D2X sensor cleaning...easy...no BFD

[Vernon t]

Really, no big frightening deal.
Today got my Eclipse. Got my Pec-pads. Got my pap smear brush(see photo).

Had a nice glass of Shiraz.

I scotch-taped out a sensor sized rectangle on a 77mm L37c to practice.
The pap smear brush, flexible plastic bristles, was cut with toenail clippers to 15mm wide to fit sensor.
Pec-pads ripped in half to be uncumbersome.

Biggest mistake, I'm told is too much methanol so I used a big drop then blotted the prepared brush on a pristine pec-pad a couple of times to absorb excess.

First of all...I cleaned the sensor last week with something so foolish as to not ever be told, ever.(Well, enough Shiraz I might tell.) My sensor was thoroughly mucked up, streaked and clumped. Yech!

One thing of note...the pristine pec-pad and scant Eclipse invariably leaves residue on the L37c...the setup's not as pristine as we all want to believe...but apparently it's adequate. Surprising to me really. Makes me want to go to a pharmacy and get some pure methanol even though I was ridiculed for the concept.

I used manual set at 25 seconds to clean. The whole swabbing operation doesn't take 6 to 8 seconds each time unless you are a klutz.

First cleaning was my trusty D2H. First time anything other than canned air from Costco(shut-up...done it a thousand times) ever touched the sensor. 31,000 shots...it really didn't need cleaning anyway. It is now pristine new. Micro-bunnies vanished.
Photoshop auto levels will bring out the nano-bunnies...try it if you dare.

Took 4 shots of my white ceiling with 85mmf1.4 at f16.
Photoshop auto levels is frighteningly revealing of sensor dust.
First one filthy...ech...pooy...ugh.
Second after air spritz form the fetal nose sucker(photo).
Third shot after pec-padded Eclipse. Voila...95% clean.
Fourth shot after new pec-pad/Eclipse pass...gasp...factory virginal pristine!

Call me jaded. Call me foolish. I laugh in the face of danger. On a daily basis I cut through thick muscular lower uterine walls with a scalpel millimeters from fetal faces. I'd rather chunk my D2X out the window on the freeway than slice a neonatal cornea so i guess I live on some bizarre caffeine fueled edge routinely.

Sensor cleaning is no BFD.

It is somewhat of an adrenaline rush the first time admittedly.

Good night all.

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[LarryJacobson]

Vernon,

Thanks for the rather graphic description of the process- LOL. (It actually made me feel a little nauseus- I probably would have washed out as a med student).

Do you have any recommended sources for the cleaning materials mentioned?

Thanks


-Larry

 

[Vernon t]

Adorama ships Eclipse.
B&H won't. Apparently it's hazardous cargo in New York skies, or something of that sort. I suspect 59cc of methanol is about as peril-prone as the ethanol in the airline mini-bottle of Chivas...likely significantly less so...whatever.
http://www.adorama.com/CPECS.html?searchinfo=eclipse&item_no=8

I also ordered some way-to0-expensive sensor swabs that are probably imminently more user friendly. They aren't here yet.
http://www.adorama.com/CPSS2.html?searchinfo=sensor swabs&item_no=2

BTW. The eclipse came with 10 complimentary Pec-pads. They are only 7 cents anyway.
Interesting note...a lot is made of ultra clean methanol in Eclipse but the bottle comes sealed. The dropped nozzle and cap were loose in the little Eclipse box, both spilling out and bouncing across the less-than-immaculately clean floor so be careful.

 

[Mike Worley]

I also ordered some way-to0-expensive sensor swabs that are probably imminently more user friendly.

Actually, I think your original brushes look better. They look like they apply a more uniform pressure across their width than the sensor swabs. Sensor swabs are based on a bit of pecpad material wrapped over the end of a Q-tip kind of affair, and seem to apply more pressure in the middle and less on the sides.

I've been wrapping a piece of Pecpad around the end of a brush roughly as wide as the sensor. Then rubber banding the Pecpad in place. The advantage is an even and variable pressure across the width of the bit of Pecpad that touches the sensor.

I like your brushes, but I suppose B&H doesn't carry them.

Regards,

Mike

 

[twig]

I have had great luck with the trimmed down plastic spoon from Wendy's method.

 

[LarryJacobson]

Vernon,

Thanks for the links!

-Larry

 

[Mike Worley]

Oh, I forgot:

Call me jaded. Call me foolish.

OK, you're jaded and foolish.

There.

Mike

 

[Vernon t]

My pap smear brush...
If you have a female significant-other (or are one yourself) ask the gyn doc for one. It should last forever. Notably, it doesn't seem to dissolve in alcohol. I did have a nightmare thought of dissolved plastic precipitating out on the sensor, but the pap fixative is alcohol based and not likely a solute for the brush. Wendy's plastic, I now not! That Murphy law guy is insidious.
I trimmed the lateral edges to 15mm wide(15+pec-pad ~ sensor vertical dimension. I trimmed the bristles with a sharp little Spyderco knife and away I went bunny bustin'.