Sensor Cleaning - a grump.

I haven't cleaned the sensor on the K50 for some years, but noticed some really impressive dust bunnies so took the plunge.  Last few times one or two wipes  with the swab was enough, but not this time.

Loads of bunnies, and the first few passes left streaks, bo doubt squashed bunnies, which wouldn't come off so 'wet-cleaning' was done.  After that the streaks were gone, no bunnies, but a little black mark which I thought 'dust removal' would get rid of; I was right, it did, and added two new bunnies!  Unexpected, tried dust removal again, still two bunnies so another swab.

One way or another I got through 6 or 7 swabs.

Moral of the story I guess is don't take macros at small apertures, go for nice shallow depth of field - no wonder the latter is so popular these days.

Dericali wrote:

Do you have the Ricoh sensor cleaning tool? It works pretty well.

Yeah, it's done great for me... but then, I hardly change lenses anymore, if I take a picture it's mostly either with the DA* 300 or with my phone.

Dericali wrote:

Do you have the Ricoh sensor cleaning tool? It works pretty well.

No, just a set of swabs and come cleaning fluid.  Will look into the Rocih tool.

peterpainter wrote:

Dericali wrote:

Do you have the Ricoh sensor cleaning tool? It works pretty well.

No, just a set of swabs and come cleaning fluid. Will look into the Rocih tool.

When you describe dust getting back on the sensor over and over, it makes me think there might be dust inside the camera and not only on the sensor/mirror. Did you try to blow some dry air inside, mirror up, to get rid of it maybe ?

With my K100D (not Super) sometimes I had the feeling that if there was one particle of dust in a room, it would get attracted to the sensor, like a black hole Cleaning it was boring.

JeremieB wrote:

peterpainter wrote:

Dericali wrote:

Do you have the Ricoh sensor cleaning tool? It works pretty well.

No, just a set of swabs and come cleaning fluid. Will look into the Rocih tool.

When you describe dust getting back on the sensor over and over, it makes me think there might be dust inside the camera and not only on the sensor/mirror. Did you try to blow some dry air inside, mirror up, to get rid of it maybe ?

With my K100D (not Super) sometimes I had the feeling that if there was one particle of dust in a room, it would get attracted to the sensor, like a black hole Cleaning it was boring.

Yes, my impression is that there's dust sitting in there.  I have done the usual 'blowing out of dust with a Giotto rocket air blower, but suspect that there's more in there.  Actually, after my rant I reviewed my picture of the 'clean' sensor again and found another tiny spot (in a different position) which came off with the dust removal function.  So yes, it's in there....

What I would recommend prior to cleaning your sensor is find 2 fan brushes, label one as sensor brush. Go about blowing out your mirror box and then charge your other brush by blowing air over it with a bulb. Wipe out all of your mirror box including your mirror including the sides top and bottom cleaning your brush several time by blowing over it.

When you have it clean while the mirror is up then go about cleaning everything under the mirror again blowing out the brush several times.

When you are done blow out the sensor and when you think you are clean enough start to use the sensor brush, charge it by blowing on it and then in a sweeping motion take 1 sweep and then clean the brush do this until you think you are clean.

A lot of times you will still have a blob that will stick to the sensor and for this I spot clean the blob with

https://lenspen.com/product/sensorklear-ii/

I would look at getting the kit with a loop makes it very easy to clean a sensor in half the time and half the problems.

If there is grease on the sensor is about the only time now that I would use a wet swab and  even then to remove any of the streaks left I use the pen to clean it up.

PDL wrote:

You might try a electro static eliminator before you use the blower (with a valve). I kept my very old Realistic DISCOTRON® from my vinyl record playing days.

It shoots Positive and Negative ions when squeezed. The ions remove any static charges from surfaces and dust particles. Then the blower can simply remove them. Be sure to hold the camera body facing down because - well gravity is your friend.

And before anyone gets all bent. No, the use of static eliminators will not damage the sensor in any way, shape or form. However, today static eliminators are pretty pricey, since their demand has dropped off the cliff.

That's an interesting idea - I do have one of those somewhere or other so it may be worth searching it out.  Thanks!

