Thank you Leica, no thank you Dust-Aid

[jaapv]

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Anyone have success with the rocket air blower?

That is always the first step to take. Often the last one as well.

[250swb]

Anyone have success with the rocket air blower?

 

Its a great tool if you want to move dust from one area of the sensor to another, or blow dust out of a corner of the camera and onto the sensor, but for getting rid of dust I've not found it very successful.

 

You have no control where the dust goes, unlike other systems that lift dust out of the camera, the Rocket just blows it about, and while some will be cleared off the sensor (and leave the camera), you don't know if some dust has been blown further into the camera to return another day. I would use it to get dust out of the shutter box before opening the shutter to clean the sensor, but I'm sad to say there is no substitute for a more expensive cleaning option like an Arctic Butterfly.

 

Steve

[chris_tribble]

Jaap- I'm really sorry to hear about your experience, great that you've got your camera back now. I've tried several methods and products, and the one I keep coming back to is the Visible Dust product: VisibleDust -- DSLR Sensor Cleaning

 

It's the only one that gets rid of dust, oil stains and leaves no slime or residue on the sensor.

 

This matches my experience too - I've been using these products since early days with the Canon 1D mk2 and 20D through to M9 and have had no problems - EVER.

 

Strongly recommend.

[diogenis]

Still, I insist: we should at least give them a chance to redeem themselves. The problem with all those wet solutions, is that you are forced to drag the swap along the sensor to clean the glass surface. If you have a particle with a bigger hardness factor than that surface, then you risk a scratch. This is what is supposed of fixing dust aid.

 

Since you have this experience Jaap, contact them and tell them what happened in detail, and ask them the reason for all this mess.

[jaapv]

Yes - I guess you are right., I think I will contact them.

[ianspector]

I moved away from the wet systems after a bad experience with my Nikon D3 that left bits of the pad stuck to various parts of the shutter area - a common occurrence with the D3, and an expensive repair bill from Nikon.

 

After the rocket blower refused to clean up my M9 sensor I read the various threads here and went for the Visible Dust system. I must say the gel dibber sticks to the sensor with the zeal of the partisans and I was convinced that I was going to be left with a sensor lollipop. I was amazed that the system got every single piece of dirt off the sensor on the first attempt. I mean 100% spotless. No mess, no smears and no dust.

 

Moose Peterson once told me that normal atmospheric dust is rarely visible if it is on the sensor. The visible marks that we detect are from metal filings that emanate from the metal-metal of the lens mount. He always uses cleaning fluid on a swab in the mount to clean up all the swarf . Looking through a microscope at the swab after such a cleaning showed a mass of metal filings. I have often wondered about the veracity of this claim.

 

Anyway, chalk another up to Passport.

 

Ian

[diogenis]

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Ian, I don't know who Moose Peterson is, but what he told you was wrong.

Pick any strong source of light, and watch your LCD screen after cleaning it thoroughly. Dust specs appear to settle on it real fast. This same air -full of dust- is probably the same air that you breathe and clean the camera sensor as well.

And its full of it.

Actually maybe, silicon based dust could be more harmful than metal particles since it got higher hardness

Mohs scale of mineral hardness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Anyway, dragging those swabs on a IR filter gives me frantic spine chills. Maybe they should protect those surfaces with sapphire glass or gorilla glass ()

[jaapv]

Often the debris are broken-off hairs of your eyelashes and skin flakes. So always look in at an angle..

[ianman]

Anyone have success with the rocket air blower?

 

Not much at all. So far I've found it pretty useless actually. I use one a Pentax Image Sensor Cleaning Kit which works quite well.

 

However there are a couple of systems mentioned in this thread that seem worth checking out.

 

Ian

[ianspector]

Ian, I don't know who Moose Peterson is, but what he told you was wrong.

Pick any strong source of light, and watch your LCD screen after cleaning it thoroughly. Dust specs appear to settle on it real fast. This same air -full of dust- is probably the same air that you breathe and clean the camera sensor as well.

And its full of it.

Actually maybe, silicon based dust could be more harmful than metal particles since it got higher hardness

Mohs scale of mineral hardness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Anyway, dragging those swabs on a IR filter gives me frantic spine chills. Maybe they should protect those surfaces with sapphire glass or gorilla glass ()

 

I fully accept that our world is dusty and that most of our household dust is various bits of shed human anatomy, the point was whether or not metallic detritus is more opaque on the sensor than bits of human skin. My inclination is also not to accept it as anything that blocks light on the sensor is going to show up as a darker area on a capture.

 

Ian

[gravastar]

One thing I've found with human debris is that it contains body oils. If left on the sensor for any length of time an oily patch forms around the debris which is left behind if the original object is blown off. The only way to remove the patch is by wet cleaning.

 

The Pentax sensor cleaner in post #29 looks like a rebadged version of the Sensor Vu DL-AC01 sold by Microtools at a much lower price in the USA or Europe. They appear to have a new product the DL-AC02 which I've never tried.

