Sensor dust can become a major problem when shooting digital SLR cameras. Working in harsh environments and changing lenses often results in dust in a cameras vital areas. Minor amounts of dust can be removed with software such as Photoshop, but as dust accumulates, the amount of time it takes to remove during your digital workflow becomes cumbersome.

There are many home remedies and quite a few excellent products available to photographers. After much research I decided to use products made by Visible Dust; a company based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Their products safely and completely remove dust from the vital areas of cameras.

But don't just take my word for it! I will explain the simple process of removing dust from the sensor areas of your camera and show some photos of just how easily it is done.

First, it's important to point out that you are not actually cleaning the "sensor", but a high-quality infra-red filter made of glass and secured just above your camera's sensor array. It's this filter that will accumulate dust and foreign particles. This filter is fragile and any scratching or damage to it may result in lost images and costly repairs. Prior to any cleaning, check with your camera manufacturer to ensure that your camera has a filter present. If your camera does not have one of these filters, introducing any chemicals or objects may permanantly damage your camera's sensor.

This is a photograph of what one of my camera bodies sensor and IR filter(a Canon 20D) looked like prior to any cleaning.

I'm sure your quite curious how a photo looks with a sensor that dirty. This photo is exaggerated by an f-stop of 32 while shooting a bright white subject and some extreme post-processing to accentuate the dust and debris. Yes, my sensor was that dirty after multiple shoots in a very dusty areas.

I made my order with Visible Dust via the internet. The items I ordered were the Sensor Brush™, Sensor Clean™ and Chamber Clean™. The items arrived safely and very quickly. It is extremely important that you are familiar with the directions on how to safely use Visible Dust products. Failure to follow the directions could result in damage to your camera. Find the Directions here.

I determined that I would have to clean the chamber area to reduce the risk of having debris fall into the sensor area while cleaning it. A careful, but thorough sweep of the entire chamber area using Chamber Clean™was completed prior to any cleaning of the sensor itself. It is critical that you follow Visible Dust's instructions. Not doing so could result in unwanted particles or solution to become further lodged in your camera's chamber.

Once I was satisfied that no dust or debris from the chamber area would fall onto the sensor I began a sweep of the sensor area with Visible Dust's Sensor Brush™. High quality compressed air was used and blasted the brush with it for approximately 15-20 seconds. This charges the Sensor Brush's filaments so that dust clings to them. A single brush stroke across the sensor area was completed followed by another quick blast of air to the brush filaments to blow off any dust that was clinging to them and then repeated three-to-five times.

The result was a much cleaner sensor, though still dirty. The remaining debris was "glued" onto the sensor and the Sensor Brush™ would not be able to lift these types of particles.

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The solution to these glued on particles is Visible Dust's Sensor Clean™ product. This product is specifically formulated for this use. It is also travel-safe and non-flammable. Use of other products (such as pure methanol) have been known to cause the glue that binds the sensor's filter to come free. Sensor Clean™ will not cause this problem. Also included with Sensor Clean™ is 100 medical-grade swabs for use with this product.

I do not have any photos of Sensor Clean™ during cleaning. I was concentrating on the cleaning instead of taking a photo of the process. Following Visible Dust's instructions will result in a clean, streak-free sensor as seen in the following photo.

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After many uses of Visible Dust's products it's clear that these products are superior. If you shoot digital SLR'S, chances are high you're going to need these tools at some point. The companies attention to detail, customer-oriented service and specifically designed products tailored to the many sensor types available today is outstanding. Detail to small issues that occur in the world of photography such as traveling with compressed air and/or flammable chemicals are effortlessly solved by new and innovative products such as the Artic Butterfly™, Sensor Brush™ SD and Sensor Clean™. I highly suggest ordering these products either directly from Visible Dust or from one of their recommended retail locations.

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