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Leica recommend non-contact cleaning only by users


wlaidlaw

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There has been an email sent by Leica today with some very good tips about avoiding dust on the sensor. However they go on to say that only non-contact methods of cleaning should be done by users and deeper cleaning should only be done by dealers. Will this mean that any cover glass damage will now be ascribed to wet cleaning and not covered by any warranty or ex-gratia free repairs?

 

I have never succeeded in a decent clean only by non-contact methods and have always used wet cleaning or a combination of static brush, sticky pad (Eye-Lead) and fluid plus wands. In 11 years of cleaning sensors, I have never damaged one yet, so don’t see why I would now. In the UK, my nearest dealer is in London, so over 4 hours of travelling to get there and back. In France it is a 90 minute drive to the dealer in Nice, so no I am not intending to take my M’s to either London or Nice for cleaning.

 

Wilson

Edited by wlaidlaw
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I think if anybody needs to read the advice they also need to take it to a dealer for deeper cleaning.

 

I would doubt very much that Leica can ascribe faults to wet cleaning since a) they can perfectly well destroy a customers sensor in their store anyway, and B) not everybody is likely to read such dumbed down advice. If it came with actual facts about why the Leica sensor is going to be so prone to damage by the DIY method fair enough, it would be akin to the warning in your car manual that a lack of oil will cause bits of the engine to fall out. But continuing all our favourite motoring analogies this current advice is more like 'put the oil in here, if you don't know how to open the bonnet take it to the dealer'.

 

Steve

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Yes, I got this email too.

 

It seems to me (at least in part) to be Leica covering themselves with "at your own risk" boilerplate.

 

I had some visible dirt spots on my almost new M sensor (visible on images that is) and even cack-handed me managed to get them off with the Eyelead jelly lollipop (you know, like the one that Leica themselves seem to be using in that much publicised video: I just did exactly what they did). Seemed to do the trick and I don't seem to have done anything to my sensor. I can't see anything on grey card pictures at f/22, and that's clean enough for me.

 

Given the perceived wisdom that oil spots seem to be deposited regularly by the shutter for the first several however many actuations, I'm not sure how practical Leica's advice actually is.

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There were a couple of things that worried me about that email. Firstly, they are suggesting using pressurized inert gas. Well, I tried that on my first digital SLR in a moment of stupidity about ten years ago. Deposited a bunch of goo from the can on the sensor and ended up doing a wet clean anyway to fix my mess. Secondly they're suggesting users don't stop down past f/4. Seems strange 'advice' to give. The choice of aperture needs to take a few other factors into consideration :)

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There were a couple of things that worried me about that email. Firstly, they are suggesting using pressurized inert gas. Well, I tried that on my first digital SLR in a moment of stupidity about ten years ago. Deposited a bunch of goo from the can on the sensor and ended up doing a wet clean anyway to fix my mess. Secondly they're suggesting users don't stop down past f/4. Seems strange 'advice' to give. The choice of aperture needs to take a few other factors into consideration :)

 

Simon,

 

I totally agree with you. I would never dream of using “canned air" on the inside of any camera. They are usually a mixture of propane and butane with other contaminants. It is very difficult to find anything else. As for the f4 rubbish, I think the writer must have been smoking funny cigarettes. There are some R zoom lenses which at the long end, are slower than f4 at their fastest setting.

 

Wilson

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Today I received a disconcerting email from Leica, being a German, I received it in German language:

 

"SCHUTZ UND PFLEGE FÜR DEN SENSOR

Wissenswertes zu Staubvermeidung und Sensorreinigung.

Selbst wer beim Objektivwechsel so vorsichtig wie möglich vorgeht, kann nicht vollständig verhindern, dass leichte Verschmutzungen in den Objektivraum und auf den Bildsensor gelangen. Staub sammelt sich auf Gehäuse- und Objektivrückdeckeln - und überall dort, wo bewegliche Teile eingesetzt werden, entstehen feinste Partikel: durch den Abrieb am Bajonett oder auch den mechanischen Verschluss, der die Belichtung reguliert. Mithilfe einiger praktischer Tipps lässt sich jedoch die Menge an Partikeln, die zusätzlich auf den Sensor geraten, deutlich verringern.

