TOOLS FOR CLEANING DIGITAL SENSORS

Whatever precautions you take, one day your sensor will need cleaning. Canon approves only two methods. The first you can try yourself using a blower bulb. The second means sending the camera to a Canon Service Centre, which involves a significant fee and the loss of the camera for a period of time.
 

There are also several techniques not approved by Canon. These methods are are not endorsed by EOS magazine. If you want to try them it is at your own risk. We don’t accept any liability for any damage you might cause to your camera.

The risk to the sensor is fairly small, because it is not actually the sensor which gets dirty. The sensor is protected by a glass filter and the dust settles on the surface of this. So removing the dust is rather like cleaning a lens filter, there is a risk of scratching the filter, but this risk is quite small if you follow the instructions carefully. On the other hand, if you do scratch the sensor cover, the replacement cost will be a lot more than the cost of most lens filters.

The real danger in sensor cleaning is damage to the camera shutter. Except during an exposure, the sensor is covered by the blades of the shutter. To access the sensor, you need to open the blades. If these blades accidentally close while you are touching the sensor assembly with cleaning aids, a lot of expensive damage will occur. Every EOS digital camera has a 'sensor clean' mode which opens the shutters for access to the sensor.

There is more information about cleaning digital sensors in an article published in the April-June 2006 issue of EOS magazine. Before you purchase any of the folowing accessories, download and read a copy of Say Goodbye to Dust (this is a PDF file which can be opened in Adobe Acrobat. If you do not have this software, a free copy of Acrobat Reader is available here).

Do not attempt this type of cleaning unless you feel confident about your ability to do it without damaging your camera.