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ORIGINALLY POSTED on JULY 4, 2005

(This describes my first cleaning of a Canon 10d, but applies to any model digital SLR camera.

I used to cringe at the thought of cleaning my camera sensor due to the potential damage it could cause, and the expense to repair it. Also, cleaning the sensor on a Canon camera voids the warranty. The folks at Canon would rather have you send it to them for cleaning. I fully understand this in light of the fact that there are so many half truths about sensor cleaning, and many of them can have serious consequences for your camera.

I bought some eclipse liquid, and pec pads about a year and a half ago when my camera was only about 6 months old, but I did not plan to use them until the camera was out of warranty. I went a year beyond that because the dust specks that had accumulated on my sensor were not too bad, and most of them did not show up in photos unless shot at small apertures. As these specks became more and more annoying, I finally decided to give cleaning a whirl.

I read and re-read the tutorial from Copperhill Images http://www.copperhillimages.com/ before I went forward with my attempt. I need offer a special 'THANK YOU' to Nicholas for such a wonderful and detailed tutorial, without which I probably wouldn't have even attempted the task.

I made a cleaning tool from a Rubbermaid spatula just as shown in the tutorial, and I also practiced the folding of the pec pad on the tool by using a 4x4 inch piece of paper, as Nickolas suggested. All this worked like a charm, and I finally felt half prepared for my attempt. The practice attempt with paper was important becuase it revealed the difficulty in getting a tight fit with the pec pad on the tip of the swab. Wrapping with tape is critical because it keeps the rest of the pec pad from being in the way.

I had decided beforehand that I would swab the sensor twice before checking it, since I had quite a dust build-up that had accumulated over 2 years. I did this and then anxiously remounted my lens and went outside to take another f22 photo of the sky to compare to the one I took before I started the process. I had read some stories about how some people added more dust than they removed on their first cleaning attempt, and I was mentally preparing myself for that possibility. After taking the 'after' photo, I uploaded it to my laptop to compare to the earlier one.

SUCCESS!! I cannot express right now how pleased I am at the results. It appears that I have removed virtually all the dust specks from the sensor on this first attempt. There is only one minor speck that I can still see in the photo taken after the cleaning. If you are trying to locate it in the 2nd photo below, look at approximately the 2 o'clock position in the frame. This same speck appears in both the before and after photos, but it is so small that I don't think I'll try to remove it at this time.

The only problem I had was in making the swabbing tool from the spatula. It went fine until I tried to make the beveled cuts on the tip. I somehow managed to get a slight angle in the cut on the tip of the tool. This was fine, and it actually made it easier to swab, since it allowed me to have the tool at a slight angle from the vertical when swabbing. However, the downside was that I could not slide it down and swab with the other side of the pec pad in the opposite direction, as the tutorial recommends. I feared that this may deposit some of the dust back on the sensor, but apparently it did not. I simply lifted the tool after swabbing once from left to right, then reversed the position of the tool before swabbing the bottom half of the sensor with the other side of the pec pad.

If anyone reading this is contemplating a sensor cleaning, I highly recommend visiting Nicholas' web page and reading the tutorial very carefully and methodically.

The first 2 photos below are from my first ever sensor cleaning. The others are from my most recent cleaning of my 10d, and my MkIIN.