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hey guys,
good news to report- the copper hill sensor cleaning kit from Quality Camera Sales has fixed my sensor to pretty much perfect condition!

earlier this year, i was trying to eradicate some dustbunnies with a rocket blower.. tried to remove a few specks of stubborn dust by squeezing the blower harder and as a result, the extra force somehow made me ram the red nozzle into the low pass filter, leaving a nasty tick shaped plastic "smear" around 8mm.. which was visible in photos, esp at small apertures. became a real pain when shooting light coloured things that needed to fill the frame or cover that particular area.

BEFORE CLEANING:

finally ordered the kit on sunday night, arrived on my doorstep this morning so i set to using it. on the first pass (and first ever attempt at wet cleaning) i was amazed by how much of the tick had been removed..

AFTER:

took three passes to satisfy me.
however.. ive got a question- do all D70/s' have a bit of a ridge on one side of the sensor?
and from which direction am i mean to START swiping from? (the side with the ridge or the side without?)
its just that the stick thing keeps getting stuck in that ridge when i finish one swipe, and when it comes to doing the final swipe back to start, it gets stuck and im worried that i might be damaging some of the electronics in that ridge or shredding the pec pad when it scrapes over the edge of the filter.

sorry if this doesnt make much sense, feel free to request clarification

-julz

You should start swiping from one side to another and not back and forth.

Once you done one side, lift up the brush and flip over, swap same direction again.

Repeat process as necessary and dont put the brush back in if there are visible particles there. Put a clean one in for next swap.

It took me 5 swaps for my first clean which was a mess from my crappy blower. After that, the rocket blower does the job pretty much for me..

Good news, but

seeto.centric wrote:the copper hill sensor cleaning kit from Quality Camera Sales has fixed my sensor

No.

It was you that cleaned the sensor.

and from which direction am i mean to START swiping from? (the side with the ridge or the side without?)

I don't think it matters.

Yi-P, i thought youre meant to swipe it one way, drag the stick and pad vertically down or up depending on which half u swiped first, then swipe back to the edge you started from?

gstark, so that ridge thing shouldnt affect it? it doesnt shred the pad and rip out fibres/weaken it?

hmm.. im eager to have another go at it, quite fun but pec pads at 16cents a piece aint cheap! then again, if it isnt broken, dont fix it..

-julz

What I mean by flip over is to flip over to a *new* pad

a new pad as in the other side of the tip?

Once you done one side, lift up the brush and flip over, swap same direction again.

by "same direction", do you mean you use one pad per side? ie. use 2 pads to complete one sensor?

-julz

seeto.centric wrote:...but pec pads at 16cents a piece aint cheap!

Less than a dollar in total to clean your sensor....I wouldn't call that expensive (IMHO).

I don't believe the ridge will cause any problems and it shouldn't make any difference which side you start from. Just be sure to put the fluid on, then quickly do your first run across the sensor, then flip the tool over and make your second pass across the sensor. The fluid evaporates quite quickly so don't put the fluid on then spend a minute or so getting things ready. Put the fluid on the moment before you're about to actually swipe the sensor (2-3 drops is plenty).

It's tempting to want to make another pass without changing your pec pad, but this is probably going to put any dust collected back onto your sensor. Swap the pec pad over and go again instead !

indeed it does evaporate quickly, especially in yesterday's heat!
as i was swiping, i noticed it leaving a wet trail of the eclipse fluid. does this mean im putting too much? i only used 2 drops.. there may have been more drops because i rested the nozzle on the pad instead of let the drop fall out.

It's tempting to want to make another pass without changing your pec pad, but this is probably going to put any dust collected back onto your sensor. Swap the pec pad over and go again instead !

haha so true! i admit it, ive done it

-julz

Congratulations on cleaning your D70's internal filter!

The "ridge" is either part of the frame that holds the filter in place, or the edge of the filter (in the D70 it's held down onto some rubber/whatever that surrounds the CCD by a thin metal clamp). There're no electronics in there to get damaged.

Resting the nozzle on the pad will result in more liquid coming out than if you measure distinct drops. On the 14mm-wide spatulas I end up using 2-3 drops max (I also have an 18mm spatula for larger pieces of glass).

thanks DaveB

ahh i see, phew! also saves me taking the lens off and poking my head around the chamber again trying to assess the "damage" i may have caused and reintroducing more dust at the same time!

next time ill let the drops fall out. i was just a bit panicky and the heat didnt help either.. so i just rested the nozzle on the pad. after i had swabbed the sensor, i still had enough Eclipse on the pad to swipe the screen of my phone a few times just for fun!

-julz