Dust on Sensor - any cleaning tips

[Jon]

As the title really, have notices a couple of very faint circular marks on a couple of my images recently - seems to be there whichever lens is on, so it may well be time to clean the sensor - gulp!

Any tips on equipment and or technique would be appreciated

[NannyFerret]

Best advice is:

Don't do it. I tried cleaning mine and ended up making it worse, and it cost me a lot of money to have the sensor replaced in my Nikon.

If it's affecting the picture, take it to a camera shop or send it away to be done properly.

I learned the hard way.

[Jon]

I like this advice - I really dont think I'm up to all that :-)

Am going to properly clean all my lenses / filters etc first and foremost and make sure I'm not seeing problems I dont have.

I have 3 shots from today, all shot into the sun, and I'm hoping I'm just panicing, tbh :)

[NannyFerret]

Could it be condensation spots? I had them in my camera once, so I left it for a while and they disappeared.

[Guest DaveW]

If you clean your own sensor make sure the camera battery is fully charged first, since in sensor cleaning mode it is electro magnets that hold open the shutter and should the battery run out on you they could close on your sensor cleaning implements, so damaging the shutter. Most DSLR's give a bleep to alert you to get out of the mirror box before the battery charge runs out and the shutter blades close, but don't rely on that if using only a partially charged battery.

Most modern sensor cleaning fluids should now be OK, but there was some question about earlier ones when many modern cameras changed to Indium Tin Oxide sensor coatings, which resisted dust but were so thin you may not notice if you cleaned them off with the wrong fluid, except the sensor would pick up dust quicker in future. See:-

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/indium-tin-oxide-sensor-cleaning.html

However most fluids should now be OK since these sensor coatings are now pretty universal, plus the new fluids clean the older non indium coated sensors anyway. Don't scrub at modern indium coated sensors though as you do not want to clean this microscopically thin, virtually invisible coating off, though sensible cleaning should not hurt it.

http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/

Basically though sensor cleaning is not for the enthusiastic scrubbers or cack-handed, so read and follow the sensor cleaning advice in the above links before you try.

Also cleaning lenses and camera mirrors should be undertaken with care as they are easy to scratch if you get grit on the cleaning cloths or implements. Some photographers do not realise that unlike your mirrors at home an SLR mirror does not have the silvering on the back, so being protected by the layer of glass on front of it, but is surface silvered on the front to avoid a double reflection from the front and back of the glass on the focusing screen. Therefore clean gently or you could damage the exposed silvering.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/indepth/photography/tips-solutions/how-clean-your-lens-and-filters-properly

As long as you clean your DSLR sensibly, read your camera manual and proper cleaning advice, you should have no problems.

DaveW