Dust-Aid Sensor Cleaning Kits

minikin

Hi all,

I've just ordered three packs (€35.40 each incl postage) from www.dust-aid.com (a lot cheaper per pack than buying from the UK/France - €50 a pop each excluding postage)

It seems to be a nice system, no fiddling with liquids (no issues with airport security when travelling etc)

Would there be enough interest among forum members to buy in bulk? I've emailed them requesting a price on fifty units. Just a thought!

Scoual

Hi Minikin,

yeah, i saw their demo, seems safe enough to clean with (for the novice that i am), i was planning to buy one myself as well, so I m interested. Let me know what they reply to you !

DotOrg

i was thinking of trying these too, look a lot quicker and easier than using thepads and liquid, though that is still needed for stuck on dust

minikin

update: wholesale on 160 units €18.31 a piece
this will most likely be subject to vat and duty but it's still an awful lot less than €50 each!

re the 'welded' dust - according to their demo this is removed after a second or third application (of the same pad)

I'll try them out on my own sensor and let you know how i get on... it's really bad at the moment!

Scoual

thanks minikin,
that s cheap indeed, i checked and if u wanted to go for just one as a trial, it s as expensive from the states than from UK, because of the shipping costs... anyway, keep us updated

minikin

Yeah, that's why I've ordered three (postage is still $25) so the unit price comes down to €35.40 each rather than €55 or €60 from the uk or france. Three for the price of two!

They are checking out a price on 50 units for me, anyone know what "bend" refers to in terms of price... only did business studies up to intercert

Fajitas!

Would also be interested...

GristlyEnd

Interested in this as well.

Trogdor

I'd be interested aswell

minikin

cool, I throw up a poll as soon as i get a final figure on fifty units... and tested on my own machine too

rymus

how many people have you got now? Looks like it's the kinda thing that'd be worthwhile buying in bulk yourself and then selling off at slightly above cost (for boards members ) and massively above cost for everyone else

JMcL

Me too! Me too!

latchiko

I'm interested in this too!

Fireman

I would be interested as well

fireman

Trogdor

minikin wrote:

cool, I throw up a poll as soon as i get a final figure on fifty units... and tested on my own machine too

No reply yet? they're a bit slow aren't they

sineadw

I could soooo do with some cleaning stuff too. No price yet?

Mr Dave C

Hi Folks just joined up I would be interested in a cleaning kit...

Covey

Me too.

T.

Hugh_C

My CCD looks like it's got chickenpox after a trip to Spain.

That's a ME TOO, in other words.

hc

positron

Me too! In fact I might need two...!

viking

Add me to the list too

minikin

Hi all,

The three I ordered arrived yesterday. Will give them a try tonight and report back... There's 13 / 14 expressions of interest here so far. Would need to get a lot closer to 50 as I don't plan on making money on these. It's more of a community saving thing. Is there anyone else interested... speak now or forever hold your peace!!! I reckon the final price would be between €25 - €30... which is effectively half price.

Kilree

Depends on the results of your test but would be interested if they prove to be any good.

liveforphotos

Sorry folks, I have already tried out this product. I know this is not the answer you guys are looking for, because we all would like for there to be a really good solution to dealing with sensor dust, but here I go anyway.

I bought this product and tried it out on my Canon DSLR. A friend of mine tried it out on her 5D during the same session. Neither of us found it made a blind bit of difference to the dust on our sensors, and we applied it exactly as shown on the video from the website. We ended up swabbing our sensors with Eclipse and swabs using Pec Pads and got much better results.

Oh wouldn't it be lovely if this product worked? I had such high hopes for it! i wil still probably carry it on trips abroad, because I can't carry compressed air to ionise my sensor brush or Eclipse for my swabs when I fly.

liveforphotos

Sorry to disappoint you folks,but I bought the Dust Aid system a few weeks go. I know we are all desperate for a reasonably-priced system for dealing with sensor dust, but I found this system absolutely useless. It looks great when you read the bumpf on it and I bought into it totally. But I used it on my DSLR and a friend used it on her 5d sensor during the same session. We both ended up swabbing our sensors with Eclipse and combining that with strokes from the Sensor Brush in order to get rid of the welded-on dust on our sensors. The Dust-Aid pads did nothing whatever to reduce the dust. It was quite disappointing, because it looked so good on paper. I should emphasise that we both used the Dust-Aid exactly as shown on the video on their website.

