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- Provides: Tools to clean your SLR sensor
- Developer: VisibleDust
- Minimum Requirements: SLR camera with dust on the sensor
- Retail Price: $129.00
- Availability: Varies depending on what you purchase, all of the products reviewed here total about $350. The specific prices are listed below with each product. VisibleDust is a Canadian company so prices may vary due to exchange rate fluctuations.
Here's the dirty secret of SLR cameras: they get dirty. More specifically, the CCD or CMOS sensors get dirty. Depending on the kind of camera you have, your camera will have either a CCD (Charged Couple Device) or the CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor), which is the device in digital cameras that acts as the film and receives the image. In normal operation, the sensor develops a high static charge, and if there is any dust near the sensor, the dust will get attached to the sensor by static electricity. If you can cope with the costs and have a delicate touch, you can do a great job of cleaning your camera's sensor with the VisibleDust system.
If not removed, the dust may show up on your flat regions in your images, such as this section of the sky (those little dark gray spots are not supposed to be there):
This image is viewed at 100% magnification, and is a small,
particularly dirty portion of the whole image.
The thing that was confusing is that I'd see these dots on some of my images but not on others. I couldn't figure out what was going on. Later, I learned that if you have your f-stop set at 22 or greater, your depth of field is sufficiently long as to start to bring the contamination in range—not perfectly, but close enough. One can only go so long with a shorter depth of field than desired; at some point, the sensor needs to be cleaned.
Some cameras have built-in dust removal systems that vibrate the sensor at ultra fast speeds and have a sticky collection region to collect any dust that is shaken off. I've read some fairly nice reports on these, so if your camera has that, great. Regardless, you are still vulnerable to contamination by a film on the sensor, so you may wish to continue reading.
Adobe camera RAW has a nifty feature to remove these spots from images, but it is a band-aid approach and must be done to each spot on each image (once you've identified the spots on one image, you can globally process the rest) and still required a lot of user interaction.
When it gets right down to it, you need to clean your sensor: you can either take your camera to a repair shop or do it yourself.
The advantage of the repair shop is that they know what they are doing and will guarantee their work. In addition they may also perform some general maintenance on the camera as part of their process. The cost can easily be $70 or greater from a reliable camera repair store, and you will lose access to your camera for about a week or so. In addition, dust is always going to be a reoccurring condition.
On the other hand, if you learn to do the cleaning yourself, you'll be done in about a half hour or less, and you can do it as often as needed whenever and wherever you need it. The downside of self-cleaning is that if you damage your sensor, you pay for its repair and replacement, and it's not cheap.
Like most things in photography, choices have to be made.
A bit of background on the potential dangers; the sensor is the heart of your camera. While it's not as fragile as it may seem as there is a quartz window covering and protecting the sensor, the sensor is by no means robust. In front of your sensor is the mirror, and to get access to the sensor you have to flip up the mirror. To flip up the mirror, your camera will have some control or command that may be called something like "Sensor Cleaning." When you select this, the mirror will flip up out of the way until you turn the camera off or your battery dies, whichever comes first. Thus, not only are you working on the most sensitive part of your camera, but you are doing it with the clock ticking. If the mirror flips down at the wrong moment, you could damage more than just the sensor.
What I did not do for this review (but did later) is set my camera up with a freshly charged battery and time how long I have until the battery is drained and the mirror flips down. I strongly suggest you do this before doing any cleaning. Alternatively, you can purchase an AC transformer for your camera so you can plug the camera into the wall and you will have all the time you need or want. Thus, for the price of the transformer, that level of concern is resolved.
[As just mentioned, I did test the holding power of my batteries on my camera holding the mirror out of the way before completing the review and for my camera, a Canon 30d. After 1 hour and 15 minutes, I stopped the test, feeling that if I hadn't cleaned the sensor in that amount of time, I should take it to a repair shop for cleaning as it would be beyond my capabilities. Do not assume you have the same potential holding time with your camera as I did with mine. Test your camera with your batteries to see how long you have.]
