Sensor Cleaning Tips

Have you ever heard of the Arctic Butterfly? (No, it's not a sex position.)

I know a professional photographer who uses that thing before shooting (at every shoot).

Here's what I do:

NOTHING

Seriously . . . I have had my Sigma cameras (and my Nikon) for quite some time now, and I have never cleaned their sensors. Of course there are sensor spots in my photos, but I can touch them up, when I get a good shot. I've had my SD1 Merrill for more than two years now, I think, and I still haven't cleaned the sensor. Shame on me, huh? I'm afraid to clean it. I've read these nightmare stories about people breaking their IR filter/dust protector, and Sigma doesn't have them in stock (unacceptable!), so I've been afraid to try taking either of mine out of either my SD1 Merrill or my SD Quattro H, for fear that I'll break one. I don't bother with my Nikon, because I don't see much in the way of sensor spots in those photos. I did get a sensor cleaning kit recently though. Now I have to get up the courage to actually use it.

In the past I carefully used a brand new, clean cotton swab and some alcohol (to clean the sensors of my Sony A55 and my Sigma SD14). I had to do it three or four times, but eventually I did remove all the spots, and could shoot a clear blue sky at f16, setting my camera to ISO 100 and 1/60 second, while focusing at infinity, with no spots visible in the resulting photos. It seemed to work just fine.