Sensor Leica S

Sensor Leica M

 

 

PFLEGEN UND VORBEUGEN.

So schützen Sie Ihren Sensor.

• Reinigen Sie das Objektiv vor dem Aufsetzen an allen Stellen, die mit der Kamera in Kontakt kommen.

• Verschließen Sie das Objektiv direkt nach dem Gebrauch mit dem Objektivrückdeckel.

• Reinigen Sie den Gehäusedeckel vor der Verwendung.

• Bewahren Sie immer alle Deckel, die Sie gerade nicht verwenden, in sauberer Umgebung auf. Tipp: Riegeln Sie den gegenwärtig nicht benutzten Objektivdeckel auf den Kameragehäusedeckel.

• Wenn Sie ein Objektiv wechseln, halten Sie die Kamera stets so, dass das Bajonett nach unten zeigt.

• Vermeiden Sie den Objektivwechsel in staubiger Umgebung. Sollte dies einmal nicht möglich sein, wechseln Sie die Objektive am besten in einer großen, sauberen Plastiktüte.

• Wechseln Sie das Objektiv immer so zügig wie möglich.

• Achten Sie darauf, dass kein Wind in die offene Kamera weht. Halten Sie die Kamera stets in den Windschatten.

 

 

KLEINSTE PARTIKEL.

Minimale Auswirkungen.

Es ist nahezu unmöglich, einen Sensor so zu reinigen, dass er restlos sauber ist. Wenn Sie Folgendes beachten, können Sie jedoch die Folgen von Partikeln minimieren:

• Fotografieren Sie, wenn möglich, nicht mit kleinen Blenden. Bei Blende 8-22 z. B. werden Partikel sehr scharf auf dem Sensor abgebildet und fallen deutlicher auf. Bei offener Blende hingegen verschwinden sie oft gänzlich. So erzielen Sie übrigens auch generell eine bessere Bildqualität, da Sie die Beugungseffekte von kleinen Blenden vermeiden. Reinigen Sie das Objektiv vor dem Aufsetzen an allen Stellen, die mit der Kamera in Kontakt kommen.

• Besonders bei Aufnahmen mit homogenen Flächen, z. B. mit viel Himmel, empfiehlt es sich, nicht weiter als auf Blende 4 abzublenden.

• Sollten dennoch einmal störende Flecken im Bild erscheinen, können Sie diese mit dem Bereichsreparatur-Werkzeug in Adobe Lightroom entfernen. Das ist sowohl bei DNG- als auch bei JPG-Dateien möglich. Um das Werkzeug auf eine gesamte Bilderserie anzuwenden, benutzen Sie bitte die Funktion "Einstellungen kopieren und einfügen".

 

 

RICHTIG REINIGEN.

Was Sie tun können und lassen sollten.

Bitte versuchen Sie niemals, Partikel ohne Hilfsmittel zu entfernen, indem Sie z. B. in die Kamera pusten. Im Fotofachhandel erhalten Sie unterschiedliche Produkte zur Sensorreinigung. Bitte beachten Sie jedoch, dass der Bildsensor sehr empfindlich ist und leicht Schaden nehmen kann. Beschädigungen, die durch die manuelle Reinigung des Sensors entstehen, ziehen leider eine kostenpflichtige und -intensive Reparatur nach sich.

 

Aus diesem guten Grund empfehlen wir ausschließlich berührungslose Reinigungsmethoden ohne Pinsel. So kann leicht anhaftender Staub z. B. mit einem (Gummi-)Blasebalg oder mit sauberen, eventuell ionisierten Gasen wie Stickstoff vom Sensor-Deckglas entfernt werden. Falls der Sensor Ihrer Kamera stark verunreinigt ist und sich nicht berührungslos reinigen lässt, empfehlen wir Ihnen eine professionelle Reinigung durch eine autorisierte Leica Service Werkstatt. Diese können Sie im Leica Customer Care in Auftrag geben.

