Well, after a year and a half, the time has come to clean the sensor on my camera. I have dust spots on pictures regardless which lens I use or how well I clean them. I tried blowing out the sensor with compressed air to no avail.

While researching how to clean the sensor on the web I came across a fellow named Peter Gregg who has a You Tube video AND sells cleaning swabs on his website. Has anyone had experience with this Peter Gregg and his cleaning swabs? They are $40 for 10. Before spending that much money, I would like to ensure they work. I am also in a time crunch. We are leaving for Hawaii in a week and a half. I want to clean the sensor before leaving.

Also, besides Mr Gregg, does anyone have other idea or products they have used with good results in the past? I am open to suggestions.

thanks,

John

My Pictures may be seen here: http://jmiguez.smugmug.com/

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Personally, I would question anyone’s cleaning technique that recommends fogging the sensor with one’s breath. But hey,,, that’s just me.

Personally I use Sensor Swab with Eclipse fluid .

Pete

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>Personally, I would question anyone’s cleaning technique that
>recommends fogging the sensor with one’s breath. But hey,,,
>that’s just me.
>
>Personally I use
>Sensor Swab with
>Eclipse fluid> .
>
>Pete
>
Thank you Pete for replying. I followed your advise and decided against the "breath analyzer." I ordered the fluid and swabs from Photographic Solutions.

John

My Pictures may be seen here: http://jmiguez.smugmug.com/

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FWIW John I used this same product and it did an excellent job.

Marc
There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.-Ansel Adams

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>Personally I use
>Sensor Swab with
>Eclipse fluid> .
>
>Pete
>

Based on Pete's and Marc's recommendations of Photographic Solutions I ordered their swabs and cleaning fluid. Because I am leaving on vacation, I made a note on the order to please rush.

I received an email from David Stone the same day, I ordered, informing me the items had shipped. They arrived last night, with enough extra swab material to last me my lifetime. My sensor is all clean and shinny once again.

Thank you Photographic Solutions, Inc. and thank you Pete and Marc. As someone here says in his signature. The best Photo investment outside of camera and equipment is Nikonians.

John

My Pictures may be seen here: http://jmiguez.smugmug.com/

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Wow. The products from Photographic Solutions may work well but $125 for 25 swabs and some liquid?! There's got to be under $5 in materials and negligible R&D in those products, wouldn't you think? Peter

>Wow. The products from Photographic Solutions may work well
>but $125 for 25 swabs and some liquid?! There's got to be
>under $5 in materials and negligible R&D in those
>products, wouldn't you think? Peter


Peter, It was about $45 for the material. I now have enough cleaning material to last the rest of my life. I got a dozen swabs with yards of replacement cloth for the swab sticks and about 2-3 ozs of cleaning fluid.

John

My Pictures may be seen here: http://jmiguez.smugmug.com/

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Invest in a quality sensor loupe. No sense touching the sensor with ANYTHING if it doesn't need cleaning!

Also, take some dust reference frames during the trip. Some software can utilize them.

____________________________

My toys: gripped D600, gripped D7000, D60: Nikkor 10.5 fisheye, 10-24, 17-35 2.8D, 18-105, 24-85, 50/1.8D, 70-300, 105/2.8D Micro, 500 f/8 Reflex: Sigma 600mm, Celestron 2000mm: PB-6 bellows, auto macro tube set: SB600: Manfrotto 055XB/804RC2/390RC2 & 560B-1: Gossen Starlite: Easy-Up AP1500: 40' WonderPole

Thanks for the advice. I took pictures of a piece of whiteboard then blew out the sensor. Retook the picture. Some improvement but not a lot. This has slowly been getting worse and worse.

I guess after almost two years and 40,000 shots, the camera needs some preventative maintenance.

John

My Pictures may be seen here: http://jmiguez.smugmug.com/

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

40,000 shots? How on earth do you find time to process all that? I doubt I have taken half that number in my whole life, film included. No wonder your sensor is dirty!

George

>40,000 shots? How on earth do you find time to process all
>that? I doubt I have taken half that number in my whole life,
>film included. No wonder your sensor is dirty!

George, I do a lot of bird and wildlife. I can easily shoot 1000 or more pictures in one day.

To answer your process question, I don't. After I return home, I load them on the computer and quickly look at each picture. I star the ones I feel are worth looking over again. I then delete the unstarred pictures.

I then go through them a second time looking for the ones I might process. I give these a two or three star rating. Finally, I pick the two and three star ratings and process the best picture. I then save the rest, in case I want to return to them later.

Out of 1000 shots, I may actually process 5-20 pictures.

John

My Pictures may be seen here: http://jmiguez.smugmug.com/

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

That is the nice thing about digital. Imagine how much it would cost in film and processing?

George

>Invest in a quality sensor loupe. No sense touching the
>sensor with ANYTHING if it doesn't need cleaning!
>
Quality sensor loupes are fine, but I've found the Carson version for $9.00 to be just as good, and cheap enough to put one in every camera bag I own:

http://www.dslrguides.com/carson/

Make sure you get the actual Carson PO-55. Several vendors are selling cheap knockoffs with distorted lenses and non-replaceable batteries. The genuine Carson has a tu-tone gray case.

"I make terrible mistakes, so you don't have to!"

I've been using the cleaning products from, http://www.copperhillimages.com/

Complete one stop shopping for all your cleaning needs.

Tom
From Beautiful Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia