Camera Image Sensor Cleaning

Last Friday, I set out to clean the image sensor on my Nikon D3 digital camera. I have cleaned my own image sensors for years and have never had any problems doing it. But these past cleanings were done on APS-C sensors (smaller sized sensors) on cameras like the Fuji S-5 Pro, Fuji S-3 Pro, Nikon D200, D100, etc.

The Nikon D3 is a "full-frame" camera which uses a much larger image sensor. This is one reason why my images today are so much sharper than my past images on the older cameras. But cleaning this larger sensor proved to be a lot more difficult than with the smaller APS-C sized sensors.

The full-frame "DX" sensors go from one edge to the other when the camera's mirror is retracted. This makes it very difficult to get a cleaning swab to cover every part of the sensor. I typically use a Pec Pad cleaning cloth dampened by a cleaning fluid called "Eclipse" which dries almost immediately. The Pec Pad is wrapped around the handle end of a plastic knife from Wendy's (yes, the hamburger place!)

What I found after numerous attempts to clean the D3 sensor was that the Eclipse fluid did not dry "cleanly" enough leaving behind "dried" residue. It was very faint by the naked eye, but when test shots were taken, you could clearly see the darkened "splotches" that the residue caused on the image. These were mostly gathered around the outer edges of the frame because it was difficult to manuver the cleaning pad near the edges. Very frustrating! On APS-C sized sensors, the sensor is small enough that one swipe from edge to edge could be made making it less likely to leave behind any fluid residue.

In the end, I found that I needed to clean the sensor with more wiping of the Pec Pads without fluid. The problem is that this "dry" cleaning could cause scratching on the sensor which could damage the sensor. Needless to say, I was a little nervous about this! Luckily, I did a good job and now the sensor looks nearly perfect.

The D3 does not have any built-in sensor cleaner and that's too bad. The newer D700 has this however. While the D3 is a model that's considered the "better" camera over the D700, the performance of the D700 does rival the D3. So if you want to get a camera that's easier to clean, get a D700!

It is also important to remember that before cleaning any sensor, be sure to blow off any loose dust with a bulb blower. NEVER blow air from your mouth! You could accidentally spray the sensor with spit and that would be disasterous to a sensor! Invest in a bulb blower. One came free (is anything really free?) with my Fuji S5 Pro cameras, and it works great!