Sanitized For Your Protection - 12/17/07

When will you get this through your head? Digital sensors are delicate instruments that need to be treated with care. Don’t use canned air to clean them, never change a D-SLR lens with the camera turned on, and obviously avoid removing the lens in windy or dusty situations. But don’t get your hopes up; no matter how careful you are, dust will eventually manage to get where it’s least desirable. There are countless methods for sensor cleaning, but my preferred choice involves two steps: first I use a bulb blower to remove the major chunks. Then I use Sensor Swabs from Photographic Solutions. A few drops of this voodoo solution on the swab and, voilà, my sensor is once again shiny and new. I’ve never had much luck—or comfort—with the adhesive-pen methods, and I should (but don’t) have a regimented schedule and methodology for cleaning the gunk out of my D-SLR. How do you prefer to clean your digital camera sensor?