Camera cleaning

I am not referring to making sure there is no dirt on the camera, but rather that the camera sensor is relatively clean of dust and other particulars. I have a Canon 30D, before they introduced the 'micro shake' of the sensor to have small dust drop off every time the camera is turned on. 

I can tell there is stuff on my sensor when the specs show up in shots. I then turn to this shooting to confirm: on a solid sky in the day, push up the F/ to about 15+, and snap. Today the result was this:


Specs all over the place! On no!


When I first encountered this problem, I wasn't sure what I could do. I thought about canned air, but decided against that.
I read up on the issue, and discovered the Gitzo Air Blower. For a Canon, there was a setting for clean sensor. It would cause the reflector mirror to lock up in place exposing the sensor for cleaning. I would turn the body so the sensor would face down, and be careful not to get the blow any close to the sensor than I had to. Then I would have blower do its thing. At first this was enough for me.


After a few times of doing the blower method, it provided to be not enough to clean it properly. I did more research. Some folks refused to do it themselves, and sent the camera body in to a shop to have it professionally cleaned. Then again, most of those folks either had the money or photography was their livelihood and depended on super clean images. Another crowd recommended doing a more through cleaning by hand. I tracked down one cleaning kit from Copper Hill Images.

 I picked up a kit and got nervous. I read horror stories of people who did something wrong and scratched the surface of the sensor... or whatever. For the Copper Hill kit, there were two levels of cleaning- a brush that worked with static cling, and the other that worked with a lint free cloth and a solution. So combined with my blower, I was up to three levels of cleaning. 

Here is the results of today's cleaning from all three, because they were all needed:

I also try two different lenses on the camera, just to make sure the dirt isn't on the lens. You never know!


Finally, here is what the table looked like when I was done cleaning:

Don't get me wrong, sending it in to get it cleaned professionally is great. I have done that once when I was getting another issue taken care of. However, I know that isn't always the best answer. Between time, money, and effort, I am taking the home cleaning first. If it is something beyond my skills, then I have no problem sending it off. Just realize that the sensor is everything for your camera. It isn't like you can just stick a fresh roll of film in if you mess up!