No Dust or Bust! (yes, I’m cheesy)
Is your sensor looking a little dirty? Well, it’s inevitable and not very difficult to remedy with a steady hand and a bit o’ nerves. Recently we received the Delkin Sensor Scope System, for use with 35mm D-SLRs and put it through our usual tests (remember, we test this stuff so you don’t have to.)
The package is cool, tons of sensor swabs, large bottle of cleaning fluid, the actual scope and a little USB vacuum thingy. Everything is pretty dang useful, especially the scope. It is essentially a lighted loupe which is designed to fit perfectly in the lens mount of both Canon and Nikon bodies so that you can see the dirt which is there and know when your cleaning has removed it. I would recommend purchasing the scope and the wands/fluid seperately and save yourself the $20 from the hokey USB vacuum.
Now we get down to the task at hand.
The instructions are pretty basic; set your camera to it’s sensor clean option, inspect the sensor with the scope, clean sensor with wand, re-inspect with scope, and repeat process till clean.
Our conclusion, it works. The sensor is clean and free of residue and accomplished with minimal complication. Why pay for a sensor cleaning service where you lose your camera for 3 days and pay $40 each time when for a $130 investment you can clean your sensor at your own convenience. Of course, safety is paramount, so follow the directions and make sure your camera’s battery is fully charged to avoid premature shutter return. Other than that I’d recommend this system to anyone serious about taking clean, dust free images. Just remember to buy the scope and duster refill kit seperately. It’ll save you the $20 from the vacuum to put towards a nice 12 pack for congratulations on a job well done, you deserve it.
P.S. For our medium format backs we’ve found the sensor brushes from Visible Dust to be more than adequate since wet cleaning is very rarely necessary.
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One Response to “No Dust or Bust! (yes, I’m cheesy)”
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November 5th, 2007 at 1:06 am
James Duncan Davidson has a nice primer on checking your sensor http://duncandavidson.com/archives/518. I also wanted to point out that on the 35mm DSLR systems, a little preemptive cleaning with a blower can go a long way, especially since I’ve found that a speck can become more difficult to remove the longer it is allowed to stay on the sensor.