Scoual

Hello there,
I couldn t wait so i bought one as a trial myself. The dust on my sensor was not thick but only noticeable in sky pics for example. And it did work perfectly. It is extremely easy of use and the whole packaging thing is really handy.
So, with the experience that liveforphotos had, i guess it really isn t hard on the dust but it can do the job if it s light...

minikin

Just given the 20d a tentative scrubbing
As i said before... it was lousy (18 months worth of matter)
I've just taken a test shot, I have one small dust mark. Going to give it another go tonight... maybe not quite so timidly.

Have to say I'm impressed... only cost me €4 against €50 in conns.
No brainer!

Interested to read your experiences iveforphotos, what camera make/model did you use it on?

Fajitas!

Lol, just a word of warning for others with 5D's, search back a couple of months on www.fredmiranda.com 's Canon forum for an interesting discussion!

Trogdor

Fajitas! wrote:

Lol, just a word of warning for others with 5D's, search back a couple of months on www.fredmiranda.com 's Canon forum for an interesting discussion!

Do you mean 20D's? The thread i found, was about a 20D...unless there's more than one:(

Fajitas!

Nope, 5D's, somehow, some 5D's got out with the sensor coating the wrong way around, and the Dust Aids took the coating right off them... There's no way of knowing which 5D's have it. And it has no ill effects other than this.

Trogdor

Fajitas! wrote:

Nope, 5D's, somehow, some 5D's got out with the sensor coating the wrong way around, and the Dust Aids took the coating right off them... There's no way of knowing which 5D's have it. And it has no ill effects other than this.

In this thread it happened to a 20D and it says the exact same things about the 20D sensor coating on the 3rd page
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic2/539229/

Fajitas!

Hmmm, was defo an thread on the 5D too.


*worry sets in*

minikin

2nd cleaning did the business... a word of warning for people with older kits - the new kits I received come with a secondary pad especially for canon sensors.

from the dust aid site:

We have seen a grouping of affected Canon camera's and wanted to share our findings with you. A grouping of below standard filters that we have seen is between the serial numbers 0420100000 to 0430207000. If you have a Canon within this range of numbers please refrain from using Dust-Aid at this time. We are currently working on a solution for cleaning these affected camera's using Dust-Aid. Once it has been fully tested, we will announce the new product here.

liveforphotos

minikin wrote:

Just given the 20d a tentative scrubbing
As i said before... it was lousy (18 months worth of matter)
I've just taken a test shot, I have one small dust mark. Going to give it another go tonight... maybe not quite so timidly.

Have to say I'm impressed... only cost me €4 against €50 in conns.
No brainer!

Interested to read your experiences iveforphotos, what camera make/model did you use it on?

I used it on a Canon EOS 1DS2 which has a full frame sensor

I will give Dust Aid a go again, but probably only on fairly loose dust. I guess if the dust is really stuck on the sensor filter, there isn't really an alternative to fairly firm swabbing with a wet swab. I have gotten braver over time as I have cleaned my sensor more often and now I'm not afraid to use a little pressure when swabbing.

I hadn't heard about the problem with some 5Ds having the wrong coating on the sensor filter. Interesting..........

minikin

howya liveforphotos,

nice cambra you have there, I wouldn't rub too hard... here's someone that wrecked their 5D sensor coating with a copperhill kit

this compatibility page is extremely important for anyone that's interested.

liveforphotos

minikin wrote:

howya liveforphotos,

nice cambra you have there, I wouldn't rub too hard... here's someone that wrecked their 5D sensor coating with a copperhill kit

this compatibility page is extremely important for anyone that's interested.

Thanks very much for that information minikin. I have passed it on to my friend with the 5D. Scary stuff indeed. Fortunately the problem doesn't affect the 1Ds 2.

minikin

nuts, how do i do a poll?
was going to put one up,as i'm away to itlee tomorrow for a week.

Don't know how many people are still interested after the reports of damaged sensors...

Kilree

I'll take myself off the list following Dust-Aids own comments regarding the suitability of the product for the 400D.

Hugh_C

minikin wrote:

nuts, how do i do a poll?
was going to put one up,as i'm away to itlee tomorrow for a week.

Don't know how many people are still interested after the reports of damaged sensors...

My sensor looks like its got chickenpox at the mo. I'm keen to get my hands on one of these. Can you advise. when you're back from itlee?

cheers, hugh

minikin

Unfortunately, I don't think there's enough demand here to get bulk rates and justify shipping costs (would need a minimum order of 50 units) Final price for 50 was $1,247.50 + $100 shipping. This works out at €19.78 + vat/duty

I'm going to hand this over to anyone that's interested in facilitating a bulk purchase, pm me if you'd like and I'll send on the details.

bostonian

A tip from a camera repairman (me). It's not for people with shaky hands, but it will save you money on cleaning kits:

To clean a CCD, buy a bottle of high% rubbing alcohol (90% or better). Denatured alcohol works as well. Wrap a tissue around a pair of tweezers with a little slack hanging off of the tip. That little bit of slack (about 0.25 in) will be dipped in alcohol and used to clean the sensor, not the actual tweezer tips.

