hello...  i just bought a second hand Nikon D40 its a very nice camera but  a lot of my landscapes are riddled with dots...  its a pain...  i own a rocket blower but had little effect...  whats your oppion on cleaning the sensor?!

cheers

Mike

Being wary of doing it myself I use an authorized Nikon dealer. If it's too difficult for the dealer to do, they will send it to Nikon for cleaning.

Hope this helps. They do sell cleaning kits but as I said I am wary to do it myself.

Well I've always cleaned my own low pass filters and it's always worked perfectly. Here is a link on how to do it. Have a read of the methods and precautions page, but it's all pretty obvious stuff. I've always just used the first method listed. Although there is no shame in sending it off to the pro's if you are more comfortable with that! Have a good read of the link and see what you think! 

Andrew

http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/methods.html

I had pretty good luck cleaning my Nikon D70 sensor with Iso-propyl alcohol. I believe it was 97%, or reagent grade, which means there is little water. Get it from a druggist. Standard bottles of this stuff is often 40% water and will not work very well. I used lint-free tissues, which still leave lint behind. I wrapped the tissues around a piece of thin wood that I cut myself to be the width of the sensor. This was important. You must swab or clean the entire surface in one pass. If you use a narrower swab, you will always have lint left along the path of the edge of the swab. Use a minimal amount of alcohol on the swab, not dripping! Do not risk getting a flow of cleaner behind the low-pass filter, because then you buy a new camera. Keep replacing the tissue until the sensor has no more lint on it.

Test by shooting up at a clear sky focussed far away and at a very small aperature. Spots will show immediately. Re-clean until you are satisfied, which might take 10 testing/recleaning cycles.

You will really appreciate your next camera with cleaning built into it, as did I. I made a series of 25 small photos with instructions on them describing my entire process, but I can only attach one at a time here, so if you want to send your email adress to me at wordcycling@hotmail.com , I will send the set to you. It totals about 3 MB.

Wayne

I did send mine in to a photography shop for my sensor to be cleaned.

What a dissapointment . My sensor was still dirty after receiving my camera back.

Wayne i would like to see that steps that you are talking about.

Please e-mail the steps for me.

My e-mail adress is johannes.meintjes@gmail.com.

 

I have made the 25 photographs into one PDF file now so I will try to attach that here for those who may be interested. It is just under 1 MB so possibly it may be too large to send to Renderosity. Let's see...

Well, I tried that and it said the file extension was improper so I guess you cannot attach a PDF file. Okay then, if anyone wants it, send your email address to here:

wordcycling@hotmail.com

Wayne

thank you for your advice,

yup i'd like a copy of this pdf too  ,

cheers

Quote - I have made the 25 photographs into one PDF file now so I will try to attach that here for those who may be interested. It is just under 1 MB so possibly it may be too large to send to Renderosity. Let's see...

Well, I tried that and it said the file extension was improper so I guess you cannot attach a PDF file. Okay then, if anyone wants it, send your email address to here:

wordcycling@hotmail.com

Wayne

Wayne.

Thank you I received the pdf file that you mailed to me.

I will have a look.

God Bless.

Regards.

Christo.

Whaleman, you can upload as a tutorial in pdf in the tutorial section.  I will have to take a quick look at that again but I have done it and so have others. It will not be here but in the tutorials, accessed from the tab from top of this page below rendo header.

If you want to upload it as a tut (you can always delete later if you want), when you go to the tutorial tab the option to upload is there.  You would use "offsite".

 

I did post a quick reply about cleaning the sensor but apparently without thinking posted it in the thread on "lens cleaning" on this same page.

Thanks Tom, but I'll just do it as described since not very many are interested anyway.

Wayne

Good enough...Tom

If you have a few extra dollars you can buy a sensor loupe, which is basically a magnifying glass with leds that fits over the lens opening so you can look at the sensor and forego the shooting up at the sky to see if you've gotten all the dust particles. Google Delkin or Visible Dust and you'll see what they look like.

If you don't want to spend quite that much, for about half the price you can get a lighted head band magnifier. (Tom probably knows what I'm talking about) I find this a more versatile tool and went this route. (see picture at top)

And you can also get kits with the cleaning solution and a paddle made to the size of your sensor if you don't want to mess with the alcohol and tissues. The kit is a little on the expensive side as compared to the DIY option but again it's easier. Google Photographic Solutions, Inc Professional Digital Survival Kit, they come in version I, II or III. The website will tell you which version fits your camera.

Hope that sheds a little more light on the subject   : )