Question- Attn Photographers

Do you have a Canon, Nikon or other?

I know Nikon and Canon will do it in their service centers. It is not particularly cheap but I do it once a year.

I have a canon, and that is a great idea. Thank you!

They have a service center in NJ, should be a quick turnaround.

This may be a silly question.. Do you send it in? I may be a bit hesitant to do that. On the other hand, road trip to NJ could led to some decent pics. 2 birds with one stone.

You can do either at the NJ center. (The one in VA is mail in only.) I would definitely call and confirm that first.

IF you have a good pro camera shop there they might do it too.

100 RIDGE ROAD
JAMESBURG, NJ 08831

Phone - 866-510-1335

Cranbury, NJ. You can drop it off in person but they don't clean it why you wait unless it is an extremely slow day, which is rare. Can take days for them to clean it and then they ship it back to you or you have to come back and pick it up.

Tim,

Most large camera stores will clean your sensor in house or offer to send it out to Canon,Nikon. Why do you think you need this service? If you have some of these kits, clean it yourself and save the money. It will only really show up in open sky shots. I had a 1Ds that was terrible, but cleaned it myself and then dealt with the corners on the few images that had open blue skies.

Blow it out with a rubber blower thingie and save your money!

Rich

The sad and true reason I feel I need this service. My life mate/girlfriend was in the army. If you give me a rifle I clean it, blow it out. You give it to her she takes every single piece apart, rubs them down, oils them, and puts it back together. Getting into all of the nooks and crannies that I had NO idea even existed. Sounds like a silly reason, but still true.

Perhaps the Kodak Museum right there in Rochester can suggest a place?

I have found that pro camera shops that say "Yes, we clean cameras" actually mail it off. Ask that question first.

Problem with Canon is that when you add shipping both ways, plus their turnaround time, your camera is gone for a substantial time.

When I had it done in took a week.

The little kit thingies do OK, but eventually I had but the camera was like brand new when I got it cleaned professionally. Here is some math for you and why I had it done. Rich says deal with the few images with open blue skies. Not quite, deal with it on any image that has nice silky white flowing water. Deal with it on any image with foggy grey skies. Seal with it on any image with flat smooth surfaces at the edge, etc etc. Now, TBH if I was producing an image or two a week, the extra 15 minutes of edit would not be a big deal. But when my goal is more like a 1000 images a year, adding ten minutes editing here and there adds up to 167 hours, so getting it cleaned save time, time = money... (Yes, I didn't have to spend ten minutes on every image fixing the dirty sensor, BUT, to get 1000 images I take tens of thousands and edit at least twice as many as I put up so it probably averages out.)

JC,

Good point! And really a money/time/cost thing. You're in NY and I think the Canon place is still out on Long Island and they used to have some "pro"plan, where if you were a Professional, they would turn it around within 24 hours or so.

But my suggestion is to use the "wet cleaners" Tim has, which won't clean the corners much and then let it dry and blow out the residue and take a shot of the sky and see what's left and if you can live with it. I looked at you newer images,JC and almost all have sky in them, so for you, getting it cleaned professionally would work.

Rich

I can tell you that Canon service is excellent and they will go beyond what a camera shop will do. I had an issue with my 20D when it was 14 months old. They not only covered the issue under warranty, they cleaned the sensor and camera body. Aside from the wear marks the body looked like new when I got it back. And they sent it to me overnight.

As far as having it cleaned by a local shop make sure they guarantee that if they damage the sensor they will pay to repair or replace it. Some shops won't do this.

Take a photo of the blue sky. View at 100%. if you have sensor spots, clean them. I use a big bulb and microfiber pen which was sold for that purpose. If the sensor spot is gone no worries. I use my camera extensively in salt air so once in a rare while I use a wet cleaner for good measure. Clean is clean and sending it out is a waste, in my opinion. I once sent my Nikon to the dealer to have a rubber grip replaced and had them clean the camera also. Other then that I don't even worry about it unless there are sensor spots. Over 4 years on my Nikon D300 and no problem getting my photos through stock photo inspections. Don't be fooled into thinking the pros do a better job. The idea of using microfiber pens caught on because that's what the manufacturers of the sensors where using.

Bradford,

Good advice! Those microfiber brushes work for most of anything stuck on the sensor because of static.

Just a reminder when you do "clean" the camera, hold it upside down, so the lens opening is facing the ground and as you loosen stuff, they will more than likely fall out of the camera,rather than just get pushed around. Then,when done cleaning, use the the rubber bulb, with the camera still facing down and blow away. Don't touch the sensor with the tip of the bulb though, attach a lens or a body cap, that's been cleaned or blown clean and you're good to go!

When ever changing lenses on DSLR's, do the same, hold the camera body down, not up and you'll get a lot less dust into the camera body this way,

Rich