Sensor Cleaning, 1DX Mark II

I'll jump in with some facts and numbers.

At Lensrentals we clean around 100 sensors a day because we clean every one before it ships. That's 500 a week. Guess what? Sometimes we scratch a sensor, but it's less often than once a week so I think sensor cleaning is pretty safe. I would say maybe 1 scratched sensor in 1,000 cleanings is about right.

Everyone who cleans a lot of sensors has a favorite technique and for them, that's the best technique. When we train a new tech we teach them all the techniques then let them choose what they're most comfortable with. Why? Because that will work best for them. And on lunch break they love to call each other idiots for using the 'wrong' way. And they all get the same results (because trust me, we monitor their results).

There are different glass components, more or less oil, etc. on different cameras. But all of them get dust. Sometimes we see one that is really worse than others but our numbers on 1DXII and 5D IVs are nor different. That doesn't mean some people don't have an overoiled shutter and problems. It doesn't mean some people don't have a sensor glass stack that got some dust trapped inside the layers during manufacture that can't come out. It just means that on average we haven't had any more trouble with these than other cameras (and we have hundreds of most models).

One thing to really take into consideration when you talk to someone who cleans sensors for a fee: They do NOT want to buy you a really expensive sensor if they scratch yours - and if they clean enough they'll scratch one. A nice crop sensor is only a few hundred to replace, so if you get a small fee for cleaning it it's worth the risk. But a $1,500 sensor, not so much. So they may give you reasons they don't want to clean that really expensive sensor.