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M9 Ultimate Sensor Cleaning Device


Guest WPalank

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Totally agree with Steve. For doing museum stuff with an M9 + Visoflex 65 Elmar stopped down to f11, the sensor needs to be spotlessly clean. Touching up in Photoshop is not acceptable for archival images.

 

Wilson

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I find the system ideal :):)Using Microbrushes and E2 removes every spot of dust easily and quickly. Thanks for that tip, William, it had not occurred to me. I seem to keep my sensor reasonably clean - one piece of Pollen (yellow), three assorted lumps of dust, two pieces of eyelash hair. I would advise anybody cleaning his sensor not to keep your eye straight over it - we seem to shed eyelashes when we blink. ;)

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Guest WPalank
I find the system ideal :):)Using Microbrushes and E2 removes every spot of dust easily and quickly. Thanks for that tip, William, it had not occurred to me. I seem to keep my sensor reasonably clean - one piece of Pollen (yellow), three assorted lumps of dust, two pieces of eyelash hair. I would advise anybody cleaning his sensor not to keep your eye straight over it - we seem to shed eyelashes when we blink. ;)

 

Glad I could be of service Jaap. You must have a pal that's an endodontist or ophthalmologist.

 

Tell me more about the micro brushes. I don't think I have ever heard of them. Seems they would be great on the edges.

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Glad I could be of service Jaap. You must have a pal that's an endodontist or ophthalmologist.

 

Tell me more about the micro brushes. I don't think I have ever heard of them. Seems they would be great on the edges.

No- I do most of my own endodontological work, William :)I took this shot in my own practice.

 

http://www.microbrush.com/

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After recently having discovered a prominent dark spot on one of my images, I came across this thread and decided to do the f22-test with my Elmarit 90. The results were absolutely shocking! Going back to past images, I indeed spotted dirt on most pictures by looking again in the right places.

 

Now I've sunk another 3 digits of cash again, this time into a VD loupe and cleaning tools. Just when I thought I finally had it all and no grounds for gear acquisition syndrome anymore! Arghhh!! :mad:

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It is not just Leica. I just bought my son a new Sony A350 as his first DSLR. When I showed him how to look for dirt on the sensor (lens at 70mm, F22, manual focus and fully defocused, pointed at the sky), we found that the sensor was filthy. Just like you we have had to go out buying, as I only had full frame and 1.3 sensor wands and he needs1.5 size wands plus his own blower and E2 bottle. I think the Sony has some form of built in sensor cleaning but that only gets rid of dust and these are what look like oil spots with a sensor loupe.

 

Wilson

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It tried to clean my M9 sensor this week end with the sensor swabs and eclipse product. The result is discouraging (not speaking about the pressure on your shoulders when touching a 1.5k sensor): I did remove the grease spots, but added a good bunch of dust things on it. :(

Next step: back to Solms for a good cleaning...

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Well, Procirep might do it as well (covered by the warranty). It might appear silly, but I trust less and less my french compatriots to take care of my tools (in particular since a tech scratched my almost brand new Selmer saxophone while tuning it - a few years ago...). I'm trying hard to keep my M9 as new as possible. I feel that Leica Solms is in better position to take care of their camera. Does it make sense?

 

Otherwise, I feel that other users of the Sensor Swab tools have experienced the residual dust issue. Is an neutral air spray a good solution?

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Well, Procirep might do it as well (covered by the warranty). It might appear silly, but I trust less and less my french compatriots to take care of my tools (in particular since a tech scratched my almost brand new Selmer saxophone while tuning it - a few years ago...). I'm trying hard to keep my M9 as new as possible. I feel that Leica Solms is in better position to take care of their camera. Does it make sense?

 

Otherwise, I feel that other users of the Sensor Swab tools have experienced the residual dust issue. Is an neutral air spray a good solution?

 

Baptiste,

 

Static seems to be more of a problem with the M9 than the M8 (no idea why). I have a feeling that a rocket or similar blower causes additional static. I therefore use a Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly both before and after a wet clean. The risk with doing this is that you get the Butterfly brush dirty with the grease/oil spots. I used to use the Visible Dust cleaning tablets but did not find them very effective. I now have a pot of 99% Iso Propyl Alcohol, into which I put the Butterfly and turn the motor on. It will dry itself in seconds after you take it out and switch it on again. I would like to know if these Zeeion blowers do actually discharge the static from the sensor by blowing negative ions at it.

 

Wilson

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Baptiste,

 

Static seems to be more of a problem with the M9 than the M8 (no idea why). I have a feeling that a rocket or similar blower causes additional static. I therefore use a Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly both before and after a wet clean. The risk with doing this is that you get the Butterfly brush dirty with the grease/oil spots. I used to use the Visible Dust cleaning tablets but did not find them very effective. I now have a pot of 99% Iso Propyl Alcohol, into which I put the Butterfly and turn the motor on. It will dry itself in seconds after you take it out and switch it on again. I would like to know if these Zeeion blowers do actually discharge the static from the sensor by blowing negative ions at it.

 

Wilson

 

Btw, if I understand well, you remove the dust before& after wet cleaning with the artic butterfly, and what do you use for the wet cleaning? Sry if you already mentioned it on the topic ;)

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Btw, if I understand well, you remove the dust before& after wet cleaning with the artic butterfly, and what do you use for the wet cleaning? Sry if you already mentioned it on the topic ;)

 

Baptiste,

 

I think over the years I have tried all the different solutions. The one that I have found head and shoulders above the others is Eclipse E2, for Leica sensors anyway. The Visible Dust products, Sensor Clean and Smear Away, I regret I both found useless. I do however like V D's swabs, which I have found better than say Eclipse's ones. I find that for a perfect job on the M9, to get into the corners of the sensor, unlike the M8, you need the V D corner swabs. On both types of swabs, the green are more aggressive than the orange ones. The only downside of E2 fluid is that it is inflammable. The US TSA security people at airports are likely to pour it away, even from your checked luggage. I now transfer it to another small bottle (I use an old Visible Dust Sensor Clean bottle) for travel to and from the USA.

 

Wilson

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