Sensor cleaning products; advise pls. Want to avoid crazy price.

I need to do a sensor clean on my D600 and am shocked at the price these products seem to be sold at. £33 for 10 swabs, £18 for 7.5ml fluid.. etc etc.

These prices seem crazy to me, and clearly taking advantage to consumers.

Can someone give me advise of a good supplier/products.

If i have to spent this kind of money i will, but it smells like a rip off to me.

Thanks for any advice.

You have to pay for all of that marketing somehow, ya know! I have found you don't need anything more than some compressed air. Just make sure the can is level so you don't squirt propellent in there. I have my D700 set to vibration clean the sensor before it is shut down and I have never had any real problems with dust spots. And unlike nearly everyone here, I change lenses frequently as I do not own any zooms, only primes. Any spots I may get are easily handled in PS. Just like with the front element of lenses, the less you clean it the better.

STM said:

I have found you don't need anything more than some compressed air. Just make sure the can is level so you don't squirt propellent in there.

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A can of compresssed air? I have always heard the #1 cardinal rule for sensor cleaning was never use a can of compressed air.
Aren't you supposed to use a product like a Giotta Rocket Air Blower to blow away dust particles?
Amazon.com: Giottos AA1900 Rocket Air Blaster Large - Black: Camera & Photo

Never EVER use compressed air....EVER!! You would do better by spitting on your finger and rubbing it around on the sensor. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a tiny bit but not that much. Compressed air is a sure way of turning your camera into a speckled mess of oil and whatever other crap is inside the compressed air tank.

As for wet cleaning, yes. They are very expensive but they are also not your average swabs and are 100% free of any lint particles or dust. I prefer using the V-Dust swabs because they're V-shaped and will not rub against the sides of your lens chamber and release small fibers from the cloth. As for cleaning liquid, I use Eclipse that runs about $6 for a lifetime supply. Granted, its 100% methanol and even though it's high quality methanol and probably contains about 4 cents, it's not that easy getting ahold of such quality methanol outside a lab setting and so a lifetime supply at $6 seems pretty reasonable to me.

Dave, can you give me a link to the swabs you are referring to please. Do you mean Visible Dust? They seem to have different ones for which i'm struggling to understand the difference. They seem very very expensive. £23 for 4 swabs. :grief:

Yes, that is the ones (see HERE). I buy the full 12 pack, it's a little cheaper than buying by them in sets of 4. I've used these and the "Sensor Swabs" that are made by the Eclipse solution people but I like the V-Dust swabs much better due to the V-shape. I noticed when using the Sensor Swabs that after my first clean there were two little fibers on my sensor that were not there before I cleaned it. I was able to blow one of them off with my Rocket blower but I had to wet clean it again to get it off. The V-Dust swabs are smartly angled so that when you're running it across the sensor you're not scrapping the upper portion of the swab against the sidewall area. And to-date (fingers crossed and knocking on wood) the V-Dust swabs have not left any fibers behind after cleaning. (throwing salt over my shoulder and spinning in a circle three times! )



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AFV9CM/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks Dave, still feel very uncomfortable paying close to $5 per swab. What a con.

Watoh said:

Thanks Dave, still feel very uncomfortable paying close to $5 per swab. What a con.

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While I absolutely agree with you, I've racked my brain trying to figure out a way to make my own, and the the one issue I come up with is that, assuming I can find the proper material (which shouldn't be hard), how do I assemble it in a dust-free environment? I used to work for RCA building satellites and the clean room facilities there were pretty sick. If I had access to something like that it might be easy to rewrap a bunch of used sensor swabs, but otherwise there's not a lot of choices. The way I look at it, I'd pay more in gas just to get my camera to the nearest shop that could clean mine. Doesn't keep me from feeling ripped off, but it helps me justify the price.

I suppose I'll just have to suck it up.

*inaudiable noises - grumble grumble grumble

I don't have a d600, but on my d7000 I use Eclipse fluid with a 1/2 of a 4x4 pec pad taped to a cut-down plastic knife. You can see this on some of the cleaning sites. I use a half pad to keep down the bulk so you don't run into issues like Dave mentioned hitting the sides. It works great and no guilt wasting $$$ if I need to do it several times. Yes, its an extra step to wrap your own swab and you risk introducing more dust, but its working out fine for me. I also use a blower and a static brush before cleaning and sometimes after. Any dust falling in there during the cleaning process is rare, but should not be adhered and easily blown/brushed away.

I try to do the job when the house is still and my family is out and a/c or heat not running. I mist the table down with water. I don't know for sure if that helps, but I figure it must lock some particles down. I've heard some folks work on the bathroom counter after a shower.

Check out the cleaning kit from American Recorder.

Cheers lads, well i bit the bullet and bought some Visible Dust swabs, when they run out i'll reuse the plastic bits and make my own as nickt has suggested, sounds like a winner.