Hello Nikon1,
thanks again. In your linked cleaning tool it is stated that these are for CCD CMOS sensors. Now How are theses things used? Do they cover the whole sensor size all in one step or does one have to collect the dust by "walking" step by step? Actually I don't really get who they work. These stickers, where are they put? Onto the sensor? On the stamp?
I found a similar system at Amazon, but in customer reviews it is said that the stamps can stick that much to the sensor, that parts from the stamp will be left at the surface.
And I also wonder if I could use cleaners for APS-C or MFT-size too? What do you think about these?
I was honestly just to lazy to go and look what brand mine was, but just went and looked, and yes, the ones you linked from Amazon is the Exact one i own. I am very happy with that one and got quite a bit of use out of it. I at some point bought an extra refill pack of those Tape Strips from the same Brand, and while this is propably a bit on the Expensive side (the Tape Strips are also not cheap, and the Package isnt that big...), i found it well worth it. I never had any kind of problem with it sticking to any sensors, thats propably what you pay for with those more expensive brands. Wouldnt doubt that the cheaper ones from china can leave parts behind on the Sensor or have a lot of other problems. The Cheaper ones also seem to have "Sharp" edges While the Eyelead one has well Rounded edges and also is very high Quality gel in generall. Have personally never use anything else, but am very happy with the eyelead brand one and can 100% reccomend it.
.
Now about how those work/ are used:
You can clean any kind of Sensor Size with those (meaning the Larger ones), but i wouldnt try to clean any sensors smaller than the Gel Stamp itself, which for mine would be 1/2" or 2/3" Sensor as a minimum Size, so like Chronos 1.4 Sensor size and maybe a bit smaller, but not much smaller. You use this Cleaning tool in The Cleanest room you have access to with really good lighting. you start by opening the protective cover of the Gel tip and start to touch the upper left corner of the Sensor surface (if your sensor is at least 3x the surface area of the Gel stamp surface) gently, you just want it to stick there (roll it over a bit when lifting up), dont actually press with force. Then carefully pull it off the sensor again in a rolling motion. Everytime after touching the Sensor, you need to press the Gel surface onto the Sticky tape. Make sure to allways use a new spot on the Tape to not transfer any dust, dirt or other stuff back to the Sensor when touching it again. So its best to allways leave a bit of a gap between the spots you touch/ use on the Tape. After you transferred the Dirt from the Sensor to the Gel and then onto the Tape, the Gel is clean again, and you can go on with cleaning the Rest of the Sensor. Next, put the Gel on the Sensor again, with a bit of overlap to the Point where you touched it last, to cover every bit of surface on the Sensor. I work my way from Upper Left Corner to the Right and then in Rows downwards usually, but you can do whatever works best for you. Just make sure that you have cleaned all the Surface area of the Sensor, and allways cleaned the Gel tip of on the Tape after touching the Sensor, and throw away the used tape. With the Rounded edges of this Eylead one, you can also go in there and for example if the Whole Sensor is clean, but you have one or two bits of dirt on there that bother you, you can just use the Edge or the Corner (or even the tapered Sides of the Gel Tip work sometimes) and roll it over, to just catch this one bit of dust, and save yourself a lot of time and tape. I personally usually use really small sensors (1"/ Super 16mm), so i cut up my Tape Strips into halves, since that is more than enough to clean my size of sensor with the Size Tape and Gel tip i got in my set, and can get double the amount of uses out of the rather expensive tape. If you end up just using the Corner or edge to just pick out single bits of dust most of the time, it might be usefull to cut even smaller strips or Squares of tape. For cleaning a full size 2.1 Sensor i however guess you will end up using most of the area of one Tape Strip.
As i allready said, with this process you can even clean Medium Format Sensors if you wanted to and are patient enough. But for that i would reccomend an really clean room, because otherwise more dust will collect on the Huge sensor in the Long time you are cleaning it, than you can remove in that time. For smaller sensors a reasonable clean room (No dust, no Carpet! also close Windows and doors to avoid dust getting kicked up by airflow) its usually fine, but you still want to get done somewhat fast and not take forever with the cleaning (still take your time and work Carefully, you dont want to scratch or damage anything). Best Practice is also to allways put the Gel tip back into the Protective cover as fast as possible and Keep it closed tight if you are not using it, never put it down onto the Table or any other Surface. if you are not holding it or using it, just put it back into the Cover. Also cover up the Sensor with an Clean Camera Body Cap or a Clean Lens (clean backside especially), when you are done. I think this should be about all the info you need on this topic to use one of those, if you still have any questions, let me know. The higher Quality ones like the eyelead can hold up pretty long. I used mine about once or twice per month in average over the last 2 to 2 1/2 Years and its still going strong.
When Cleaning the Sensor, still be carefully, while there is an IR/ UV-Filter glass in front of the Actuall sensor, and its a lot harder to damage the sensor with a cleaning tool like this than for example those "fancy Q-Tip things to wipe the Sensor down with some kind of cleaning fluid" (also a lot harder to actually get the Sensor clean with most of those, because they will make stripes from the Wiping if not used propperly, just like cleaning windows glass. cleaning the Sensor wet like this can be nessercary sometimes, if you get a ton of bodily grease onto the sensor or something alike, but then just dont touch your sensor after eating chicken (or just avoid touching it in generally...) and you should be fine. For dust alone, and even reasonable amounts of fat, the Gel Cleaning Kits work very well), IF you end up scratching the IR/ UV-Filter (i bought one Spare when i ordered my 2.1, just because i know i propably will end up damaging that one sooner or later propably), and need to replace it, there will be the actuall sensor exposed while you exchange them, and if you end up getting dust on there, which is rather likely, you then need to clean the Sensor itself, which puts you on the risk of also scratching that. And if you Scratch the Sensor itself, you are really screwed, cause that gets really expensive. So do anything you can to avoid scratching it in the First place, for example just avoid getting your sensor dirty, so you dont need to clean it every other day.
Show Posts
