Cleaned my sensor on the D7100

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Ironwood

Senior Member
A couple of weeks ago I noticed a couple of dust spots on a blue sky shot at f16.
Yesterday I decided to get out my generic blower and see if they would move,,,, big mistake.
I ended up with about a thousand spots, not sure if they came out of the blower, or they were dislodged from the mirror box and ended up sticking to the sensor.
But woefully they ended up there. Here is a cloudy sky shot after trying the blower ( silly me didnt take a test shot before I did the blower)
Shot at f22.
DSC_0814.jpg


I paid a visit to my local camera shop today, if they did sensor cleaning, I was going to get them to do it, but they said no one local did sensor cleaning and I would have to send it away to get it done.
They had the cleaning gear for sale, so I armed myself with what I thought I would need and headed home to give it a go.
I bought a Lenspen Sensorklear Loupe Kit, same as this one - 100 Genuine Lenspen CCD Sensor Klear Loupe KIT FOR Nikon Canon Sony Camera | eBay
And also a box of Green Clean wet and dry swabs, and a large Giotto's Rocket blower.
It all cost me plenty of money but I wanted to make sure I could do it properly.
​
I gave it another blowout with the Rocket blower first, then used a wet swab followed by the dry one, as per the directions.
This is a test shot after the first go, a lot of them were gone but I wanted it cleaner than that.

DSC_0820.jpg


I then tried to get the remaining spots off using the loupe and lens pen provided. I didnt have much luck using this method.
The loupe is great, I could see the spots but the lens pen wasn't very good ( maybe it was my technique that sucked who knows)
Anyway, I found I moved the spots around and added a few more, so I opened another set of swabs, and gave it two cleans with the same set of swabs, using the loupe I could see what I was doing which was a big help. Without the loupe and my poor eyesight it was a bit hit and miss, so the loupe was worth buying.

This is a shot after the last clean. I still have a couple of spots there, but I will leave it for now, and use it for a while and see how it goes.
The blurry patch at the bottom of this shot is part of my TV antenna.

DSC_0835.jpg
 
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Cowleystjames

Senior Member
I have the D800e and so far have around 18,000 shutter activations. Thankfully no spots on sensor have appeared as yet!
But I also use a Giotto Rocket blower up into the lens mount cavity whilst holding camera downward, when I change lenses. Along with vibrate sensor on start up on shutdown, your D7100 can do this, I'm hoping this regime will keep me clear of dust spots for a while. :)

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
 
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Ironwood

Senior Member
The spots I got on my sensor got me by surprise a bit, I wasnt expecting them so early.
That said, I do a lot of lens changes, and sometimes in conditions where there is dust in the air.

Now that I have done it once, I feel a lot more confident to maintain it when it happens again. I just have to find a cheaper source for the swabs.
I still have 2 spares, but will check out where I can get some more before I need them again.

I might start using the rocket blower during lens changes as well.

I have set the camera to clean the sensor on startup and shutdown, but I cant tell if it works or not, there is no sound or vibration, so I am not confident that it is working as it should. Is there a way to tell ?
 
AC016

AC016

Senior Member
I have a few minor ones myself, mostly around the outer edge. Even at F22, they are just visible. I have used all my lenses on my 7100, multiple times. That being said, I DO NOT think it is the same kind of issue that the D600 had.
 
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Ironwood

Senior Member
I dont think my dust issue was the same as the D600 either.
​Before I tried the generic blower I only had about 4 spots which were visible at f16 and higher. I think they found their way in when I was changing lenses.
 
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Nathan Lanni

Senior Member
Interesting post and quite the saga. Glad it got resolved satisfactorily.

Just out of curiosity, what does Nikon or other pro shops charge for this service? I assume Nikon is at least $200 US.

Cheers.
 
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Ironwood

Senior Member
Not sure what the rate is here, but over your way I have noticed people saying $50 is the going rate, I would think we would pay a bit more than that in Australia.
 
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Rick M

Senior Member
Shops around me are about $50 also. Since I'll get 3 cleanings out of my visible dust kit, it will cost me $8 each time. More importantly, I'll know it was done right and checked properly if I do it myself.
 
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