Jeff S Posted January 16, 2010 Share #21 Posted January 16, 2010 Advertisement (gone after registration) I'm fortunate to have 2 very good dealers in my vicinity. FWIW, each discontinued selling Visible Dust products...too many customer service issues, whether due to the product or the customer. Each (independently of one another) recommends the rocker blower first, then the Eclipse swabs, and sells nothing but those. Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted January 16, 2010 Posted January 16, 2010 Hi Jeff S, Take a look here Please tell me this is dust.... I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
diogenis Posted January 16, 2010 Share #22 Posted January 16, 2010 Me, reverse or not, I have found out the following: 1. only 1-2 drops of that isopropyl alcohol 2. VERY light touch, barely touching the sensor, BUT not because it might break, but in order to avoid leaving film residues 3. Those cheap plastic magnifying loupes Arctic and others sell are all rubbish. Buy yourself a good LED torch using a creed led, this will light everything inside the dark box of the camera. Then use a good glass magnifying loupe maybe a jeweler's one For your case ppola, I bet it is an oily spec. Open your sensor and use a strong light source and examine it, I am sure you will spot it. Avoid this dealer in the future Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSL Posted January 16, 2010 Share #23 Posted January 16, 2010 How so Russ? I don't doubt your word, but my limited brain insists that would be the clean side. Jaap, I suspect the problem is the word "reverse." Let's consider an example: You have the camera open and the sensor exposed. (Hopefully you also have a headlight on your head, focused on the sensor so you can see what you're doing.) You place the swab at the left end of the sensor, angle the handle slightly to the right, and drag the swab across the sensor. At that point, to me, "reverse," means you lift the swab, and turn it in your fingers so that what was the "up" end of what I'll call the vertically aligned blade is now down. When you place the swab against the right end of the sensor and angle the handle to the left, you've brought the dirty edge of the swab into contact with the sensor. To use the more or less clean edge you'd have, without lifting the sensor, simply to angle the handle slightly to the left and swab back across the sensor from right to left. Turns out that when they thought about it, Photographic Solutions agreed with me. What bothered me most about this is that -- at least in a D3, where the sensor is pretty far back in the camera, and pretty much enclosed by the chamber around it -- it's impossible to avoid ending up with the swab's handle in at least a vertical position by the time you reach the right edge of the sensor. Now, if you angle the handle to the left, you still have some of the dirt you just swept up in contact with the sensor. So I tried swabbing just from left to right and then chucking the swab. Voila! A cleaner sensor. Occasionally, if something is welded on, it takes more than one swab to finish the job, but running that final swab in a single direction leaves me a cleaner sensor than if I try to run it both directions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunsworth Posted January 16, 2010 Share #24 Posted January 16, 2010 Those cheap plastic magnifying loupes Arctic and others sell are all rubbish That's not been my experience at all, I've found the loupe - I have the Arctic one - very useful in identifying dust on the sensor. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted January 16, 2010 Share #25 Posted January 16, 2010 Jaap, I suspect the problem is the word "reverse." Let's consider an example: You have the camera open and the sensor exposed. (Hopefully you also have a headlight on your head, focused on the sensor so you can see what you're doing.) You place the swab at the left end of the sensor, angle the handle slightly to the right, and drag the swab across the sensor. At that point, to me, "reverse," means you lift the swab, and turn it in your fingers so that what was the "up" end of what I'll call the vertically aligned blade is now down. When you place the swab against the right end of the sensor and angle the handle to the left, you've brought the dirty edge of the swab into contact with the sensor. To use the more or less clean edge you'd have, without lifting the sensor, simply to angle the handle slightly to the left and swab back across the sensor from right to left. Turns out that when they thought about it, Photographic Solutions agreed with me. What bothered me most about this is that -- at least in a D3, where the sensor is pretty far back in the camera, and pretty much enclosed by the chamber around it -- it's impossible to avoid ending up with the swab's handle in at least a vertical position by the time you reach the right edge of the sensor. Now, if you angle the handle to the left, you still have some of the dirt you just swept up in contact with the sensor. So I tried swabbing just from left to right and then chucking the swab. Voila! A cleaner sensor. Occasionally, if something is welded on, it takes more than one swab to finish the job, but running that final swab in a single direction leaves me a cleaner sensor than if I try to run it both directions. Ah-yes. I see the possible confusion. Let's call it what we both mean: the unused side. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
diogenis Posted January 16, 2010 Share #26 Posted January 16, 2010 That's not been my experience at all, I've found the loupe - I have the Arctic one - very useful in identifying dust on the sensor. I have the same loupe. And I don't believe they make it. It is very bad: led lights although some 6 of them are very dim, almost useless, use a candle light for better results. Instead if you use a cree led, then the whole world illuminates some 100x more The lens is a cheap plastic one and I don't know about yours, but mine I received it with some scratches. And you know how easy you can scratch a plastic lens... They had to use ...plastic....???? In short you can't tell weather you watch a dust spec or that scratch in your lens pure disaster... you are 10x better off with your own eyes and a good flashlight. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSL Posted January 16, 2010 Share #27 Posted January 16, 2010 Advertisement (gone after registration) Ah-yes. I see the possible confusion. Let's call it what we both mean: the unused side. Exactly -- provided there is an unused side. