M9 Ultimate Sensor Cleaning Device

[Guest WPalank]

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William,

 

Have you tried this?

 

Amazon.com: Eclipse E2 Sensor Cleaning Fluid: Electronics

Amazon.com: Used and New: Eclipse E2 Sensor Cleaning Fluid

 

Indeed, E2 is NOT allowed on airplanes.

E2 seems to work pretty well with VisibleDust Sensor Cleaning Swab on my M9 sensor though.

Of course, I can't verify that anywhere near as good as you can.

 

It looks like E2 is being discontinued: https://www.micro-tools.com/store/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=PSI-E2-F

Quote: "Photographic Solutions is officially discontinuing Eclipse E2 as the concerns of Eclipse “Possibly” being too strong for use on Tin Oxide coated sensors has been unfounded. I have done many tests on this subject myself and concur that Eclipse is safe and better for use on all DSLR sensor no matter what coating they have on them. So is E2 bad, NO but Eclipse is easier to use with better results."

 

Many many thanks for your very insightful information, k-hawinkler

 

Thank you K-h,

For the links and your experience mirror my thoughts exactly. That the ultimate cleaning weapon is the VD swab with E2 solution.

 

....... and the time you wasted for this.

Thanks for the support dude???

At least your historical counterpart felt that, " virtue was better revealed in action and not theory". Hmmmm.....

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[Bo_Lorentzen]

William,

 

GREAT writeup, thank you.

 

Hmm, I am going to have to re-evaluate my cleaning process for sure, I have no doubt in your results.

 

I have the orange stickie thingie, and the dust-aid, the orange feels stickier. so far I have been very pleased with these, so Im guessing you are entirely right that there is some cut-off point where the dust do not show up in the images. Generally a energetic stamping with the dust-aid have provided perfectly clean images stopped down. But there is clearly room for improvements here.

 

hmm off to order some VD swap somewhere online.

[diogenis]

Thanks for the support dude???

At least your historical counterpart felt that, " virtue was better revealed in action and not theory". Hmmmm.....

Oops.. it sounded bad? Pardon mate: I meant to say ..the time you killed in order to do the tests.. I'm trying trust me, but sometimes, as Bo already knows, English is not my mother language

[zlatkob]

Finally, I had more time and was able to view my Canon 5D Mark II under the same conditions. This camera has the automatic sensor cleaning function.

This sensor was pretty darn clean. here's the kicker, the Rocket Blower was pretty effective at removing some of the specks that were present. Those bits that were still hanging on were VERY effectively removed by the Arctic Butterfly.

 

Very interesting overall, and especially this part as I am a 5D Mark II user. Your analysis is consistent with my experience. Automatic sensor cleaning is a great thing. I often read comments like "it just moves the dust around" -- but the fact is that it works wonderfully for my purposes, and it saves me a lot of time on multiple cameras I check my cameras before each assignment and, despite many thousands of exposures and many lens changes, they've never needed anything more than some bursts with a rocket air blower. I rarely shoot at small apertures, so I don't need ultra-clean at f/22, but I know from experience that Canon's recent cameras require much less attention to dust than past models (without automatic sensor cleaning) did.

[k-hawinkler]

William,

 

GREAT writeup, thank you.

 

Hmm, I am going to have to re-evaluate my cleaning process for sure, I have no doubt in your results.

 

I have the orange stickie thingie, and the dust-aid, the orange feels stickier. so far I have been very pleased with these, so Im guessing you are entirely right that there is some cut-off point where the dust do not show up in the images. Generally a energetic stamping with the dust-aid have provided perfectly clean images stopped down. But there is clearly room for improvements here.

 

hmm off to order some VD swap somewhere online.

 

Bo,

 

Here is my limited experience with wet cleaning (E2 + VD swab):

 

• I only use 1 side of the swab, start on side of sensor, sweep until about the middle, then lift swap gently off and discard. Otherwise, if I continue until the other side, the swab leaves too much stuff on the sensor right there.

 

• If I have too much E2 on the swab, it will leave a streak. However, that is easily removed by waiting a bit and following up with a much dryer swab.

 

• Finally, I need to be patient as I typically require several attempts of cleaning before I get satisfactory results. Remember: Perfect is the enemy of good enough.

 

Just trying to be helpful. I am well aware that you are much more experienced in these matters than I am.

 

With best regards, k-hawinkler

[k-hawinkler]

Very interesting overall, and especially this part as I am a 5D Mark II user. Your analysis is consistent with my experience. Automatic sensor cleaning is a great thing. I often read comments like "it just moves the dust around" -- but the fact is that it works wonderfully for my purposes, and it saves me a lot of time on multiple cameras I check my cameras before each assignment and, despite many thousands of exposures and many lens changes, they've never needed anything more than some bursts with a rocket air blower. I rarely shoot at small apertures, so I don't need ultra-clean at f/22, but I know from experience that Canon's recent cameras require much less attention to dust than past models (without automatic sensor cleaning) did.

 

Your experience with the 5D Mark II matches mine with my Nikon D300. The D300 hardly needs any cleaning at all. So far I never had to wet clean it. In contrast my D3 needs attention, including wet cleaning, regularly.

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In my mind the sensor of the M9 is significantly more difficult to clean than a Canon 5D Mark II. Whether it's due to electrostatic charge or other factors, I'll leave it to others to conclude.

 

 

I guess we have assumed the sensor cleaning mode of the M9 switches the sensor off, but maybe it just doesn't make an exposure? The static of a live sensor would mimic many of the observations of dust sticking or being moved around on the sensor when its being cleaned. And if so this should favour the wet cleaning method. Is it possible to discover if the sensor is on or off?

