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A Sensor Cleaning Horror Story

fotografr

By fotografr
in Leica M8 / Leica M8.2

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fotografr

fotografr

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I hesitate to reveal the following details because they will indicate a level of stupidity and carelessness that I would rather keep secret. However, in the interest of helping some of you relax about the dangers of cleaning your M8 sensors, I have decided to divulge the gory details.

 

Last night I was working on some images from my M8 and noticed several dust spots so I decided to clean the sensor. A few weeks ago I purchased a product called Dust_Aid, which consists of a plastic "flagpole" stick and several sticky pads. The pads have a mild adhesive on one side and a strong one on the other. The idea is to adhere the pad to the flagpole on the strong adhesive side and then apply the mild adhesive in a rocking motion to the sensor to remove particles. If you're not familiar with the product, here is a link: DUST-AID : Adhesive Based Sensor Cleaner for DSLR's

 

Well, I got everything laid out and was just preparing to stick the pad to the pole when the phone rang. I talked a few minutes, then went back to what I was doing. By now you may have guessed what my disaster was, but if you haven't I'll just say that 2 minutes later I was in the bathroom, my heart in my throat, looking for tweasers to try to pull the strong adhesive side of the pad away from my sensor. It was stuck so hard I couldn't pull it away with just my fingers, but using tweasers I was able to loosen a corner and slowly peel it away. I then went back to the desk and looked at my sensor under bright light and was immediately convinced I had just trashed my M8. There was a substantial adhesive outline of the pad stuck hard onto the surface of the sensor.

 

I don't know if Eclipse 2 would remove this or not, but it's a moot point since I just ordered some last week and it has to ship ground transport. I felt this substance had to be removed immediately or it might harden and dry and never come off, so this morning I was the first customer in the door at my local camera store. Of the several wet cleaning options available, none sounded very good. Finally, in desperation, I bought something called SensorKlear. It's a pen shaped device, made by the company that makes the Lenspen--which I've used before and been impressed with. You can see it here: Lens Pen - How To Use - SensorKlear

 

When I got back to my desk with the SensorKlear pen, I was pretty much convinced that my sensor was permanently damaged and had reconciled myself to the notion that my beloved M8 was going to become a knock-around camera I would only use for fun things for myself that I really didn't care that much about. No more M8 on the paying shoots. So I got the M8 into sensor cleaning mode and started applying slight pressure on the sensor where the adhesive was. No effect! So I began pressing harder, figuring I had nothing to lose because the thing was already shot. Well, I put more and more pressure on it and rubbed it back and forth over the smudges, examining the results constantly. Amazingly, the stuff started to come off and after about 5 minutes of quite hard rubbing, the sensor was completely clean and looked like new. I have now tested it thoroughly and can see no effect at all from this traumatic episode. And not a speck of dust anywhere!

 

The reason I am telling this story is that most of us have been led to believe that the sensors are super fragile and can be very easily damaged. I'm certainly not suggesting here that anyone be as careless as I was, but I can tell you from personal experience I will never again tremble at the thought of cleaning a sensor. They are MUCH tougher than you think.

 

Happy cleaning!

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fotografr

fotografr

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Good it all turned out OK but hardly a ringing endorsement of DUST-AID. For me, it's Sensor Swabs + Eclipse.

 

Used correctly, it is probably quite effective, but maybe there should be an IQ qualifier for purchase.

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robertwright

robertwright

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and if while you are scrubbing away an errant finger turns the switch off...bye bye shutter too.

 

I am very happy it worked out as it did, that feeling in the pit of the stomach when all is borked is very sickening.

 

I have not looked at the band-aid solution, I wonder if both adhesive sides are the same color? obviously one does not want to use ones finger to test which is the stickier side and leave grease residue on the cleaning side. Seems like an accident waiting to happen.

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fotografr

fotografr

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Thank you very much for your history.

 

I felt better when I read the end of your history.

 

I am very interested in Dust-Aid clean system, but they don't ship to Europe.

 

 

I'll sell you a partial container. (Just kidding)

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fotografr

fotografr

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and if while you are scrubbing away an errant finger turns the switch off...bye bye shutter too.

 

I am very happy it worked out as it did, that feeling in the pit of the stomach when all is borked is very sickening.

 

I have not looked at the band-aid solution, I wonder if both adhesive sides are the same color? obviously one does not want to use ones finger to test which is the stickier side and leave grease residue on the cleaning side. Seems like an accident waiting to happen.

 

The two sides do look alike, but only after a paper cover is peeled away from the super sticky side. When used right, it would be difficult to make the same mistake I did. I just got very careless--but it won't happen again.

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robertwright

robertwright

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The two sides do look alike, but only after a paper cover is peeled away from the super sticky side. When used right, it would be difficult to make the same mistake I did. I just got very careless--but it won't happen again.

 

I'd wager you are not alone. It is not about the right way, for there is no other way. Making both sides the same color is flat out dumb. Make the bad side red, the good side green. The fact of the peel off paper is incidental. Yes, if you follow the instructions, all is fine. But that is the whole point, when you have only two scenarios, normal, and catastrophic, the design is at fault.

 

I think the fact that it can happen to someone with a ton of experience means that the swab is poorly designed. It is sort of obvious. Do they really need that kind of sticky on the other side? Probably not. What about a one piece sponge design with NO handle? There are many other ways to solve this. Sticking the sponge to the sensor should simply never be a possibility. Thats my opinion anyway.

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tashley

tashley

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Brent, you poor poor man - glad you got lucky in the end but that must have been a trauma!

 

I'm a Visible Dust man myself, I rarely get spots and when I do, an Arctic Butterfly does it for me every time. Though of course now I've said that I'll take a bad jab and snap the sensor.

 

Best

 

Tim

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woodyspedden

woodyspedden

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Thanks, Chris. I had a fairly depressing evening. Never did tell my wife why I was so quiet at dinner.

 

Since we are talking sensor cleaning I just bought the Visible Dust Sensor Scope which I find really useful. It is a Bausch and Lomb set of optics with six very bright white LED's. When I looked at my M8 sensors it was so easy to see not only the dust specs but also how willing they may be to come off using simple methods i.e. no solutions or swabs. I took a good look and then used the latest Visible Dust Artic Butterfly to clean. The specs were gone after one swipe. An f16 out of focus shot of a cloudy sky showed no spots whatsoever.

 

I think the beauty of this device is that once you gain confidence that you get what you see, there is no need for iterative cleanings followed by the f16 out of focus sky to confirm that you are indeed clean.

 

For $79 CDN this product is really neat.

 

I have no connection with Visible Dust other than as a customer

 

Woody Spedden

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AlanJW

AlanJW

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Good it all turned out OK but hardly a ringing endorsement of DUST-AID. For me, it's Sensor Swabs + Eclipse.

 

Me too. That adhesive scares me. Just did mine today with sensor swabs and Eclipse; Easy as pie (however, I've never understood why pie is supposed to be easy).

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hahn73

hahn73

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Thanks for the sharing the story - that helps a lot for those of us about to do our first sensor cleaning. I actually previously suspected the sensor was stronger than people in general think. Mostly because there is a thin glass cover isn't there? Which means you're never really rubbing the sensor itself. And if it truly was stuck on there, I suspect you could've sent it to Solms and they would've simply replaced it with a new glass "cover slip".

 

Besides, for all the warnings about the fragility of sensors, I have yet to hear of ANYONE regardless of camera type, damage their sensors when cleaning them. I find it difficult to believe we wouldn't have heard at least several horror stories of unrecoverable damage to sensors if they truly were that fragile. There can't be that many people with such steady hands. :)

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