Cleaning camera guts

[Deliberate1]

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I just acquired a Giottos Rocket Air device to blow out the inside of my 006. Having scratched my focusing screen with a fine lens brush, I am a bit squeamish mucking about in there, but there are all sorts of particles on the screen that make focusing a bit annoying - especially a fiber of some sort that has settled right on the bulls eye of the split screen.

Any do's and don't with one of these devices?

Thanks

David

[Jeff S]

You might remove the screen per these instructions, and use the provided brush and/or use blower before replacing...  

 

https://youtu.be/QB5j3JmdyUM

 

Did you use the provided brush to initially clean the screen?  As noted, be careful when removing and replacing screen.

 

If you're leery, a good store like Leica Miami will do it for you.

 

Jeff

Edited September 7, 2016 by Jeff S

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[Deliberate1]

Jeff, thanks for yours.

I have seen that vid and used it as a primer before changing out the focusing screen. I will reverse engineer and remove the screen to clean it.

I have never cleaned the sensor and note dots that look suspiciously like the corrosion artifacts on my M9. Before posting images, I would like to at least blow any dust particles off it. I assume that the cleaning mode exposes the sensor? If so, is there any reason not to use the blower on it? I do not intend to wet clean - at least at this stage.

Appreciate your thoughts.

David

[mgrayson3]

I do exactly that with a rocket blower about once/week. Do it under a VERY bright light and you can often see the dust specks. Just remember that a spot in the lower left of a picture lives on the upper left of the sensor. (It would be upper right, but you turn the camera around to face you - and assuming you turn it around a vertical axis, you interchange left-right.)

 

Aside on mirrors:

If you've ever wondered why mirrors reverse left-right and not up-down, it's because when we turn things (and ourselves) around, we rotate about a vertical axis. If we rotated around a horizontal axis, we'd think mirrors reversed up-down. Hold a book up to a mirror. How do you know what's really on the page? You turn the book around. Think about HOW you turn the book around, and you get the answer. Yes, I'm a mathematician.

--Matt

Edited September 7, 2016 by mgrayson3

[Deliberate1]

Matt, thanks for the reassurance and for making my brain hurt so early in the day.

David

[dpitt]

...

Any do's and don't with one of these devices?

Thanks

David

You probably already know this but:

- store the blower in a dust free environment

- use it in dust free as possible environment because it will suck in dust particles as well

- hold your camera always upside down before removing the lens and until you seal it again with lens or cap

- do not touch the sensor with the tip of the blower

- to check for specks of dust, take a sheet of white paper, set lens to minimum aperture e.g. F22 or F16, put camera on A and point it without focusing on the paper, move the camera around while pressing the shutter. Anything that is not dust will now be blurred, specs of dust will be sharp and clearly visible (works best with lenses 50mm and up)

- Inspect this picture in 100% view in the viewer of your choice

- blow the sensor holding camera upside down, repeat process to take picture and blowing as long as specs remain visible in the picture, until it does not improve anymore

 

I never try to inspect the sensor directly when I am blow-cleaning because that means putting it on its back and while inspecting a lot of new dust might settle on it again. Of course with a wet cleaning process, you will have to put the camera on its back, and hope for the best about new dust particles.

 

Caveat! Some people might want to try canned air to clean their sensor. Be careful with that because some of these cans release a liquid that will really mess up your sensor and make a trip to dealer or Leica necessary.

[albertknappmd]

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These issues come up frequently...

 

Some people are comfortable cleaning their cameras and some are not..

 

Cleaning the viewfinder focussing screen is relatively easy but demands care as the screen can easily scratch. Meticulous technique is important here but so are the little things like turning off all air conditioners or fans in the room and using clean blowers... I keep the viewfinder screen right side up so that air blows in but the fibers or dirt drop down and out.

 

The sensor is a very different issue and most people will just use the sensor (with the camera upside down) and hope for the best. The more intrepid will use wet solutions with varying degrees of success. I will first use the blower, then the arctic cleaning brush and if that fails then Aeroclipse or Sensor Swabs from Photographic solutions. Practice does indeed make perfect and I started out by perfecting my technique on small pieces of window glass... 

 

Needless to say, I always test the sensor by shooting at clear blue sky at f/16 and the spots are obvious on your screen...

 

Albert     

[dpitt]

...

Needless to say, I always test the sensor by shooting at clear blue sky at f/16 and the spots are obvious on your screen...

 

Albert     

Clear blue sky works fine, but your shutter time will be higher, so small birds in the air for example might appear on your test picture as a spec of dust. It has happened to me that I was trying to clone out some defect that looked like a dust particle and then was a bird when I looked closer. So moving the camera with 1/30 or longer will help...

 

Obviously you live in a part of the world where the weather cooperates

Waiting for a clear blue sky in Belgium or England would seriously limit the days I could attempt a clean

[fahrenhyde]

I would NEVER use a blowing device. It can blow any kind of stuff on your sensor, for example oily dust coming from inner parts of the camera or what not. As soon as you have any oily stuff on your sensor, you have to give it a wet clean.

 

I use the Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly only. Bought it years ago for my Canon and it is still the only thing I would touch my sensors with.

Note: Never touch anything else but your sensor with that brush. Never. And follow the manual very precisely.

 

It's an expensive thing, but it works wonders. I never had to do a wet clean, my sensors are clean after the process (which I seldom do, I know ..)

 

 

Best, Jorma.

Edited September 19, 2016 by fahrenhyde

[Jeff S]

I would NEVER use a blowing device. It can blow any kind of stuff on your sensor, for example oily dust coming from inner parts of the camera or what not. As soon as you have any oily stuff on your sensor, you have to give it a wet clean.

 

 

 

I prefer to carefully and gently blow sensor with before attempting a wet clean (with camera inverted).  This can be effective to loosen any dust or grit that could scratch the sensor glass cover with a brush.  On my M's, this almost always clears spots without any need for wet clean.

 

Jeff

[albertknappmd]

I agree...

Using a blower carefully has been helpful over 75% of the time....

Using a blower and then the arctic brush has been helpful for 20% of the rest...

I use wet cleaning about 5% of the time.

 

Please note that the issue about oil is a function of the age of your M camera in particular. You get oil frequently on the new camera and it is spread by shutter action. The force of a hand blower is negligible and will not be enough to spread the oil. If it does, the last thing you want to do is use the Arctic butterfly as this will worsen the problem. Go straight to Eclipse or whatever wet solution you fancy...

 

I have done this hundreds of times over the years and have yet to scratch the sensor cover...

 

May the streak last!!!

 

Albert