 

 

Steve

[rob_w]

Bill

 

 

Thanks from me as well. I am particularly intrigued by your results for the 5DII vs the M9 --

• that the sensor cleaning experience is so DIFFERENT (and easier) -- I would have expected all sensors to provide a similar challenge
  
• that the popular cleaning products all seem to work 'as advertised' -- after reading Part I of your report I started to wonder if we had been sold 'snake oil'
  
• that the built-in cleaning system is effective -- I have always been sceptical that vibration alone would make a significant difference
  

Now I am wondering why the M9 sensor is more difficult in these respects. Is it static charge, a special coating used by Canon, CCD vs CMOS ... or some other unidentified factor?

 

Will there be a Part III?

 

Cheers

 

Robert

[k-hawinkler]

 

Have you tried this?

Amazon.com: Eclipse E2 Sensor Cleaning Fluid: Electronics

 

It looks like E2 is being discontinued: https://www.micro-tools.com/store/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=PSI-E2-F

 

In response to ordering E2, I got this notification: "Greetings from Amazon.com, We're writing to inform you that your order ... from DBROTH has been canceled".

I guess that's it then for buying E2.

[xtoph]

Thanks a lot for all the effort you put in there William and the time you wasted for this.

Our final test should be some sand blasting I believe

 

well that would solve any moire problems, at least...

[Guest WPalank]

E2 solution appears to be included in some of the "survival kits" at B&H (note that some at bottom of page are discontinued, but ones at top seem in stock...they seem to be the same, but codes appear different)....eclipse 2

 

 

Jeff,

Thanks. It looks like you have to buy it over the counter at B&H. They won't ship it anywhere.

[menos I M6]

E2 does include forbidden material for shipping/ airfreights.

I have not come over a seller, who would ship to my door yet.

 

I buy E2 in a local shop.

 

There are alternative solutions to E2, which are advertised as not being forbidden to ship (can't catch the name right away, but it is the other big company, selling sensor cleaning products).

Thom Hogan advices this in his sensor cleaning article, as far, as I can remember.

[xtoph]

thanks william for all the detail and descriptions. it is really interesting to know.

 

i am curious if you (or anyone else) has tried the lenspen sensorklear approach. it seems like it might be a simple way to cope with both dust specks and small oil specks, w/o wet cleaning (i travel a lot by air, so it would be useful to be able to just use a device like this). i've heard it is important to dab the pen on a lint-free lens tissue or such before using, and of course you need to blow off any free dust first.

 

anyone have any experiences? or william, are you willing to try one in your next sensor-cleaning roundup?

[sanyasi]

Has anyone tried a Q-tip and two drops of denatured alcohol? I have been advised that this is Leica's recommended wet cleaning method. Certainly a lot cheaper than all these pricey products that play on fear and convenient because you should be able to find the alcohol in any city with little cost.

[SJP]

Do not use denatured alcohol, you want to use high purity (laboratory) grade isopropyl alcohol IPA (IPA is CC(OH)C, not CCOH ethanol).

 

Regular denatured alcohol is not very pure and may contain colorants & other stuff which leaves marks on the sensor (+ methanol to make you blind).

[Frank Sprow]

Sure don't want to mess anyone up chemistry wise, but as a (ex) chemist the formulas are:

 

Methanol -- CH4O

Ethanol (the drinking stuff) -- C2H6O

Isopropyl alcohol (aka Isopropanol) -- C3H8O

 

Any work fine for sensor cleaning if they are of high quality, often called "USP grade", available at lab supply outlets. Don't use the drugstore variety, too many impurities.

 

100% cotton swabs work perfectly, Leica factory style. Use a major brand like QTip and don't wet excessively (just a couple of drops).

 

I like to use a blower first to remove possibly abrasive particles.

[Rick]

I find synthetic q-tips and isopropyl alcohol work very well for sensor cleaning. Works well on dust and oil. I even use my light breath on the sensor plus a q-tip if there is just a spot on it. I think that this sensor cleaning is a little over analyzed. Oh, good loops are a must.

 

Frank is right and he beat me to the chemistry lesson post.

[Guest Digiuser]

You need nothing more than Arctic Butterfly, Eclipse E2 and VF pads.

 

But don't try this

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Hallo,

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[Rick]

I have my camera at work today and this thread got me to thinking about what the sensor would look like under high magnification from the slit-lamp (biomicroscope). I'm an optometrist, so I clamped the camera into the head rest and opened the camera shutter.

 

I was able to clean all of the spots off the sensor with just a q-tip. It worked best to just brush the dust from the top down. Some of it disappeared into the q-tip and some of it obviously fell to the bottom of the box. No liquid of any kind was needed.

 

It was very interesting to see the sensor at high mag and the dust was of a couple types. 10-20% of it is white or black nondescript specks. 80% of it looks like that copper grease color stuff you can use to make better electrical connections. Some of these copper specks are large and some of it is very fine dust like. I can't tell if it is grease or if it something that is more like fine shavings or dust from the lens or camera. It definitely accounts for the majority of the spots.

 

If I can get our slit-lamp video camera attached back on the slit-lamp with the beam splitter, which broke, I'll post some video so you can get a good picture of what cleaning is really doing and what the concept of cleaning is. I think a picture will be worth a thousand posts. And, I think I'd probably call sensor cleaning more like polishing.

[Guest WPalank]

 

It was very interesting to see the sensor at high mag and the dust was of a couple types. 10-20% of it is white or black nondescript specks. 80% of it looks like that copper grease color stuff you can use to make better electrical connections. Some of these copper specks are large and some of it is very fine dust like. I can't tell if it is grease or if it something that is more like fine shavings or dust from the lens or camera. It definitely accounts for the majority of the spots.

 

Rick,

What is your effective magnification?

 

My results were reversed. 80% were white particulate matter, but at a magnification of 20x. At 10x, these really fine particles were hard to see.