Posted: 1/26/2007 9:54:07 AM EDT
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Soon to be released to the market. Here is a link to the video...Link to video  www.dust-aid.com/ |
I just checked out the Sensor Swabs and Eclipse fluid. Looks like the way to go to me, but, JHC, 12 swabs for $48!!! That's truly outrageous. Guess I'll just have to resort to spit and kleenex! 
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I bought a kit with the swabs and eclipse fluid from www.micro-tools.com to clean my two year old Nikon D70s. I'm as careful as they come but had three anoying spots on the sensor - two near the center were gray dots and the latest, which pushed me hard enough to clean the sensor was a dirt clod boulder that was pure black. Lock the mirror into the cleaning position using a freshly charged battery. First you use the blower to try to use clean air to blow the item off. Next you use the blower to charge a special nylon brush with a negative charge and use the brush - EVER SO LIGHTLY - to try to pull the junk off. Following the brush I had managed to get the two gray dots off but the big black one staid. Next you break out the sensor brush and put several drops of eclipse cleaning fluid on and wipe the sensor square across in one direction and then use the second side of the brush to go back the other way. My sensor is now sparkling clean!  BTY - one way to see how dirty your sensor is is to set the apature to F22 or higher, point the lens upwards to the sky and manually set the focus to as close as it will go. You'll see the dust as spots on the blurry white sky. |
An excellent technique I've learned is to shoot a solid red object, like a desk mat or binder cover at f22 and close focus. iso setting will depend on the camera, but cannon mkII's and III's both work well at 125. You'll also need a bright light or flash, and you'll need to play around to get the right level of illumination. It's similar to what you're doing with the sky but it's very consistent and dark spots really pop against the red. Defects on the sensor show a little differently, so you know what you can clean and what you can't. You can also do it right at your computer, so you can quickly swab, shoot, check and swab again if needed. |
For those who are too lazy to actually clean out the dust - like me - you can easily see where the dust spots are on a photo in Photoshop by going to Image -> Adjustments -> Equalize, the dust spots will then be clearly visible so you know where to clone the less obvious spots when you undo the Equalize action. |