clean d700 sensor?

[jonathan_davila]

<p>Hey guys. I've read all the doom and gloom on sensor cleaning dangers etc. Which is why I've been hesitant to ever try it myself. I've never really needed to before every month or two I preform a sensor test and haven't had any real dust issues that I couldn't take care of between my D700's auto sensor cleaning system and my Giotto's Air Rocket.</p>

<p>Here are a couple of pics. I've tried my air rocket and did about 20-30 blasts of air in various places over the sensor, but some of the bigger dust monsters are seemingly being persistent.</p>

<p>The test: well I did a few. But the one i'm upload is a manual out of focus image of a tungsten light bulb as close as I could possibly get it, on ISO 200, aperture F16, tungsten WB of course.</p>

<p>I don't usually notice any dust in any of my photos. And I've gone back and looked at some. The only ones I could find trace of the dust was in some blue sky photos. Easily cloned or heal brushe'd out. But bothers me none the less.</p>

<p>The dust monsters don't really show up at all when I just use a plain white surface or the tungsten light source, that I can see anyway. But when I run auto levels on the image, they are plainly visible. What do you guys think. Do I need to suck it up and get me a quality wet cleaning brush kit and learn to gently clean my sensor myself, or should I take it to a store locally that offers protection but charges 75 dollars for the cleaning. Here are the two pics. The first is the straight OOC tungsten shot. The second is the auto levels version.</p>

<p>P.S the upper edges probably get darker on auto levels because I wasn't entirely centered on the light bulb and probably got some minor shadow play and light fall off on the edge of the lens.</p>

<p><img src="http://www.ajstudios.ca/dust1.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p><img src="http://www.ajstudios.ca/dust2.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[indraneel]

<p>Wet cleaning seems to be the way to go, and I'm actually too scared to do it on the D700. Although, I regularly do it on the D70 with no filter (that's right, it's for IR and I scrape the sensor directly) and there's been no ill effects so far... Make sure you invert the camera and brush it off first.</p>

<p>On another note, does the D700 sensor cleaning mechanism actually do anything? My dust bunnies have been with me for a while now. But on the olympus E-P1 with it's exposed sensor, there's no dust inspite of more abuse... but it does clean the sensor everytime I switch it on.</p>

[jonathan_davila]

<p>The last time I checked my D700 sensor, these larger dust particles weren't showing, so I'd guess the sensor cleaning mechanism worked well till then. But in the past 2 months I've really been working outdoors a lot and it's been rather hot and humid out. If any dust got in, it might have become what they call "welded sensor dust" sticking to the sensor filter due to the humid temperatures.</p>

<p>Maybe I'll stop by my local camera store and get a dry cleaning brush first and give it a shot gently.</p>

[indraneel]

<blockquote>

<p>get a dry cleaning brush</p>

</blockquote>

<p>There are those that are supposedly "anti-static", get one of those if possible...</p>

[jonathan_davila]

<p>I just went ahead and got a wet cleaning kit. the one that comes with a methanol solution and 24mm sized swabs. talk about nerve racking. after the first try i tested for dust again. and was extremely scared because the test showed a big line going through the sensor. luckily it just turned out to be a not properly dried methanol solution. I gave it another couple of gos. Streaking seems to be an issue if you're not familiar with the cleaning process. After about 5 sensor swabs I finally got a streak free sensor casing and I'm down to only 2 visible dust specks in the bottom of the frame, which isn't an issue because there's hardly ever anything of light enough value that I'm shooting at small apertures to show those specks ever. And even if they do a simple clone or heal brush will work it out. It's as good as new now :)</p>

<p>I probably wasn't pressing as hard as I should be which probably caused some of the streaking issues. But I just couldn't bring myself to press more than slightly. my d700's are my babies</p>