First Sensor Cleaning on my Canon Rebel 350D

First Sensor Cleaning on my Canon Rebel 350D, originally uploaded by pedro pan. Check out the amazing synchronicities in the "Adventures of Shiloh Bones"

First I tried blowing with a blower brush. It didn't get the dust that

I exposed (discovered) by shooting the sky at f22-32. I saw big 'ol

dust spots on my powerbook screen @100% pixels in Photoshop. I cleaned

the Sensor in the Camera for the first time Using the Copperhill

Method:



I dribbled 2 drops of Eclipse Sensor Cleaning Fluid on a Pec-Pad

wrapped around a spatula of 13mm (available as a kit from a European

distributor) after trying the sensor brush, that failed to get the

grime... ok, it wasn't grime unless the sensor brush put it there

(Which it seemed to). I rechecked the sensor with another exposure (as

would follow each of 10 swab cleanings) and discovered more dust! So on

with the process of cleaning. I am happy to report - after a scare of

having chipped the protective glass covering the actual sensor chip,

that after 10 swipes of the Eclipse'd Pec-Pad, and one last sensor

brushing, the chip was perfectly clean!!!



After taking the initial sky image, my process was as follows:

I took the memory chip out of the camera, and put it in my chip reader

connected to my laptop. I opened the image in photoshop, using command

L to bring up LEVELS and compress the tones (sliding the left side

(black) to the right (white). This gives the image more contrast,

revealing all the dust (one piece appeared to be a piece of the sensor

brush. Had I pressed to hard with my first swab? After some of the dust

proved to be tenacious, I had to use more pressure and thought I had

pressed to hard as illustrated above. The blow up section of the image

shows the hair and what appears to be a crack in the glass covering the

actual sensor (and bonded to it in manufacture). The hair remarkably in

focus! But, my worry was for naught. I was rewarded with a perfectly

clean sensor.