Leica Service & Support

Service und Support

"

The mail is disguised as an advisory information in regards of sensor cleaning your Leica digital cameras with removable lenses.

 

Having cleaned my sensors of digital cameras myself for years with blower bulbs and wet cleaning products, I read just one point out of this email:

 

If you as our valued customer disregard our now official advise against ANY cleaning method deviating from this advise we will potentially not be responsible for costly repair work due to sensor damage.

 

The mail advises for sensor cleaning methods without physical contact with the sensor itself ONLY (entirely excluding commonly used wet cleaning methods and the Pentax cleaning kit method, Leica uses themselves) and advises to use Leica Customer Care for a professional sensor cleaning in case blower bulbs are not sufficient.

 

This is a big step backwards in my opinion.

Be careful not damaging your sensors.

 

(Of course I will continue to clean my own sensors, as it is simply not feasible to send in a camera body for a wet cleaning if necessary.)

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Indeed, canned air is bad anyway, and especially for a novice to get hold of. Get it even a little bit wrong and an idiot can give their sensor frostbite never mind a blow job. This advice from Leica is dangerous and ill thought out, possibly by people who don't actually use a camera.

 

Steve

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That isn’t quite what I would recommend. Canned air is a no-no, but swabs and isopropyl alcohol works quite well, as does the Pentax ‘fruit gum’.

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I haven't seen the email but from what I can understand of it from reading this thread, I think whoever sent this email should be sacked.

 

For some reason which I do not understand, the prospect of having to clean a sensor seems to send many Leica owners here into a panic stricken meltdown, threads about it are endless and this kind of irresponsible misinformation is going to result in damaged sensors. Squirting a jet of compressed freon gas at a sensor is a blindingly stupid thing to do, not only will you spray the sensor with difficult to remove liquid gas, there is also a good chance the spray can nozzle can be ejected under pressure at the sensor. I personally know someone who did exactly that and the nozzle hit the sensor with enough velocity to shatter the cover.

 

It is impossible to clean a sensor without touching it with either a swab, 'sticky' pad or Arctic Butterfly. Most sensor spots are lubricant or other residue from either the shutter mechanism or from the lens itself and can only be removed by a solvent wet clean.

 

Leica would do far better to release a sensor cleaning video and clear instructions on how to do it properly with the usual disclaimers than to put out misinformation that can only add to unnecessary confusion and ignorance over what is only routine housekeeping.

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Covering themselves by advising to use pressurised air in a can?

 

At least you can hold Leica liable now for the damage after being stupid enough to blast the sensor with canned air.

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I just read the email. Remarkable. To suggest that you not use an aperture smaller than f/4 on your $10,000+ camera/lens combination just so you don't expose dust on your sensor? It is stunning that any employee of a camera company, barring the janitorial staff, would send out such an email. And in addition, they suggest using pressurized gas?? The stunning thing about that part of the statement is that obviously someone involved was informed enough to recommend an 'inert gas such as nitrogen', but not informed enough to know that you run the risk of freezing your sensor cover glass by spraying any compressed gas onto your sensor.

 

Incredible.

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Also you can buy nitrogen in liquid form or in large heavy cylinders but I cannot find anyone selling it in small cans. Nitrogen does not stay liquid at room temperature, unlike butane propane mix. Lets say the maximum pressure in an aerosol can is 5 bar, then that would give you about 10 seconds squirting time before your can was empty, which is why nobody sells them. As folks have said, a total nonsense.

 

Wilson

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Not mentioned yet: using high pressure spray can transport dust between the filter array and sensor...

I think it was an effort by some Azubi that got into the mail system accidentally.

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Maybe LFI could run an article on sensor cleaning?

Now that’s an idea, especially since a lot of sensor cleaning is performed here, on all kinds of Leica cameras. It won’t make the next issue, though, and also not the photokina issue since there is so much we need to cover in that issue as is.

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