Over Zealous Air Can Fit Leads To My First Sensor Cleaning

The title pretty much covers the short version of the story. Now on to the long winded version.

Background:

Many years ago the staff of Southeastern Camera scared the life out of me.

Saw dust on a sensor of one of my cameras. Was handed canned air. Went to spray down into the camera and nearly everyone in the shop and perhaps some on the street outside simultaneously yelled, “No!”.

Startled, I froze. Was explained to me that you should hold the camera upside down so anything inside will fall out instead of landing back on the sensor and to reduce the chance of spraying accelerant onto the sensor which is worse than the dust you are trying to clear. Suitably aware of the risk, I handed both the camera and can of air off to the staff.

Took years before attempting this again at home. Had not had any issues with this. Even added a step where I would spray off to the side to make sure it was clear. Was recently trying to clear dust from the trusty old M. As mentioned in a write up it has a neat little feature that shows you where the dust is on the sensor. After a fit of back and forth between checking and spraying I got the sensor clean… Then I noticed a newly placed spec of dust in the rangefinder window… Great. I figured it must have been displaced from the sensor spraying fits. So more spraying of course. Right?

Not so much. This time out of frustration I rushed things and did not do the test spray off to the side. Sprayed accelerant straight on the sensor and front of the camera.

First Sensor Cleaning Experience — Hard to photograph, but it is on the upper right corner of the sensor. What was interesting to me was that this did not obviously impact image quality. But this will never do. So I jumped online and ordered my first ever full frame sensor cleaning kit. To many, I am sure this is not a big deal, but I was very apprehensive about touching the most important component of a camera.

Instructions were right on the packaging and it could not be easier.

Take out the swab.
Put a drop of cleaner on it.
Give it 10 seconds.
Swipe the swab both ways with the clean side.

I was like, that is it? No idea what I expected but this was very straightforward. Went very well. Took two cleanings to completely clear the sensor,…

…but it is looking good.

Went so well that I went ahead and cleaned more. Nice. And since 10 swabs were included I am set for a while. Nice.

Well, that is it. No drama. No muss. No fuss. Not sure what the current going rate for a sensor cleaning is, but 10 DIY sensor cleanings for $26 sounds good to me.

-ELW