Dust removal with household vacuum cleaner?

Hello!

 

This is not a joking question if someone believes that: is it possible to remove dust from CMOS/CCD using a

standard household vacuum cleaner?

 

Sometimes I find it difficult to remove dust with satisfaction from CMOS/CCD using a camera air blower. Why not

use a vacuum cleaner instead? The extension tube on a standard household vacuum cleaner should fit perfect to

gently hold infront of the lens mount of the camera body? This procedure should even work on camera lenses as far

as I'm concerned. Has anyone here tried this yet?

 

Regards

 

/ Fredrik

I'm waiting to hear the result after you try it. :-)

Just to clarify: is this with the vacuum set to suck or blow?

 

I use an old vacuum with blow capability to de-dust our computers periodically. It is quite effective. There's obviously no propellant danger, per canned air, but there may be fine dust being driven at whatever it is you are working on, not sure.

Mendel,

 

I'm thinking it would be best to let the vacuum cleaner suck, just to avoid blowing in more dust. Do you think this could do any harm to the components inside? Of course the extension tube of the vacuum cleaner will not be in physical contact with the camera components at all.

I'm not going to try it with my camera. if you want to try it on yours, i'll be interested to hear how this works out for you. There might actually be some contact between the vacuum hose and some camera components, if those components go flying up the hose into the vacuum cleaner.

What works _really_ well for me is the combination of a bulb blower and a sensor brush. I can usually get the thing virtually

spotless in perhaps two minutes time.

 

Dan

Not only will a household vacuum cleaner remove the dust, it can also suck the shutter blades right out of the camera.

 

Probably not exactly what you wanted.

Yeah, I'm with Bob here. If you accidentally wander too close and the nozzle forms a bit of a suction on or in the lens

mount, there negative air pressure will likely be so great that I'd seriously worry about some sort of little component being

sucked right into the vacuum.

 

Also, maybe it's just me, but I definitely would not use a standard household vacuum of any sort to blow into anything like

that, either. Vacuums typically collect lots and lots of dirt and dust, and you can never be sure how much of those millions

of particles will find their way back OUT of the hose/vacuum when blowing.

And if it doesn't suck out the shutter blades, may be it gets primary or secondary mirror. (In the best case, something is disaligned after that treatment.)

It sounds outrageous cleaning your expensive DSLR with a household vacuum cleaner, but if the could invent a miniature version of a vacuum cleaner it might work !

You now have started me thinking, a risky thing to do. I have a Shop Vac Micro Cleaning Kit. What if I wrapped a pec pad around the small brush, added a few drops of eclipse cleaning fluid? Maybe start to clean before turning on the vacuum. Any thoughts?

 

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=100139249&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&cm_sp=BazVoice-_-RLP-_-100139249-_-x

I have a small Sharper Image vacuum with a ~1.25" diameter hose that I have clamped in a Panavise. It leaves the hose about 2 inches from the lens mount so that there's no danger of damaging the shutter curtains but any dust that is blown out using my rocket bulb is sucked away and not able to find it's way back into the shutter box. I also use this vacuum, with a small brush attachment, to clean the viewfinder and button area of my poorly sealed 5D and my lenses. I've never had a problem using it as a "dust evacuation" tool but I wouldn't go sticking the hose anywhere near the shutter.

 

Under most circumstances, I just use my bulb blower but I have been caught in more than one dust storm with my 5D and a non-L lens.

OK, thanks for all the answers, everybody! I have bad experience using a sensor brush, leaving (fat)marks on the sensor, so I don't use that anymore. Blower is OK, but sometimes it doesn't help if the dust particles are heavily stucked.

 

Concerning the risk of sucking the shutter blades out, you can easily adjust the sucking force by keeping a relevant distance from the lens mount of the camera body when sucking.

 

Maybe I'm crazy after all? ;o)

Just be sure to record it all on video....

You might want to try one of these...

 

http://www.mini-vac.com/pressreleases.html

 

I don't have a dslr to use it on, but it works good on tiny fragile things.

 

Peter

Ok let's be careful out there, take one fat drinking straw from any burger bar chain, gaffer tape it to the VC nozzle, turn vacuum to lowest setting and very, very, carefully, set about your expensive camera. I actually read this in a letter to

Canon's own magazine, with a disclaimer obviously, but I use it along side a sensor brush and it works, particularly to

remove dust from the mirror box.

If you are getting "(fat) marks on the sensor" with your sensor brush, you may be using it wrong. First, you use it very

lightly along the sensor glass surface after "charging" it with some air blown from the bulb blower. Second, you keep it

away from non-sensor components in the chamber. Third, if you do get it dirty you need to carefully clean it with a bit of

soapy water and then fully rinse and dry it. Finally, if you did "smear" your sensor you can fix this with Eclipse and

PecPads or similar.

 

I think you are way off base with your idea of sticking vacuum cleaner in there, on multiple counts. First, as you suck

out air from the chamber you will also draw in an equal (and fairly large considering what a vacuum can do) amount of

dust laden air from outside the chamber. Second, you are creating some additional risk to the chamber and its relatively

fragile components that are quite unnecessary.

 

But please do videotape this. Photographers around the world may make you a youtube star if things go badly wrong...

If you hear a strange "Gloop!" or other curious noise during this procedure, please do let us know. We're all ears.

 

--Lannie

I've done it, but mostly for the exterior of the camera, not directly for sensor cleaning.

 

You just have to be very careful not to get the vacuum too close. So I use a brush attachment.

 

For sensor cleaning, I have used the vacuum with the nozzle near the camera, while using a bulb blower in the camera. That way, any dust I kicked up with the blower would tend to be pulled away by the vacuum. It's not direct use of the vacuum on the sensor though. I wouldn't do that.

 

Note, there are some special low power vacuums around, that might be more directly usable. I've seen them being sold for sensor cleaning.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=z2ok3p8WHII

 

Worked for that guy :).

"is it possible to remove dust from CMOS/CCD using a standard household vacuum cleaner? "

 

Yes It's certainly POSSIBLE................

I wouldn't try it......................

I love my camera too much for that................

I did it to my original rebel and it sucked the blades up! as soon as I reset it, the shutter kept on a continues shoot even without the CF card installed. I kept getting error 99 as well. The camera was no longer usable so I called Canon and they suggested I send them the camera. Although it was outside of the warranty, they fixed it and sent it to me in a week at no charge. Now I use sensor swab only and it woks flawlessly. v/r Raz

Don't know if it's been mentioned but there are mini tool sets available for vacuums, typically for tasks like getting the

dust out of keyboards and similar.

"I have a small Sharper Image vacuum with a ~1.25" diameter hose that I have clamped in a Panavise"

 

Can you give us a link to this small vaccum although Sharper Image is now out of business ?

Try running a vacuum while shining a bright light across the exhaust port in a darkened room. You'll be amazed how much dust gets past the filter bag. Now imagine doing any procedure on your camera's sensor with all that dust in the air. I somehow doubt a vacuum would help to whisk away dust liberated with a sensor brush or bulb blower. We're talking about a few specks of dust vs. a room full of particulate debris. The only way I can see a vacuum being of any help would be with a central vac (which exhausts to the outside of the house). Even then I would think the contribution would be minimal.