VisibleDust provides a plethora of tools, and may easily be your one-stop source for either dry or liquid contamination. If you go to VisibleDust's website and look at the range of tools available...well, it's a bit overwhelming. However, you do need to start somewhere, and one good place to start is to get a better look at your contamination. This can best be done with either of their Loupes. Below is an image of the 7X Loupe. The 7X Loupe runs about $89.95.
Provided with the Loupe is a zip-canvas case that holds a cord to hang the loupe around your neck (if you so chose), a drawstring bag (made of a micro-fiber cloth), and a small micro-fiber cloth to clean the lens on the loupe. In the image above, I've place the loupe upside down so you can see three of the six lights built into the loupe to give excellent illumination to the inside of your camera. On the lower left side is a slide-switch to turn the loupe's light on and off. Opposite the switch is the part of the loupe that contains the batteries for the lights. The one lens is lying against the draw-string bag. The height of the loupe is set to provide the proper distance between the sensor and the lens, providing an excellent viewing opportunity to see the sensor. Between each operation performed on the sensor, I do recommend you look and see what you've done.
Assuming that all you need is to remove dust, VisibleDust provides two different "Arctic Butterfly" devices. The 700 is a big, less expensive option that doesn't spin as fast. The more expensive 724 also has a removable brush if you wish or need to replace the brush. The U.S. cost of the Arctic Butterfly (R) is about $104.95 and comes as shown below.
As seen above, there are two cases; a zip-canvas case containing a hard shell plastic case that has a foam lining cut to fit the Arctic Butterfly. The Arctic Butterfly itself is about seven inches long and has a plastic cap that attaches in a bayonet fashion (rotate and pull) to protect the brush when not in use.
The idea behind the Arctic Butterfly is rather cleaver; the brush tip is a material that can be endowed with a high static charge. When placed on the sensor, the dust particles will be attracted more to the brush tip than to the sensor. Thus, you "charge" the brush, sweep it across the sensor, and remove the brush. Charging the brush is rather dynamic, the Arctic Butterfly requires two AAA batteries, and, when turned on, the brush rotates at a very very high rate. This both flings off any existing dust and charges the brush for subsequent dust capture. Below on the left is the brush not moving, and on the right is the brush spinning away.
Do not spin the Arctic Butterfly on the sensor. You spin, you brush the sensor, you spin. Repeat as necessary.
The Arctic Butterfly does work. When I dragged the brush across my sensor I could easily see that dust had been removed. But the sensor was obviously still dirty. There was a film smear on the sensor that could now clearly be seen. Possibly/probably the film on the sensor caused the dust to smear the film, causing something I didn't even notice to become something that now looked dreadful.
It was time to move to the liquid cleaners.
[Before I continue to the liquid cleaners, the question does come up: where did the film on the sensor come from? Simply, there is some outgassing of materials within the camera that deposit within the camera. I've also been to the snow, and when you leave sub-zero temperatures and then drive to warmer regions, there will be condensation on the cameras—both inside and out. In other words, there are a number of potential sources for films to appear on sensors. I've had this camera for over a year now, and this is the first sensor cleaning I've done. It's long overdue. While disappointing, it's not surprising for there to be a film on the sensor.]
There can be a significant amount of confusion when you start trying to differentiate between the various wet options. It's not that there are that many, but there are enough to be a bit overwhelming to differentiate between them on initial observation. After some digging, I found a wet cleaning chart that provides an excellent breakdown between their various products. I'm providing the link because it can be a bit tricky to find this page on their site.