 

Bob.

[ianman]

The Pentax sensor cleaner in post #29 looks like a rebadged version of the Sensor Vu DL-AC01 sold by Microtools at a much lower price in the USA or Europe. They appear to have a new product the DL-AC02 which I've never tried.

 

Bob.

 

Bob, the Pentax kit is actually quite a bit cheaper because you get 40 cleaning sheets whereas you only get 10 with the Microtools version... and you cannot buy them separately.

 

Ian

[rob_w]

Jaap, I too would like to see you provide feedback to Dust-Aid and hear their response (if any). I am curious as to why you had the problem when we saw Leica factory staff using the same or similar cleaning equipment in the video released for the M9.

 

If you do go back to them, please let us know what you find out.

[jaapv]

I seem to recall that was the Pentax system.

 

Here is a copy of the mail I sent to Dust-Aid

 

Good Afternoon,

 

I am afraid I have to report that I had serious problems with one Dust Aid Platinum. First-off, I have been cleaning my sensors for over a decade, so I do not lack experience, I am a dentist, so I do not lack manual dexterity and I do use an operating microscope to see what I am doing when cleaning the sensor, if needed.

 

I used the Rocket Blower to remove loose particles, and then went to your stamping tool. It worked fine, until I used a cleaning strip. The adhesive of the cleaning strip apparently stuck to the stamp and thus got transferred to the sensor. It took me an hour to get it off again and during the process a particle must have been retransferred to the sensor with the adhesive, causing cleaning marks on the sensor. Furthermore I got the impression that the resulting "pull" of the combination adhesive-stamp caused some play in one edge of the IR filter.

 

Fortunately my camera is a Leica M9 with passport guaranty, so Leica replaced the sensor free of charge.

 

Because I had no financial loss this mail is not to claim any compensation, but to inform you of the problems I had.

 

 

 

Kind regards,

[Doc Henry]

Jaap,

For my M9 and my M8 I use this without any problem :

Cleaning Digital Sensors, Cleaning Digital Cameras - Photographic Solutions, Inc. - Digital & Photographic Cleaning Solutions

Am I wrong?

It's advised by my Leica dealer

I rarely change my lens (lux 35 and 50mm) I always let lens on cameras, unless I need a 90mm or 28mm

Regards

Henry

[jaapv]

I found Eclipse can leave a white residue, but yes, I do use it.

[Ed_K]

The Pentax one is pretty hard to find (both via the internet and out there on the street) and one retailer told me the supply was cut short because there was a problem, not sure whether it suffers a design fault similar to Dust-Aid though.

[diogenis]

Henry,

If you check Jaap's case, the problem was formed "indirectly" from dust aid. Actually Jaap, scratched his sensor, while trying to remove some goo that was never supposed to transfer from dust aid.

Apparently as he said, there must have been a dust particle that scratched the glass while trying to remove the whole matter. This is exactly what worries me with dragging these swabs in that sensor glass.

As for particles, I believe that the majority is actually dust/soil and not human cells or metal scraps that fall from the shutter. For this reason alone I am convinced and insist that the dustaid/pentax blob/butterfly from visible solution are preferred over any swab that removes with dragging. Now if you do use the swabs, use them with a "feather touch" as light as you can, and always check with a magnifier and a strong light.

I have the butterfly myself, but it hardly works for me (maybe humidity, heat, combo?)

The dust aid is my last resort by the way, unless it leaves goo, like as it happened to Jaap. Also, please notice that dust aid stamp is considered a dry clean solution as opposed to swabs and isopropyl liquid.

Obviously, a solution for something like what happened to Jaap would be to inspect the surface of the stamp, but we need dust aid to tell why that happened.

[wlaidlaw]

I just got my M9 back from Solms (two weeks turnaround door to door, including wait for a spare part) The cleaning damage by Dust-Aid meant a new sensor... Thanks to Passport Warranty it did not cost me anything, but I will not be using the system any more.

 

I TOLD everyone on this forum a number of times over at least 3 years how dangerous this product was and very strongly recommended against its use. The batch I got in early 2007 separated across the foam line when I was peeling a square off the backing strip and if that had happened in the camera, the shutter would have been destroyed and probably the sensor damaged. I got a refund on the cost but my thinking was that if that was the state of their quality control, it was not a product I would ever consider using again and maybe nobody else should either.

 

There are much safer ways of cleaning your sensor, wet or dry.

 

Wilson

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Hallo,

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[wlaidlaw]

While we are talking cleaning, has anyone tried this dust vacuum Digital camera sensor cleaning ? I would love it if someone else has been the guinea pig on this. I have found the Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly and Rocket to be some use in getting sensor dust off but far from perfect and I am sure the Rocket really just blows the dust into corners in the chamber, from where it will re-settle on the sensor. I feel it is important to get as much dust off as possible, prior to wet cleaning.

 

Wilson