Ian Stuart Forsyth wrote:

What I would recommend prior to cleaning your sensor is find 2 fan brushes, label one as sensor brush. Go about blowing out your mirror box and then charge your other brush by blowing air over it with a bulb. Wipe out all of your mirror box including your mirror including the sides top and bottom cleaning your brush several time by blowing over it.

When you have it clean while the mirror is up then go about cleaning everything under the mirror again blowing out the brush several times.

When you are done blow out the sensor and when you think you are clean enough start to use the sensor brush, charge it by blowing on it and then in a sweeping motion take 1 sweep and then clean the brush do this until you think you are clean.

A lot of times you will still have a blob that will stick to the sensor and for this I spot clean the blob with

https://lenspen.com/product/sensorklear-ii/

I would look at getting the kit with a loop makes it very easy to clean a sensor in half the time and half the problems.

If there is grease on the sensor is about the only time now that I would use a wet swab and even then to remove any of the streaks left I use the pen to clean it up.

Thank-you.  I'll think about this one (I do have some fan brushes, never thought of using them for this purpose though.)

Any type of digital camera can have dust spots.

It's better to have a box where you have access to the sensor.....otherwise expect to pay the price.

One reason I didn't buy the Ricoh GR3...

peterpainter wrote:

Ian Stuart Forsyth wrote:

What I would recommend prior to cleaning your sensor is find 2 fan brushes, label one as sensor brush. Go about blowing out your mirror box and then charge your other brush by blowing air over it with a bulb. Wipe out all of your mirror box including your mirror including the sides top and bottom cleaning your brush several time by blowing over it.

When you have it clean while the mirror is up then go about cleaning everything under the mirror again blowing out the brush several times.

When you are done blow out the sensor and when you think you are clean enough start to use the sensor brush, charge it by blowing on it and then in a sweeping motion take 1 sweep and then clean the brush do this until you think you are clean.

A lot of times you will still have a blob that will stick to the sensor and for this I spot clean the blob with

https://lenspen.com/product/sensorklear-ii/

I would look at getting the kit with a loop makes it very easy to clean a sensor in half the time and half the problems.

If there is grease on the sensor is about the only time now that I would use a wet swab and even then to remove any of the streaks left I use the pen to clean it up.

Thank-you. I'll think about this one (I do have some fan brushes, never thought of using them for this purpose though.)

Like  I said using a wet wipe is the very last thing I do when I am out of options.

For the 4 cameras that I run I have not wet wipe one of them is 5 years

Ian Stuart Forsyth wrote:

peterpainter wrote:

Ian Stuart Forsyth wrote:

What I would recommend prior to cleaning your sensor is find 2 fan brushes, label one as sensor brush. Go about blowing out your mirror box and then charge your other brush by blowing air over it with a bulb. Wipe out all of your mirror box including your mirror including the sides top and bottom cleaning your brush several time by blowing over it.

When you have it clean while the mirror is up then go about cleaning everything under the mirror again blowing out the brush several times.

When you are done blow out the sensor and when you think you are clean enough start to use the sensor brush, charge it by blowing on it and then in a sweeping motion take 1 sweep and then clean the brush do this until you think you are clean.

A lot of times you will still have a blob that will stick to the sensor and for this I spot clean the blob with

https://lenspen.com/product/sensorklear-ii/

I would look at getting the kit with a loop makes it very easy to clean a sensor in half the time and half the problems.

If there is grease on the sensor is about the only time now that I would use a wet swab and even then to remove any of the streaks left I use the pen to clean it up.

Thank-you. I'll think about this one (I do have some fan brushes, never thought of using them for this purpose though.)

Like I said using a wet wipe is the very last thing I do when I am out of options.

For the 4 cameras that I run I have not wet wipe one of them is 5 years

That was my first ever 'wet clean.' I suspect, but can't prove, that it would have been unnecessary if I hadn't neglected taking care of the thing since its aperture block failure (but continued to use it in a rather grudging manner with manual lenses) - hence, less precautions, less use of the 'rocket air cleaner' and so on.

I think it definately needs more through cleaning inside the mirror box (as per your method) than it was getting - the dust from the sensor shake mechanism has to go somewhere and evidently my efforts had not been getting rid of it.