Sensor/CCD Cleaning- DIY?

How many of you guys clean your own sensors? I've looked at a few methods and supplies, and Copperhill Imaging seems to be the best to me. Or is it worth to run it down to the Canon Service Center?

I clean my own using a Visible Dust sensor brush.

It might be worthwhile taking your camera in if you don't shoot a ton of pictures, or if you just dont feel like touching the sensor. But if you use your camera a lot then that could get expensive. Personally, I like being able to clean my sensor if I'm on the road or camping or houseboating or whatever.

I do but it's nerve racking

Thanks Scott and Randy, have you guys used a wet method?

My fiance shoots professionally, and I've taken over the role of "equipment tech" as she's become much busier. I am learning a ton about photography, and being a gizmo geek, I enjoy it. She usually takes her cameras into Samy's for cleanings, but as she's doing more and more shoots, taking the cameras in for a few days is a big inconvenience. I figure we can save a lot of money and time by cleaning it ourselves.

Okay, next question:

She was shooting with her 1Ds and it started producing what I thought was a damaged pixel, but it seems way too big to be a pixel. I went through all the internal cleaning methods with no luck, and then I put it into manual clean mode to take a look at the sensor. I could see a large spot on the sensor that corresponds to the location in the pic. I used one of those rocket blowers and no luck.

The spot is confusing me, as a speck of dust should appear dark, right? When I searched stuck pixels, it showed a spot like this, white with the black outline.

I don't want to mess with it anymore since it's real new and it's still under warranty, I figure let Canon deal with it if there's damage to it, but before I take it in I wanted to see if any of you have run across this.

Crop of spot:

I found when it has that little dark ring around the spot that it's usually hard to clean. I always used the copperhill method with sensor swabs (know they're expensive but it sure beats putting a swab on some sort of stick yourself)

Make sure you get the correct type of eclipse (sp?) some of the newer sensors require type 2. I make one pass in one direction and then turn it over and go back. the key is don't use too much of the fluid too just 1 - 2 drops.

Rich, you've seen a spot like that before and you were able to clean it with the sensor swabs?

Many times with the 1D's and 5D I owned. Which body do you have?

"Hi-Jack", Rich is the noise level on the 7D a big jump better then the 40D at 1600 ISO? Hi-jack over, sorry

It's pretty good but like the 50D the difference between clean and a lot of noise isn't a whole lot exposure wise especially with blue sky BGs. If you pixel peep it can get scary but at screen or print size 18mp is going to hide a lot more noise then 10mp. I think the 7D is money up to 3200.

I took the 1D down to the Canon Service Center and had it cleaned, and it resolved the spot. I ordered some stuff from Copperhill as well and am going to start doing the sensor cleanings myself. The CSC used to do cleanings for free, but now they charge $30. Oh well...

Rich, that pic above was shot with the 1Ds Mk III. We, I mean she, has a 5D, 5D mk II, 40 D, and a 20 D. We've done dry cleanings of the sensors with the Clean Sweep and rocket blower, but I'll start doing the wet cleanings too.

Eric how often are you cleaning? Is she shooting a lot outside and changing lenses often? I've had my 40D for over a year and shoot 95% outside and change lenses a lot and only have had to clean my sensor twice. I do use a rocket blower after 2 or 3 shoots to knock the loose stuff off. I have heard that too much cleaning with fluid can shorten sensor life, don't know if it's true but read that on FM.

Randy, it's been pretty much as stuff gets noticed, maybe every 10 shoots per camera. I now see the need to be a little more proactive in keeping it clean and keep stuff off of the sensor. She shoots outside a lot, and does change lenses here and there, as she uses the 1D for most shots. This spec showed up after her last shoot in an industrial building. I guess I need to go through all her stuff when she brings it back in! I'm curious too as to how much fluid cleaning is too much.

I don't think you're cleaning the sensor itself rather the AA filter or possibly in the newer models the filter the cleaning system shakes. I'm not sure how that could affect the sensor but maybe on the newer units it does. I have tried the special lenspen Arthur Morris sells and the visable dust system. I found the swabs were the only thing that worked for spots like those.

Word is Canon service uses denatured alchohol and a tissue held with tweezers. There are a few older threads on FM where people claimed Canon ruined their sensor!

Out of curiosity, what would cause a spot like that? I've never seen one of those before. Is that something that's a bi-product of the anti-dust system that the newer cameras are using?

Scott, I hadn't seen that before either, neither had she, so that's why we were worried that it was defunct pixels. Again, I thought that dust would make a dark spot. Maybe it was some sort of grease or something from the camera internals?

I remember those on the original 5D. I read it was something Canon left in the compartment that would get stuck on the AA filter. That was the body it seemed like always needed cleaned.