What Is Image Sensors Cleaning?

How Clean Image Sensors in Digital Cameras?

Dirt or dust entering the camera when lenses are exchanged or the body cap is removed may adhere to the image sensor and affect your photographs. The Clean image sensor option vibrates the sensor to remove dust. Clean now. Perform image sensor cleaning immediately.

When you change lenses a lot on a digital SLR, or even once in a windy or dusty environment, dust can enter the camera and stick to the low-pass filter covering the image sensor. This dust creates dark spots on any images you then capture. One way to check if this has happened is to take a few photos of a clear sky or a white card. Open the images in your photo-editing program and enlarge them to see if there are any dark dust spots in what should be even, light areas.

How to wet clean your sensor

1. Remove the lens and place the camera on a surface with the LCD facing the floor.
2. Select the manual cleaning option to lock up the mirror.
3. Remove a sensor swab and using the air blower a few times, blow air to remove any odd pieces of lint that may be stuck to the swab.

How to inspect for dirt and dust

In some cases, this dirt or dust may appear in photographs and the sensor will then require cleaning.

1. Charge the battery or connect an AC adapter. A reliable power source is required when inspecting or cleaning the sensor. Turn the camera off, insert a fully charged battery, or connect the optional AC adapter.
2. Remove the lens and turn on the camera.
3. Press the MENU button and select Setup menu > Lock Mirror Up for Cleaning (see user's manual for more information).
4. Press the shutter release button. The mirror will then be raised to the cleaning position and the shutter curtain will open, revealing the sensor. The camera viewfinder and top LCD will display a row of dashes, this is normal.
5. Holding the camera so that light falls on the image sensor, it is possible to examine the surface for dirt and dust (Image 1). Should a foreign object/s be found on the surface, it should be cleaned as described below.
   If there is no visible dirt, turn the camera off and the mirror will return to the down position and the shutter curtain will close. Replace the lens body cap.

DSLR Camera Image Sensor Cleaning System-NIKON

The dust problem is so serious that camera companies are doing everything they can think of to reduce it including the following: 

Dust Reducing

Reduce the dust by minimizing the dust and particles created by the camera, using materials in the body cap and shutter that don’t create dust and other particles during normal wear and tear. 

Make it difficult for the dust to stick

Make it difficult for the dust to stick by coating the low-pass filter with a non-stick coating. (The low pass filter in front of the image sensor is designed to eliminate moiré patterns and give more accurate color.) 

Dust Repel

Repel the dust by applying an anti-static charge to the low pass filter covering the sensor to prevent static-charged dust from adhering to it. 

Dust Remove

Remove the dust by attaching an ultrasonic vibrating unit to the low-pass filter so it can shake off any dust particles that are adhering to it. The newly liberated dust is then captured by an adhesive material that prevents it from becoming airborne again. This shaking may occur automatically when you turn the camera on or off, or manually when you make a menu selection. 

Put the dust out of focus. 

The low-pass filter, normally a single unit, can be divided into two layers, a front and a rear. The front layer, where any dust would accumulate, is positioned far enough away from the sensor so any dust on it will be out of focus and less likely to show in the images. 

Process the dust away. 

You just photograph a white wall or sheet of paper (or, in a pinch, remove the lens from the camera), and the camera maps (records) the size and position of the dust particles on the low-pass filter. This map is then attached to all images as metadata. When the images and appended dust data map are transferred to a computer, the software supplied with the camera can use the information in the map to remove the effects of dust on the image. 

Manually clean the sensor. 

When all else fails your remaining choice is to return the camera to the camera company’s service center (tiresome after a while) or clean it yourself (a high-risk procedure). If you decide to do it yourself, you use a menu command that locks the mirror up and out of your way and opens the shutter so you can get to the surface of the image sensor. You then clean the sensor (actually the low pass filter) with sensor swabs and cleaning fluid developed specifically for this purpose. NEVER use compressed air, or other cleaning products, on the sensor. Cleaning supplies are available from sources such as B&H and Calumet. For more information Google “cleaning image sensor” but proceed at your own risk.