photosol.com/sony.html:

"Effective immediately, we are no longer recommending Eclipse for cleaning any Sony DSLR.

Use Aeroclipse instead. This is especially true for the newer A7 - all models. We are trying to work with Sony to resolve the issue. PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG !!!"

One more detail: the MSDS for Eclipse says it is in fact very pure Methyl Alcohol; in contrast, the MSDS for Aeroclipse says it is primarily 1,1,2,2-Tetrafluoroethyl-2,2,2-trifluoroethyl ether with 5-10% Ethanol.

I only know I should NOT use alcohol-based products for the Canon 5D and the Nikon D70...

Again, I've never seen generic alcohol recommended for any sensor (although I have in desperation used it myself once or twice). References would be good....