For this review, I tested the following wet (and related) items:
- The DHAP (Double layer High Absorbency) Swab, the orange box. (One dozen for $37.95)
- Ultra MXD-100 Fabric Sensor Cleaning Swab, the green box. (One dozen for $37.95)
- VisibleDust Magic Cleaner, the gray cloth on the right. (One sheet for $6.95)
- Lens Clean, the spray bottle with the white cap. (One bottle (30 ml) for $14.95)
- Sensor Clean, the green capped bottle. (One bottle (8 ml) for $35.90)
- VDust Plus, the blue capped bottle. (One bottle (8 ml) for $19.95)
Of the items above, the Lens Clean spray bottle and the Magic Cleaner are both intended to clean camera lenses, not sensors. What I found interesting was that you spray the cloth and then clean the lens, not spray the lens and then rub with the cloth. The results? Simple: I've never seen my neutral density lens filter ever so clean. It did a spectacular job.
Cleaning the sensor was a bit more of a challenge. VisibleDust recommends you first remove the dust before any wet cleaning so you do not inadvertently drag dirt across the sensor and potentially scratch the surface. As I mentioned earlier, after cleaning the dust with the Arctic Butterfly, I was left with a dustless sensor but with a smear of some film. Because the product "Sensor Clean" has anti-static properties, I chose to use that first. It was disappointing, as it didn't do that good of a job cleaning the sensor. But, as can be seen on the Wet Cleaning Chart, its cleaning properties are good, while the VDust cleaning properties are excellent. So, I switched over to the VDust and the Orange swab, and by-gosh-by-golly, it did a great job. Since I wanted to leave the sensor with an anti-static "rinse," I opened a fresh Green Swab and did a last wipe with the Sensor Cleaner. This was all followed up by an extra Arctic Butterfly cleaning, as there was some new dust showing up on the sensor, then I was done.
My sensor is beautifully clean right now. The process works.
The biggest issue with this system is that the VisibleDust products are not cheap. All of the items I tested totaled just under $350. That's about five separate professional sensor cleanings right there.
The one thing I didn't like about the system seems rather trivial in the grand scheme of things; the boxes the swabs come in are very hard plastic. They are hard to open and access. Perhaps they are hard to protect the swabs, and at a little over $3 each, I guess they deserve a bit of protection. By the way, they are a "use once and throw away" item.
Now that I've done this once, I do have a better idea of what to expect and how the process works. However, this process is not necessarily for everyone. It is a bit nerve racking to go into your camera and do this kind of work. When you add the extra issue of time constraints (will you finish before your mirror comes flipping down...?), the whole process did get my heart racing a bit.
But, it worked, my sensor is clean and I know I can do this again. As stated, I now have a better idea of how much time the mirror will stay up per full battery charge, and I know I really do have plenty of time to do the job. [Again, time your own camera!] Removing that level of stress will help decrease the psychological aspects of of this job considerably.
However, the proof is in the pudding, the image below is approximately the same region on my image as seen in the first image, looking at the same sky. [Note: the image below, like the first image in this review, is viewed at 100% magnification and is a small portion of the whole image.]
All this notwithstanding, I do have to reiterate that this whole process is not for everyone. When you open your camera and start poking around, you do risk damaging things that will cost a lot to repair. If you google around on the web, you will see some very strange and bizarrely dangerous things recommended to clean your sensor. My favorite stupid suggestion to remove dust from one's sensor is by using plastic tape. 'Nuff said on that.
Included with each product is a small sheet of paper providing the minimal basic information on how to use the item. Fortunately, on the website, they have excellent videos showing each product's operation and use. These are well done, and viewing them is strongly recommended.
If you are interested in cleaning your own sensor and are willing to take the risk, without a doubt you can get good results with the VisibleDust system. And without a doubt, this whole process and system is not for everyone. I am being very specific with all of my warnings here because I do not want people to believe I'm saying anyone can do this, then have them come back to me or Applelinks with tales of camera damage if they don't get it right. However, if you are willing to accept the potential risks, the VisibleDust process can do a great job of cleaning your SLR camera's sensor. My biggest and only complaint with this product is the cost. Beyond that, if you are willing to do the work, it will do a great job.
___________ Gary Coyne has been a scientific glassblower for over 30 years. He's been using Macs since 1985 (his first was a fat Mac) and has been writing reviews of Mac software and hardware since 1995.
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