After 3 months it is time to clean the 5D sensor. The moment I dreaded. I knew most people use Sensor Swabs but I found the price a bit steep and decided to try something else first. I got a LensPen SensorKlear. In a word, $10 down the drain. One end of the SensorKlear is equipped with a soft brush to eliminate most of the dust. It does not. It rather adds considerable amounts of its own dust. The other end is supposed to be used to remove the remaining dust. It does not either. It merely pushes it around the sensor, preferably along the edges and in the corners.

So I swallowed my pride and coughed up my cash for the Sensor Swab with its Eclipse liquid. At first it did not work that well, but I had read others had the same disappointing initial results. So I tried again. And again. At the fifth attempt I apparently got the right movement and my sensor is now mostly clean. When shooting a white surface at f/22 I can see some faint spots but that’s ok, film rarely gets as good, especially in large format.

I must say Olympus was right to design the anti-dust system to put in all their DSLRs. I never had a spot in my E-300. Of course the sealed Sony DSC-R1 is also immune.

All in all, though, it seems four or five cleanings per year will do. I wouldn’t even mind to do it once a month. Case closed for me.

Stephane :: Jan.17.2007 :: Gear :: No Comments »