Sensor cleaning: what do I do?

[Cheggy Eggplant]

I had a little bit of dust on the sensor of my Nikon D40 (again) yesterday, so - in accordance with what the nice chap at Jessops showed me a few months ago - I put the camera in mirror lock-up mode, then used the rocket blower to clean the sensor. Trouble is, it's put more dust on there than was on it in the first place! Have a look:




Now, after having a chat with a not-so-nice chap at another Jessops, here are my options:

 - Send the camera back to Nikon for repair
 - Give it to Jessops to look at (although I'm sure they'll just send it to Nikon anyway)
 - Buy a sensor cleaning kit off Ebay and do it myself
 - Keep trying with the rocket blower

I don't really want to send it away  because: a) it costs about £60 - 80, and b) I'm off to the states in 3 weeks and I want it back before then. Also, bearing in mind I'm going away, the last thing I want to do is attempt the job myself and mess it up, thus leaving me with no camera on holiday.

What do you nice people advise? Should I attempt it? Is it easy? What are the chances of me cocking it right up?


Cheers for any advice you can offer!

[Tony]

Have you read this post http://www.dotdragnet.com/forum/index.php?topic=609.0 by SL?

Personally, I've never cleaned my sensor so can't really advise on the best method. That does look pretty bad tho

[Cheggy Eggplant]

Thanks for the link, Tony - I might just have to get one of those subscriptions. In the meantime, I'm still looking at my options. I might keep trying with the rocket blower for now.

[slaughteredlamb]

- Send the camera back to Nikon for repair

It ain't broke! Nikon won't repair it but they will clean it for you but you'll be without your camera for a few weeks and as it's not a pro body Nikon will charge you (Nikon clean sensors for free for Pro photographers with pro bodies). It won't be too expensive to clean BUT your sensor will get dirty again so you'll just have to keep sending it away.

- Give it to Jessops to look at (although I'm sure they'll just send it to Nikon anyway)

Yeah right! Jessops don't do anything in house and even if they did I wouldnt let some 16 year acne ridden mouth breather anywhere near my sensor!

- Buy a sensor cleaning kit off Ebay and do it myself

Why Ebay? You can buy excellent kits from WarehouseExpress and YES you can do it yourself

- Keep trying with the rocket blower

Could do. Some people swear by them but in my experience they are fine for surface dust but useless for stuff that is stuck on. Do you have an actual Rocket Blower as opposed to a generic blower? A rocket blower has a one way valve that is supposed to stop it sucking in dust which is then blown onto your sensor.

As I mentioned in my other thread you can buy a sub to a mag and get an Artic Butterfly and this will remove a lot of the dust but it wont get rid of anything stuck on the sensor. I use a combination of the Artic Butterfly AND Eclipse cleaning liquid with Digi Pads. The Artic butterfly I use for 'on the road' cleaning and the Eclipse is for thorough cleaning, it gets rid of everything and is by far the best product I've used.

HTH

I don't really want to send it away  because: a) it costs about £60 - 80, and b) I'm off to the states in 3 weeks and I want it back before then. Also, bearing in mind I'm going away, the last thing I want to do is attempt the job myself and mess it up, thus leaving me with no camera on holiday.

What do you nice people advise? Should I attempt it? Is it easy? What are the chances of me cocking it right up?


Cheers for any advice you can offer!
[/quote]

[Cheggy Eggplant]

Cheers for the advice, SL. I looked at warehouseexpress, but was shocked at how expensive the kits were! I'll keep shopping around...

[Britman]

It it true that Eclipse and pec pads and swabs are expensive for what they are but it's well worth it. And don't be scared of cleaning the sensor. Don't forget hold the camera upside down when using the blower just help particles fall out.


http://www.sensorcleaning.com/how.php 

[Cheggy Eggplant]

That's an excellent link there Britman, thanks :-)

I wouldn't mind having a go myself, but with my holiday so close, I really don't want to risk messing it up and having no camera. I've found a local camera shop who can clean the sensor for £30. Given the cost of materials if I were to do it myself, that isn't a bad price. Once I'm back from my trip I'll reasearch cleaning the sensor myself some more.

[Notorious MCSE]

Rub a plastic rod with a nylon rag and let the static pick it up?

That was my sensible suggestion.