Work from side to side, slowly, blowing onto the sensor to evaporate the alcohol as you go. NO STREAKS!

If the sensor is really dirty, you can use windex, and use a feathering motion to push the dirt off of the CCD, then use the alcohol method described above.

If you scratch the CCD with tweezers, you'll have to buy a new one, which can range from $80 to $400 USD, plus labor charges to install. So unless you have good fine motor control, don't bother.

liveforphotos

The very LAST thing anybody should do is to attempt to clean a sensor using a tissue and tweezers! An ordinary tissue, soaked in alcohol or not, will leave hundreds more dust spots on your sensor than were there before, and if the tweezers scratch the anti-aliasing filter covering the sensor, it will be ruined.

I'd say Bostonian may be trying to drum up some repair business

bostonian wrote:

A tip from a camera repairman (me). It's not for people with shaky hands, but it will save you money on cleaning kits:

To clean a CCD, buy a bottle of high% rubbing alcohol (90% or better). Denatured alcohol works as well. Wrap a tissue around a pair of tweezers with a little slack hanging off of the tip. That little bit of slack (about 0.25 in) will be dipped in alcohol and used to clean the sensor, not the actual tweezer tips.

Work from side to side, slowly, blowing onto the sensor to evaporate the alcohol as you go. NO STREAKS!

If the sensor is really dirty, you can use windex, and use a feathering motion to push the dirt off of the CCD, then use the alcohol method described above.



If you scratch the CCD with tweezers, you'll have to buy a new one, which can range from $80 to $400 USD, plus labor charges to install. So unless you have good fine motor control, don't bother.

Hugh_C

liveforphotos wrote:

I'd say Bostonian may be trying to drum up some repair business

I'd say you didn't read Bostonian's message

If s/he was pimping for business, you'd imagine s/he'd leave some contact details, which, judging by the spelling, would be in Boston somewhere....

Anyway, I used Dust-Aid for the first time last week and it seems to work well. Recommended.

liveforphotos

hughchal wrote:

I'd say you didn't read Bostonian's message

If s/he was pimping for business, you'd imagine s/he'd leave some contact details, which, judging by the spelling, would be in Boston somewhere....

Anyway, I used Dust-Aid for the first time last week and it seems to work well. Recommended.

Oh, I can read well enough. I got Bostonian's message. Do you really think someone living in Boston would be frequenting Boards .ie?

Glad that the Dust Aid worked for you. I guess the dust on your sensor must not have been stuck on.

WaltHam

Hello

Just got my first DSLR - Pentax K10d - in the post from Spain (rebelio.ie). Wonderful camera at a great price. I was aw3ay and my son open it to check contents, body cap came loose, he stashed it in spare room, I come home and aaargh! dust on the sensor before I even fit the lesn.

Now thw K10d has "shake" technology to dislodge dust, but it doesn't work for some reason (can't have everything). I can hear the vibes but dust, looks like 2 hairs and a blob especially at F16+ .

So my question is the best way (may not be cheapest) to clean this beauty.

Should I buy kit - is it idiot-proof? Or leave it in somewhere, if so where and how much?

I forgot to say I'm living near Dublin

Roen

Hi WaltHam, welcome along.
What a way to get introduced to your new camera!

The shake feature will dislodge loose dry dust, but it won't shift everything. Sooner or later you'll have to bite the bullet and clean it yourself.
First things first, try a Rocket Blower of some sort or description and then test again. If that hasn't shifted the offending particles then move on to a wet method.

There's a wealth of info out there, read up the entire contents of this site before you do anything!
http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/
Best of luck!

WaltHam

Thanks Roen

Plenty of stuff in there, looks like I'll be using some wet method.

There are 2 kind of people in this world my friend...the good, the bad and the ones who can't count.

Advice to photographers - if you're gonna shoot, shoot.

Ninja_scrotum

I bought this cleaning kit on ebay. Cheaper than that dust-aid stuff, and you'd be surprised how easy it is to clean the sensor after all the fear mongering about how delicate and sensitive it is.

Nisio

Why don't nikon etc allow you to mount some sort of screw in filter in the body of the camera (say between the lens and the mirror) Most people use a uv filter on the lens anyway with no (?) ill effects on quality?

Roen

Whereabouts are you talking nisio? Would the mirror not clatter into the filter?

Nisio

say a screw in filter that sit's just inside the body of the camera in front of the mirror
Like filter - mirror - sensor "|> |"