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ppolla Posted January 16, 2010 Author Share #28 Posted January 16, 2010 Wow...thanks to all for your replies. I was out of the house until few hours ago, but while in town I got the visible dust swabs for full sensor and their sensor clean formula.... Will try to clean the sensor tomorrow morning...I hope I don't damage it. P Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ppolla Posted January 16, 2010 Author Share #29 Posted January 16, 2010 ......I suggest you contact Will van Manen. Jaap, who is Will? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted January 16, 2010 Share #30 Posted January 16, 2010 Camera repairman -probably the highest qualified one in the world. Zoetermeer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ppolla Posted January 16, 2010 Author Share #31 Posted January 16, 2010 Jaap, can you please PM me his contacts, email? website? Thank you. P Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted January 16, 2010 Share #32 Posted January 16, 2010 index.html No PM needed Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpleica Posted January 17, 2010 Share #33 Posted January 17, 2010 I, too, had a bad case of dust and what were probably grease spots on my M9 sensor out of the box - which I noticed after the first couple of day's of shooting back in November when I first got the camera. Living relatively close to Leica's NJ headquarters, I arranged to drop it off as they offered to clean it. After that, I've had little in the way of problems with dust that a Rocket blower couldn't fix. The Leica technicians recommended using Dust-Aid Platinum sensor cleaning kits for in-the-field cleaning - which I then purchased. Essentially they are an adhesive pad on a stick that leaves no residue. I have yet to need to use them....but they are part of my traveling kit. As a precaution, I've gotten used to shooting one frame of a blank sky at f16 when I switch cards...and closely looking at those frames every time I upload my pictures on Lightroom (Beta 3). Keeping sensor dust at bay seems to be a routine we will just have to learn (like the old darkroom days fighting dust on anything), that is, if you are like me...switching from a Nikon DSLR w/all purpose zoom that never needed changing to the M9 with an assortment of lenses. They both have their place, but I'm loving the M9, dust or no dust. The ability of this camera and these lenses to describe the world is on par, if not better, than the Fujica 6x9's I used for a couple of decades. Geoffrey Milford, PA Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
diogenis Posted January 17, 2010 Share #34 Posted January 17, 2010 Yea, those things are the fastest yet method of cleaning sensors, unless you need to deal with oily spots Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted January 17, 2010 Share #35 Posted January 17, 2010 I like some of the Visible Dust products. I use their Arctic Butterfly brush, their swabs (Orange are gentler than Green), Sensor corner swabs (good for the M9, where the corners are more difficult to get clean than the smaller sensor on the M8) and sensor loupe. However, I have found their cleaning fluids to be very unsuited to the M sensors. They don't seem to lift the lube spots and tend to leave smears. Also millilitre for millilitre, they are about 10 times the price of E2. Warning on E2 when travelling by air - USA TSA staff don't like it and may well empty a bottle left in your checked luggage - this has happened to me and a number of other folks. I now fill a small Visible Dust bottle with E2 and that seems to go through without a problem. A eye-drops bottle would be another good possibility. If you have a very oil spotted sensor, if you gently wiggle the sensor on the first stroke only but not on the reverse stroke, this seems to help get off those pesky spots. Usually even with this technique, you will need at least two cleans. Don't be disappointed if the first clean still leaves spots. I have to admit, after the recent series of IR filter breakages, to being a touch nervous about wet cleaning my M9 but so far so good. Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scc Posted January 17, 2010 Share #36 Posted January 17, 2010 I have the same loupe. And I don't believe they make it. It is very bad: led lights although some 6 of them are very dim, almost useless, use a candle light for better results. Instead if you use a cree led, then the whole world illuminates some 100x more The lens is a cheap plastic one and I don't know about yours, but mine I received it with some scratches. And you know how easy you can scratch a plastic lens... They had to use ...plastic....???? In short you can't tell weather you watch a dust spec or that scratch in your lens pure disaster... you are 10x better off with your own eyes and a good flashlight. The Vis Dust Sensor Loupe- I would return your one, the LEDs on mine are very bright, the optic is clear and scratch free, and the loupe performs its intended job perfectly. Before purchasing the loupe, I had tried with a bright led torch and my own spectacle mounted loupes, which I use for microsurgery, thinking that would be fine, and can assure you, the sensor loupe gives a much more useful appraisal of the sensor and its dust bunnies. Optically speaking, I would suggest you are 7x worse off with your own eyes.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ppolla Posted January 17, 2010 Author Share #37 Posted January 17, 2010 I have now performed the wet method two times...and no visible results... Here is what I get now...a photo of cloudy skies at f16. Still countless dots... I think tomorrow I am going to see Leica here in NL... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted January 17, 2010 Share #38 Posted January 17, 2010 I have now performed the wet method two times...and no visible results...Here is what I get now...a photo of cloudy skies at f16. Still countless dots... I think tomorrow I am going to see Leica here in NL... One last thought before you surrender your camera to Leica, have you checked between two images to see if the dots are in exactly the same location before and after cleans. If they have moved, it may be your cleaning technique is not perfect. If they have not moved, my suspicion is that you may have dirt between the sensor and the IR filter. Wilson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ppolla Posted January 17, 2010 Author Share #39 Posted January 17, 2010 I have checked and maybe one spot dissapeared but the rest are spot on where they were before... P Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsjxyz Posted January 17, 2010 Share #40 Posted January 17, 2010 Is it the lens? Try look at the lens. Jerry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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