For the most effective cleaning results, place the camera upright on a desk or other surface before cleaning. Repeated consecutive sensor cleanings will not produce notably better results. If there is dust or any other material on the image sensor that the cleaning function cannot remove, contact a Canon Customer Support Help Desk. Normally, the Self Cleaning Sensor Unit will eliminate most of the dust that might be visible on captured images. However, in case visible dust still remains, you can append the Dust Delete Data to the image for erasing the dust spots later.
Related Information. Was this helpful? The downward angle uses gravity to our advantage - it prevents additional dust from landing inside. My first sensor cleaning step is a non-contact one - the one that Canon specifically recommends - blowing air onto the sensor from a Giottos Rocket Air Blower. The risk of damage from this method is light - but the cleaning power is also light. The potential for the blower to remove a piece of grit that might later scratch the sensor during a contact cleaning method makes this step important.
While holding the camera in my one hand - still pointing downward, I firmly squeeze the air blower which is carefully positioned near the camera sensor. This air blower fills from its base and expels the air from the nozzle - It does not directly blow the same dirty air back onto the sensor.
Be careful not touch the sensor or other fragile parts nearby like the shutter with the tip of the air blower. I typically use 8 or ten good air bursts. Between each cleaning method attempt, another sensor test is needed to find out if the process can be ended at this point - or an additional cleaning method employed. Turn the camera's power off to end the sensor cleaning, remount the lens and run another test. Move your mouse over the sample image to see the blower-achieved results.
If you are satisfied, you are done. Otherwise, read on Another disclaimer: I have not seen Visible Dust or anyone else recommend the swabbing method I am going to describe - so you are on your own if you try this. What is working great for me for normal light cleaning no oil or other stuck on dirt , is a dry sensor cleaning swab. Adding a cleaning solution to the Visible Dust Sensor Cleaning Swabs is what is recommended, but I find it very hard to get all of the lint off of the sensor when using the wet method.
If there is serious dirt on the sensor, I definitely use the wet method - which involves adding a very small amount of the proper cleaning solution to the tip of the sensor swab and proceeding as with the dry method described here.
In a relatively dust-free environment, I hold the camera up with the lens mount facing downward so that gravity will cause any dust to naturally fall out. I carefully place the swab into the sensor chamber being carefull to not touch the chamber walls at a somewhat acute angle and so that it touches one end and side of the sensor.
As I swipe in one direction while applying gentle pressure, I reduce the angle of the swab until it is completely vertical at the other end of the sensor. Think of reaching far away from you with a broom and sweeping toward yourself. When the broom is farthest away, it is at an acute angle.
When the broom is at your feet, it is vertical a right angle. This action will tend to lift dirt instead of pressing it into the sensor cover surface. When the sensor cleaning swab completes a full pass along one edge of the sensor, I blow the swab off with the Rocket Blower though I probably should use a second swab and flip it over.
I run the swab down the other side of the sensor the same as the first. Now there is a chance that some dust has been deposited on the side you were swiping to. So I blow the swipe off and gently run the corner of the swipe along the potentially-dirty side of the sensor and lifting out from the corner.
Throw the swab away at this point - consider it contaminated. Cleaning time with supplies in front of you is a couple of minutes at this point. If the sensor is still dirty, I usually repeat with another dry cleaning - or possibly a wet cleaning followed by another dry cleaning for final cleanup.
If I do not have a satisfactorily clean sensor after using the air blower, I usually move on to a sensor brush. The sensor brush is more capable of cleaning than the air blower alone, but it still presents a relatively low risk of damage to the sensor - IF you keep the brush clean.
I am currently using a Visible Dust Sensor Brush but I understand some of the other sensor brushes work well also. Visible Dust recommends statically charging the bristles - with compressed air for the model I have. I simply use a series of quick bursts of air across the bristles from my air blower - this seems to sufficiently clean and somewhat charge the brush, but I'm sure compressed air would work even better.
But if you see the dreaded black specs, read on. Many newer DSLRs have a special function for automatically cleaning the sensor. Look for it in the Tools menu on your camera. You may have to repeat this process several times. Sooner or later, even those photographers with auto-clean cameras will have to wash their sensors using this manual method, Step 2 below. Sensor swabs are specially designed cleaning pads for camera sensors.
Used with a few drops of Eclipse cleaning fluid they will wipe you sensor clean. Think of it as a tiny Swiffer for your sensor. You can get the swabs in exactly the right size for your sensor, so one swipe in each direction could be all you need. Most systems use a piezo crystal ultrasonic vibration of the IR filter in front of the sensor.
They vibrate at around K Hz. Olympus invented it, but now Leica, Panasonic, Canon, and Nikon use similar systems. Other manufacturers use sensor shifting. The sensor itself is shaken at about Hz, but the length of travel is much further. Konica Minolta developed it.
Sony and Pentax now use this method. Both systems usually include a coating that is negatively charged, just as most dust is. This causes them to repel each other. What happens to the dust? When vibrated off the IR filter, it should fall down to the bottom of the sensor where a dust trap collects it. We think of dust as not being affected by gravity, but this is a false assumption. Dust will fall unless the force of air currents around it creates more frictional force than that of gravity, unless there is an electrical charge acting on the dust that is stronger than gravity, or unless a combination of both air and static charge is stronger than gravity.
Air molecules that are affected by Brownian motion are much smaller than dust particles. Inside the mirror box there is not a source of moving air to suspend the dust in the air for any length of time. Some designs actually use air motion to help the dust move towards the trap below the sensor. They generate this very weak air motion by the designed shape of moving parts in the dust cleaning system.
What's the most effective and safe way to clean a sensor? There isn't one. There are more effective methods, and there are safer methods. They are generally inversely proportional to each other. The methods, in order from lowest to highest risk factor are: Automatic dust removal system, air blower with a filtered intake , electrically charged brush, and wet cleaning systems that use swabs and cleaning fluid.
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