Had a rude awakening about cleaning sensors

Used to always use those dry swabs for sensor cleaning. Thought I was careful. Until I inspected a client's Sony A7III at my shop in Portland and saw scratch marks. Realized I'd been dragging dust across the surface for 2 years. Switched to wet method with proper solution and never looked back. Anyone else figure out they were doing basic stuff wrong way later than they should have?

3 comments

3 Comments

walker.julia16d ago

Had a buddy in Astoria who did the same thing with his Nikon D750. He bragged for months about how he never had to wet clean his sensor. Then I borrowed his camera for a weekend shoot and every frame at f/16 looked like someone had taken a wire brush to the sensor. He finally looked at it under a magnifying lamp and just stared at it for five minutes without saying a word. Now he buys wet swabs in bulk and makes sure to mention it to anyone who even looks at his camera.

olivia67016d ago

The universe really has a way of waiting until you're feeling smug about your cleaning skills before dropping a truth bomb like that. Dry swabbing is basically just artfully redistributing your mistakes across the sensor. I did the same thing for a year with my old Canon, thinking I was some kind of sensor whisperer, until I zoomed in on a photo of a blue sky and saw what looked like a tiny crop circle of scratches. Now I use wet solution and it's like the sensor is giving me a polite bow instead of a sarcastic sneer.

felixhenderson16d ago

Artfully redistributing your mistakes" - yeah, you need the wet method to actually lift the debris off.