Service help

[Bob A L]

I understand if you want to clean your sensors yourself, but unfortunately I personally know a whole bunch of folks who could mess an anvil with a pair of tweezers and would highly recommend that they not try wet cleaning the sensor on any mirrorless camera, especially one with ibis and an unlocked sensor when cleaning.

 

[musicshootr]

I know that I am that person (and the glove recommendation doesn't entirely help me, because the sensation in my hands is also compromised, and gloves would make that worse in a very "you need to apply the right amount of pressure" task).

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this thread. I found a camera shop in Cincinnati fairly close to me (PROCAM) who does wet sensor cleanings with a 1-2 day turnaround and is open both days of the weekend. I am going to try to arrange a weekend trip to Cincinnati where I can drop the camera off, have it serviced, and hopefully pick it up the next day. For now that is the plan since I am reluctant to ship my only FF body to NYC for service through Nikon.

I wish I had known Nikon discontinued their authorized repair center program before now. What a dumb move, imo.

(Edit: This was meant to be in reply to the comment directly above this one, that I don't feel entirely capable of doing this task)

 

[sirhawkeye64]

I know that I am that person (and the glove recommendation doesn't entirely help me, because the sensation in my hands is also compromised, and gloves would make that worse in a very "you need to apply the right amount of pressure" task).

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this thread. I found a camera shop in Cincinnati fairly close to me (PROCAM) who does wet sensor cleanings with a 1-2 day turnaround and is open both days of the weekend. I am going to try to arrange a weekend trip to Cincinnati where I can drop the camera off, have it serviced, and hopefully pick it up the next day. For now that is the plan since I am reluctant to ship my only FF body to NYC for service through Nikon.

I wish I had known Nikon discontinued their authorized repair center program before now. What a dumb move, imo.

(Edit: This was meant to be in reply to the comment directly above this one, that I don't feel entirely capable of doing this task)

I've found with my local ProCAM (chicago) if I call ahead usually they can do it while I wait (since I'm about an hour from the store and dont really like coming back to pick the camera up). But they're a good option. They'll probably do what I just described though as that's what the tech at our local ProCAM does to wet clean the sensors.

 

[GusPanella]

I have specks of dust on my Zf sensor that the rocket blower and in body sensor cleaning are not working to remove. This situation is very stressful for me. I am located in southern West Virginia. Are there any reputable service locations within a 2-3 hour radius of me? I would prefer to take it in somewhere for a same day cleaning rather than have to mail my only really nice camera body away for weeks or months if I can avoid that.

Thanks in advance for your help, this situation is making me very sad. I try to take very good care of my things but made an error here apparently. (No abuse. Just standard lens changes, indoors whenever possible).

In the realm of just in case...

I check the nearest element on the lens. 19 times out of 20, that piece of dust that I couldn't remove from the sensor with a blower or a body sensor cleaning was actually on the rear element of the lens.

The first time I experienced this was way back when I got one of the first Z6i. I have been cleaning sensor for 10 years, and no matter what I did... blowers, wet cleaning... that spec remained... Heck, I couldn't even see the spec visually when inspecting the sensor.

Then I thought about... could it be the rear element of the lens????!!!??? No way... I never saw that on f-mount things...

Upon further inspection, i did see a small dust spec on the rear element. Took the rocket blower to it... gone. Reinstall the lens on the camera.... good as new.

Seems a bit unique to the Z as the rear element of many of the Z lenses is closer to the sensor than it was with the f-mount.

I know it is a bit of a long shot, but it could be the best 15 minutes ever spent.

 

[jtr27]

would highly recommend that they not try wet cleaning the sensor on any mirrorless camera, especially one with ibis and an unlocked sensor when cleaning.

Do you possess any evidence that cleaning the sensor of a camera with IBIS is somehow more hazardous than cleaning the sensor of a camera without IBIS? Or is this just a hunch?

Recommendations are great! I am particularly fond of recommendations that have some basis in fact.

 

[musicshootr]

I can see the offending speck on the sensor, but this is great practical advice. The speck also persists across different lenses. I think, after image review, that zooming my 24-120 f4S outside may have drawn in a piece of pollen or something and it stuck more than usual because the sensor was on and emitting static charge. I think this because my images earlier in the photoset do not have the speck and then at a particular moment/location the speck becomes visible. I happened to be shooting a lot of open skies at low apertures yesterday in portrait orientation where the speck is visible in the upper left quadrant of the sky of the affected images. Earlier in the day the same kind of image had no speck.

 

[musicshootr]

I ended up going to Procam Cincinnati and they were very helpful and I now have a clean sensor again. The biggest speck of dust was apparently really stuck on there, to the point that the guy had to really saturate the swab with the cleaning fluid to get it unstuck, so I'm glad I sought assistance. Thanks everyone for the support and suggestions.



For other Zf users, it is helpful for the shop tech to know that the sensor sled doesn't have "brakes" and that the camera needs to be powered on during cleaning. Prep for your visit by fully charging the battery and turning Vibration Reduction off (so the camera will hold the sensor stationary during the cleaning).