In the last episode, I went over the basics of keeping your gear clean, wiping down lens barrels and shaking the crumbs out of your camera bag. But today I'm diving into the forbidden zone. I'm going to talk about cleaning your sensor. To be clear, up into the pandemic,
I was the biggest advocate for never touching your sensor. My logic was simple. The sensor is the heart of the camera. It's the most important and most expensive part of the camera. And if you scratch it, game over. For the previous 10 years, my advice was always send it to the manufacturer. I used to drive my camera over to the Canon facility here on Long Island. It was easy, it was safe, and I slept better at night. But then...
2020 happened, the world shut down, Canada shut down their service center, and suddenly, if I wanted a clean image, I was on my own. So I did some research and what I found really surprised me. You can and should learn to clean your own sensor. It's way more difficult to scratch your sensor than I thought. So here's what you need to know about cleaning your sensor. First, how do you know it's time to clean your sensor?
If you're seeing mysterious spots or tiny black or gray squiggly worms in your photos, especially in the blank areas like the sky, it's time. The best way to check for this is to test for it so you can see what you're dealing with. First, turn your lens to manual focus. For most of you, it's a little switch on the side of the lens. For some of you, there's a switch on the front of the camera to the right of the lens. And for the rest of you, you probably need to go through the menu
to turn on manual focus. Once you've done that, turn your focus ring all the way to one side, either infinity or the closest setting. It doesn't matter. What you want is for the image to be blurry so that the dust stands out. Next, put your camera in aperture priority mode and crank it up to F16 or even maybe F22. We're not looking for the sharpest image here. We're looking for the sharpest dust.
So we need that depth of field to make those tiny dust specks sharper. And actually, we're not actually making the tiny dust specks sharper as much as we're making the shadow of the dust specks sharp. Next, set your ISO to a static 100 for the cleanest resolution possible. Lastly, point your camera at a blank wall or a clear blue sky and take a photo. Now hit Playback and magnify the image. And what you'll want to do is you want to scroll around to every section of the image
and see if there are any little black dots or worms. And if you see that, congratulations, you've got dust. Whomp, whomp. Okay, now that we've established that you have a dust problem, you'll need to prepare your camera for a cleaning. One thing you'll want to pay attention to is this. If your camera has IBIS, which is in-body image stabilization, your sensor is floating. If you try to clean your sensor while it's loose,
you could damage the stabilization mechanism. Always go into your menu and select manual sensor cleaning. This locks the sensor in place so you can clean it safely. If you don't know how to do this, check your manual. And if you can't find your manual, go to the manufacturer's website and download it. So now that we've prepared your camera for a cleaning, the next thing we need to do is to go with the path of least resistance. Take a handheld bulb blower, give the sensor a few puffs
while holding the camera face down so that the dust falls out. Make sure you don't poke your sensor with the tip of that blower. And as much as I just said, it's reasonably difficult to scratch your sensor, I still don't wanna be poking that sensor. And the reason I'm using a handheld blower and not canned air or a shop compressor is because canned air has chemical propellants that can spray gunk onto your sensor.
And air compressors often have moisture or even oily moisture inside. And the pressure from either one of these systems is really way too high. And if there's dirt in the compressor, you're now shooting that right into your sensor. Remember, you're trying to clean the sensor, not power wash a driveway. Once you've done that, take another test shot. If the spots are gone, you're done. Stop. Don't do any more.
Congratulations, move on with your life. If they're still there, you're gonna need to get a little more aggressive. I'm not talking about yelling at your camera. That's not gonna help. Since the blower didn't work, the dust is essentially stuck and you need a surfactant to break it loose. You'll need two things, sensor swabs that are sized specifically for your sensor and cleaning liquid. As for the cleaning liquid, I've tried a few different brands, but I always go back to
some brands claim to dry faster, but I found they dry so fast, they're basically useless. Eclipse essentially hits that Goldilocks zone. Just wet enough for you to do your job and not so wet that it leaves streaks. What you'll want to do is you'll want to put one or two drops of liquid on the end of the swab. Never put it on the sensor directly. Then you'll drag it across the sensor in one smooth motion.
Don't mash down, just let it touch the surface. Just let gravity bring it across. Here's a pro tip. Use a magnifying glass or a desk lamp with a magnifying glass to see what you're doing. Once you see that all the dust is gone, you're done. Take another test shot and see if you've cleared everything. If not, just go back and do it again. And that's it. That's all there is to it. The first time will probably take you about 10 minutes.
Once you've done it a couple of times, it's about a two minute job. Just stay patient and be gentle. I know sometimes it feels like you're performing brain surgery here because it seems so delicate and you don't want to mess anything up, but here's some peace of mind. Your sensor isn't actually naked. It's covered by a protective piece of glass. At the beginning of the podcast, I said it's actually kind of tough to scratch your sensor.
I once saw video of a guy trying to intentionally scratch his sensor. He started by rubbing some laundry lint in it. Nothing happened. He rubbed dirt on it and still nothing happened. In the end, he had to use a literal box cutter to actually scratch it. The key is it's a precision instrument and it's not made of tissue paper. Please note, standard disclaimer, I'm here to share what works for me.
Please be careful. I can't be held responsible if your sensor cleaning goes awry. Thanks for listening. I hope that was helpful. Until next time, keep on shooting.
Safari Gift Certificates
