Digital Home Thoughts: For Want Of A Clean Sensor

"The biggest hassle for photographers using digital SLRs is dust and crud on the sensor. Dust has always been a problem for photographers, dating back to the Daguerreotype of 150 years ago. But with dust on sensors photographers have an additional problem. Cleaning them is almost universally warned against by camera makers. If you do so, and manage to scratch or otherwise damage the cover glass over the sensor, you are responsible for the cost of repairs. And even though the cover glass (which all sensors have) isn't the sensor itself, in almost all cases it is bonded to the sensor, and thus scratches on its surface likely means an expensive replacement of the entire sensor module."


Yes, you are seeing a blank image (it is just a picture of a clean sensor)

Luminous Landscape talks about tools that would help you with the do-it-yourself sensor cleaning. It is interesting that I read this article now because just a month ago, when I was buying my 75-300mm lens (review coming soon), I realized how dirty both the sensor as well as the mirror on my EOS 10D had gotten. So while I was at B&H buy the lens, I decided to pick up some cleaning supplies too. Luckily there was someone there who said that he used to work for Canon and was willing to clean my camera for me (right then and there) for free. I gave my camera to him nervously, and watched him clean it (even more nervously), but was very happy with the results. Anyways, for those of you who want to clean their own sensor - this article will help.