When a sensor absolutely, postitively has to be clean, who is the best?

[morgan lee]

It all began on a windy day on a dock. I had been lucky for over 5,000

exposures carefully switching out lenses without the sensor needing cleaning

once. So lucky that I became lax and, on a windy day on a dock on Lake Dora

switched lenses and, HO! Three big gobs of dust on my sensor that would not

come off.

 

I blew them. Nope. Then bought the biggest blower Colonial Photo and Hobby (in

Orlando Florida) carries. That didn't work either.

 

The whole thing digressed where I, ever so carefully, tried to clean my sensor

with a "lint free" lens cloth and some lens cleaning fluid. Lint free my A**!

Now I have dust and a ton of lint on my sensor. Found a hole in the wall Mom &

Pop shop that claims to do sensor cleaning. My wife brought the K10D in to them.

 

I was a little worried when the lady she gave it to did not know that the

unhealthy-sounding "clunk" the camera made was the DR system but, eh, it's her

husband that cleans the sensors so I thought I would be fine.

 

Got it back and went out shooting today. Dust as bad as ever.

 

Two questions:

 

1) Could this be anything else besides dust on the surface plate of the sensor?

i.e. damage to the sensor itself.

 

2) I'm done. Price is no object. Who can I hand/ship my camera to who will hand

it back to me good as new? I have been working 70-hour weeks lately, and do so

often, so I'm more interested in getting my camera back 'good as new' than in

going to local vendors and harrassing them to do it right or trying to save

some money by doing it myself.

 

Thank you for any advice or help you can provide.

 

~Morgan<div></div>

[morgan lee]

A closeup of the upper left hand corner.<div></div>

[miserere_mei]

Well...I suppose you could send it to Pentax. At least they would know what the clunking sound was. Turn-around time is not great, from what I've heard.

 

And yeah, you have *a lot* of marks on that sensor.

[ashley_b1]

Hmmm, seems you were using the wrong equipment. "Lint free" lens cloth doesn't cut it. Instead, you need "Sensor Swabs" or "Pec Pads" along with "Eclipse" cleaning solution. All the howto info you need is on this site:

 

http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/howto.html

 

From the website:

 

"For those with Canon, Nikon, Pentax or Sigma cameras, you still can have your cleaning endeavor covered by a warranty, if you use SensorSwabs and Eclipse, as the manufacturer of these products, Photographic Solutions Inc., warranties your camera, if you use their products as directed."

 

On another page they list all the different cleaning methods used IN-HOUSE by the manufacturers. Most manufacturers appear to use SensorSwabs + Eclipse (scroll down to bottom of page):

 

http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/methods.html

 

Here's the website for Photographic Solutions, manufacturer of SensorSwab and Eclipse:

 

http://www.photosol.com/swabproduct.htm

[morgan lee]

Miserere: Yeah, Pentax was my knee-jerk reaction. I guess the follow up question is, wait aside, will I get my camera back good as new? Will they test it so I don't go through yet another sensor cleaning where they did not actually succeed. How is the quality (aside from speed) of the service?

 

Ashley: Thanks for the links. I've seen some of these before and, if it were a stubborn speck of dust or two, I'd order them and dive in and give it a shot. Since the sensor is so covered with marks and it was already taken in once to be cleaned, I'm eager to hand the camera over to someone with vast experience who will do it and do it right. Maybe check it out to make sure there is not more going on than just dust. Anyone know a good camera mechanic?

[miserere_mei]

Morgan, is anyone going to know more about your Pentax camera than a Pentax technician working at Pentax...? I believe there is also a "speedy" service if you're willing to pay $50 or something of the sort.

[morgan lee]

Yeah, Miserere, you're right. When you originally said this, I assumed I was shipping it off to Colorado. Then I read this on the Pentax site:

 

PENTAX can no longer accept any walk in or repair drop offs at the service facility. Please ship all products that require repair to the listed address nearest to you. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.

 

Didn't know about that. There's two near me. Each a little over an hour away. Maybe service won't be so slow after all. I'll give it a shot.

 

Thank you both for your input.

 

~Morgan

[john carter]

Ashley B, thanks for that site. That is really helpful. My K10d, I never change the lens, but my DL could use a cleaning. Only a few pieces of dust using the test method on 'your' site. So I think I will try it myself.

[jgredline]

I clean my cmos sensor regularly on all three on my Pentax bodies and I have cleaned my wifes Nikon cmos as well, ''thanks to that website'' that ashley pointed you to. You may as well learn...I have been doing it for about a year now and pretty much do it as regular maintenance..