Cleaning your M9 Sensor

[salim]

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Hello all

 

I recently made a quick check on my M9 Sensor and I realized I have alot of dirt and spots. Anyone have experience how to go about cleaning the sensor, I have to send it to Germany for that?.

 

Please advice?

[wda]

There are some useful discussions in this forum [search button]. But briefly, routine uncomplicated cleaning can be done by the user after studying methods described on websites which promote cleaning materials. I have an illuminated magnifier to examine the sensor cover for dust and contamination. Then I use an Arctic Brush for carefully removing loose dust particles. Usually that does the trick. But sometimes you need to consider a wet clean with approved materials. Well worth doing a search and come back with specific questions. It is not necessary to return your camera to Solms.

[flyalf]

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m-type-240/307501-sensor-wet-cleaning.html

[Paul J]

Having scratched a sensor in the past (a Canon) I won't clean my own. Even though I was so super careful and did it, in a way that I had thought very delicate, it was scratched. There really is no telling what kind of gunk is in there that you are scraping around. Many people here scoff at that, but as it was about the cost of a whole new camera to replace at the time, personally, I would rather pay Leica and have them liable

 

Depending on where you are then you can get Leica to do it. Leica Mayfair in London, for example, offer a quick service for £70 (I think) and I have only needed to do it once. The rest of the time I just turn my camera upside down and give my sensor a squirt with the blower brush once every few days. When Leica cleaned it they discovered the sensor needed replacing from oil damage too. Seems a known issue with the M9 shutter.

[CrisRose]

Leica Mayfair now offer free sensor cleaning for all digital M bodies, just book it in and drop by. They cleaned my M8 while I waited.

[250swb]

 

Please advice?

 

Learn to clean it yourself, be in control of when and where you want to clean your sensor, keep your camera with you instead of wasting time sending it off or hanging around.

 

There are plenty of guides, some of them with common sense, some not. Simple facts though are if cleaning hasn't been done before you are likely to have oil spots so a wet clean will be needed. Don't be tempted to short circuit this with brushes and other dubious ideas, you will only contaminate the brush and/or spread the oil around. Dust and oil settle down over time and then it may be that only infrequent cleaning is needed, and often a brush such as an Arctic Butterfly does the job without any fuss in a few minutes.

 

If you don't try cleaning it yourself you continue to be locked into a take it in/send it away system of cleaning that could have ultimately been done at home in a minute or two using the knowledge you have acquired. As for damaging the sensor, well consider how many millions of cameras have been cleaned at home or in the field and then how many damage reports you get, a miniscule amount. Remember, you don't hear about the successful outcomes, you hear the scare stories. Cleaning your sensor is not a skilled job, it does require common sense and some care.

 

Steve

[Paul J]

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I spent years cleaning my sensor with no problems and I thought it was simple and it did with utmost care, but I ended up scratching it and the repair bill was almost as much as the camera. There is no telling what gunk it is inside that you are dragging around. The only thing I clean is by Phase One back because it is completely different. You have direct and clear access to the sensor and it's unhindered by a mirror box. You can see every spec of dust and it's usually just a blower burst that's needed.

 

I just read a thread this week in the S Forum and read the couple people who have cleaned them selves and run into problems facing a $6700 bill. Here is a link to countless pages elsewhere on the matter.

 

If Leica is doing it for free now (this must be new), while you wait, then all the better.

[wda]

Clearly there are different levels of competence in cleaning camera sensor covers. (The actual sensor surface is not accessible). Some, exercising reasonable care, do so with confidence. Others probably are better off having it done professionally. The situation is eased by Leica Mayfair, and presumably other flagship stores, offering a free service. It wasn't always like that. But access to a store is academic if you are working in the wilds of the world, remote from any support. That is when expert self-help proves its worth.

[250swb]

I guess if I strolled past Leica Mayfair every day I could have my sensor cleaning done while I chatted or went for a spot of lunch at The Connaught. Otherwise I would need to post my camera, and never mind the time the camera is away the insured courier cost for my 'free' sensor clean would be astronomical, it may even be cheaper to send my chauffer down with it in the Roller. If I drove twenty miles to my nearest Leica main dealer it is an hour and a half round trip, and if they couldn't drop everything and do it immediately I may miss my round of golf which would be intolerable.

 

Some people presumably have more free time than others, and a distorted idea of what 'free' amounts to. If the most skilled job in a camera shop is avoiding eye contact with people who have been waiting twenty minutes, then sensor cleaning is nearly the least skilled job, one rung above sweeping up, but the early specialisation in all matters 'dust' can lead to rapid career advancement.

 

 

 

Steve

[Paul J]

Clearly there are different levels of competence in cleaning camera sensor covers. (The actual sensor surface is not accessible). Some, exercising reasonable care, do so with confidence. Others probably are better off having it done professionally. The situation is eased by Leica Mayfair, and presumably other flagship stores, offering a free service. It wasn't always like that. But access to a store is academic if you are working in the wilds of the world, remote from any support. That is when expert self-help proves its worth.

