Cleaning sensor on Nikon D70s

[CrisisBill]

Well it finally happened, after a year and a half of owning my Nikon D70s I found dirt/dust marks on my pictures.
The spots are located on the same places no matter what lens was used, so I know it’s not a lens issue.
I just spent 3 days kayaking around Monomoy Island in Cape Cod and my pictures look great but I have spots on them, so I guess I’ll try to play with PhotoShop to clean them up.
Has anyone attempted to clean the sensor on their Nikon digital? I see Nikon discourages people from doing it at home, but I’ve heard horror stories about Nikon’s cleaning service and turn-around time so I’d like to do it myself if possible.
Any tips out there……..?

 

[DougPaul]

I checked out the following tutorials:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/sensor-cleaning.shtml
http://photo.net/equipment/digital/sensorcleaning
http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning

and picked up a wet cleaning kit from
http://www.copperhillimages.com/index.php?pr=products

Haven't tried it yet, but the recommendations looked good. It does appear that cleaning one's own sensors requires a steady hand and a bit of nerve, but it also appears that many have been unhappy with professional cleaning.

Doug

 

[CrisisBill]

Doug,
Thank you for the links, I ordered a wet kit and will give it a shot when it arrives.
Any quick tips on clearing up my pictures using PhotoShop?
Do you have a step by step Cheat-Sheet?
Thanks again Bill

 

[DougPaul]

Thank you for the links, I ordered a wet kit and will give it a shot when it arrives.

You're welcome--I had noticed some dust on the sensor of my Digital Rebel XT recently and researched how to deal with it. Just needed to check my notes...

Any quick tips on clearing up my pictures using PhotoShop?

Can't help you on this one--I don't have PhotoShop here. The dirt basically shows in smooth areas like sky. Copy a small clean area over the dirt.

BTW, the way to test for dirt, is to take an out-of-focus picture of a smooth scene (eg a wall, a piece of paper, a clear sky, etc) at the smallest possible F-stop. Conversely, a way to minimize the effect on pics is to avoid apertures smaller than about F11.

BTW2, I also "cheated" and picked up a Digital Rebel XTi body. Hopefully, the built-in self-cleaning will reduce or eliminate the problem.

Doug

 

[skiguy]

Going forward it is always good to keep your Camera Body faced towards the ground when changing lenses.

 

[skiguy]

but it also appears that many have been unhappy with professional cleaning.

Doug

I have very good experiences so far dealing with Nikon over the last 35 years in this realm. While your at it get the rest of your body cleaned and your firmware updated.

 

[DougPaul]

Going forward it is always good to keep your Camera Body faced towards the ground when changing lenses.

This may work for heavier particles, but small particles (eg dust) are suspended in air and travel on the air currents. (Any dust suspended in the air trapped in the chamber is likely to settle somewhere inside the camera.) That said, I try to get out of the wind, point my camera down when open, and work as fast as possible when changing lenses.

Also use a (clean) body cap anytime the body does not have a lens mounted.

Keeping back lens caps on one's lenses will help to minimize the amount of dust brought into the chamber by the lenses (as well as helping to keep the lens clean).

Doug

 

[DougPaul]

I have very good experiences so far dealing with Nikon over the last 35 years in this realm. While your at it get the rest of your body cleaned and your firmware updated.

OK. I have read reports where the camera came back with as much or more dust on the sensor as was there before professional cleaning. Don't remember what brand camera. Sounds like YMMV.

In some environments, it is desirable to clean the sensor daily which obviously precludes sending the camera off for cleaning. See, for instance: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-desert.shtml

Doug

 

[kmorgan]

Doug,
Thank you for the links, I ordered a wet kit and will give it a shot when it arrives.
Any quick tips on clearing up my pictures using PhotoShop?
Do you have a step by step Cheat-Sheet?
Thanks again Bill

Depends which version of photoshop you have. With CS2 and CS3 use the Spot Healing Brush Tool, just brush it over the dust spots, it will use pixels near the spots to correct it. Otherwise use the clone tool. Just pick a brush size about the size of the dust, alt-click on a clean spot next to it, then paint over it.

Kevin

 

[CrisisBill]

Thank you for the Photoshop tips, I played with it and pictures look great!
I was using the clone feature but will now play with your method.
Thanks
Bill

 

[bobandgeri]

Have cleaned our D-100 many times with the "wet" method - no problems. On the D100 you have to attach a power suplly to keep the shutter open, but other than that cost it's an easy procedure. As pointed out in the article - clean it then take a photo of something white to check out how good you did.

 

[kmorgan]

Thank you for the Photoshop tips, I played with it and pictures look great!
I was using the clone feature but will now play with your method.
Thanks
Bill

Glad to help. Anytime, just ask.

Kevin