 

I fail to see why there is a need to be so condescending. It's a wonder why anyone helps anyone around here these days.

 

Good luck with that.

[Paul J]

I guess if I strolled past Leica Mayfair every day I could have my sensor cleaning done while I chatted or went for a spot of lunch at The Connaught. Otherwise I would need to post my camera, and never mind the time the camera is away the insured courier cost for my 'free' sensor clean would be astronomical, it may even be cheaper to send my chauffer down with it in the Roller. If I drove twenty miles to my nearest Leica main dealer it is an hour and a half round trip, and if they couldn't drop everything and do it immediately I may miss my round of golf which would be intolerable.

 

Some people presumably have more free time than others, and a distorted idea of what 'free' amounts to. If the most skilled job in a camera shop is avoiding eye contact with people who have been waiting twenty minutes, then sensor cleaning is nearly the least skilled job, one rung above sweeping up, but the early specialisation in all matters 'dust' can lead to rapid career advancement.

 

 

 

Steve

 

It's a ten minute job that I would have done once a year. A few squirts of the camera, upside down, with a blower brush is mostly all that's required otherwise.

 

As for free time, it's not me that takes the camera down

[250swb]

It's a ten minute job that I would have done once a year

 

But that's the point, sensor cleaning is not something to schedule for once or twice a year, it only needs doing when it needs doing and that is always the most inconvenient time to do it. You can be held hostage by a speck of dust if you can't deal with it in short order. Dust, something that photographers have battled against for 170 years by their own efforts is now sub-contracted out!

 

......shakes head and wonders what the world has come to, exit stage right.

 

Steve

[wda]

I fail to see why there is a need to be so condescending. It's a wonder why anyone helps anyone around here these days.

 

Good luck with that.

Paul, that was certainly not my intention. I know owners who are extremely nervous about tackling sensor cleaning and avoid it like the plague, despite being shown a safe approach at public demonstrations such as those in the past at Focus on Imaging in Birmingham. Clearly they are well-advised to seek professional help. Often they are unaware of the contamination dust can incur. As an alternative, there dealers in the provinces who will do the job for them, while they wait.

[tobey bilek]

Blower brush works 75% of the time. I will admit to short blasts of canned air after purging the nozzle and holding can upright. Now we are 90%.

 

There can be some toughies that really weld on, pollen I think. The longer they stay on, they better they stick.

 

I will use Copperhill swabs and Eclipse to finish it off.

 

Normally this all takes 15 min per camera. I set up a production line and do them all.

 

Dust is the little squigly things. Not a problem. The little beige "rocks" that seem glued on are the issue.

[O Driver]

Leica Mayfair now offer free sensor cleaning for all digital M bodies, just book it in and drop by. They cleaned my M8 while I waited.

 

After having a dealer in Manchester make a complete mess of my M9 sensor by doing a 'free clean' I'd always take it to Leica Mayfair…especially if it's now free….

[rafael_macia]

Wet sensor cleaning for me, until recently, was a nightmare. Residue and smears every time I used the Visible Dust liquid, along with their swabs..

Recently I bought a Delkin Devices sensor scope kit. The sensor scope helps to light up dust that is there, but the real winner for me was the Delkin liquid, which leaves no residue, or smear, as did the Visible Dust solution.

I used to think the Arctic Butterfly worked .... now with the scope I always see more dust after using the Butterfly.

I think I may need to hit the bristles of the Butterfly, with a vacuum.

Sensor cleaning is a real pain, but I think should be mastered. bringing it in to a repair shop is expensive and time consuming

[jackstraw]

IMHO, way too much made of this. Hold upside down, a couple of bursts from Giottos Rocket blower and if not perfect, clean enough. If still spots (mostly in f11 and f16 exposures) clean them up in post processing. Easy peasy.

[Guest jvansmit]

IMHO, way too much made of this. Hold upside down, a couple of bursts from Giottos Rocket blower and if not perfect, clean enough. If still spots (mostly in f11 and f16 exposures) clean them up in post processing. Easy peasy.

 

that's what I do too

 

Perhaps I should be ashamed of this but I haven't had any of my sensors cleaned ever (M8, M9, MM, M240), despite shooting routinely in quite dusty places in China & Cambodia.

 

I only have problems in sky areas at small apertures, and these are easy to clean up in post-processing.

[250swb]

IMHO, way too much made of this. Hold upside down, a couple of bursts from Giottos Rocket blower and if not perfect, clean enough. If still spots (mostly in f11 and f16 exposures) clean them up in post processing. Easy peasy.

 

Until one of those spots appears over critical detail, like an eye, something that can't be cloned. So to site two extremes it's almost reasonable advice for a dedicated landscape photographer, a leaf is just a leaf, the sky just clouds, not so good for a wedding photographer having to deal with the mother-in-law.

 

Steve

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[tobey bilek]

Did mine yesterday.

 

Rocket blower, Copperhill Sensor sweep got the few that were left.

 

On the the M9. Had to resort to liquid clean, twice, Eclipse. First time I put more dirt on than I took off. No idea how that happened as the were clean swabs untouched by my hands