Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/03/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]To be fair, I think the M9 is worse than the M8 as it produces more heat and thus has more static buildup, and of course more area to clean (the bigger the better - not in this case!!). I suspect the shutter mechanism traps stuff too, and it's right on top of the sensor. In addition, the short body chamber with no mirror to block off junk (normally an advantage of the RF design) makes the problem worse. And of course if you are not shooting F16 with sky on the back, you may not notice anyway. I'd love it if M9.2 has a self cleaning mechanism. I know Geoff doesn't like them, but if the Alpha A900/A850 can have it on a full frame body, I doubt it has any negative performance impact. To make it fit of course may be another one of those "impossible" tasks, but then again, having a full frame digital M was suppose to be impossible too until 09/09/09. On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 9:55 PM, Jim Nichols <jhnichols at lighttube.net> wrote: > Much as I envy the M8/M9 users, these recent cleaning tales make me more > pleased every day that I am using a couple of Oly E-thingies. I am happy > to > keep things very simple. > > Jim Nichols > Tullahoma, TN USA > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nathan Wajsman" <photo at > frozenlight.eu> > > To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org> > Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 11:46 PM > > Subject: Re: [Leica] Sensor cleaning revisited > > > Wow, this sounds scary Geoff. I bet several doses of "blood pressure >> medication" were needed during and after this process. >> >> Because of tales like this, I have a simple rule: never put any liquid on >> the sensor, never touch it with anything wet. I use Sensor Scope. The kit >> does contain liquid and swabs but I have never used them; the little >> vacuum >> cleaner has until now been adequate on my M8 and before that on my Canon >> cameras. Of course, with Olympus I did not need any sensor cleaning thanks >> to the built-in dust removal system. I wish Leica had the same thing. >> >> Cheers, >> Nathan >> >> Nathan Wajsman >> Alicante, Spain >> http://www.frozenlight.eu >> http://www.greatpix.eu >> http://www.nathanfoto.com >> >> Books: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/search?search=wajsman&x=0&y=0 >> PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws >> Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Mar 3, 2010, at 3:07 AM, Geoff Hopkinson wrote: >> >> I had a recent exchnge on and off list regarding cleaning the M9 sensor. >>> When I just cleaned mine ( which has not had heavy use), I was dismayed >>> to >>> find that I had persistent streaks, some of which looked alarmingly like >>> fine scratches. >>> I was confident that I had been careful. I used the Arctic butterfly >>> brush >>> first to remove any loose dust and then did a careful wet pass with >>> Visible >>> Dust Plus. I only had 1.3x size swabs. >>> The streaks remained after 3 separate cleaning cycles with new swabs each >>> time. >>> I repeated this all with the Dust Aid kit which uses swabs that you need >>> to >>> manually wind around the spatula and their fluid. Same result. My Leica >>> dealer repeated this, same result. >>> We could not budge the easily visible streaks although they were >>> completely >>> undetectable on test images at high magnification on a monitor. >>> >>> Today I repeated the dry clean folowed by a wet clean with the Eclipse >>> type >>> 3 (size) swab and their fluid. They no longer consider the E2 fluid >>> necessary for tin oxide sensors and recommend their standard fluid for >>> every >>> sensor. >>> A single pass in each direction completely removed every trace of the >>> streaks and I am a happy camper. I believe that the streaks I had were >>> either traces of oil, possibly from the swab touching the surrounds of >>> the >>> sensor (shutter lubricant??), drying marks from the fluids used (qty?) or >>> a >>> combination of both. >>> >>> I note that the Eclipse fluid contains methanol. >>> Visible Dust fluid does not and they state that methanol can damage the >>> seal >>> of the covering bonded to the sensor. >>> Leica recommends isopropyl alcohol. >>> In any event I wanted to report my experiences. I'm sure that others will >>> have had different experiences and views. Incidentally the Eclipse swabs >>> actually cost even more here than the Visible Dust products so that >>> should >>> please those who considered I was skimping by trying the Dust aid swabs >>> when >>> my Visible Dust ones (M8 size) ran out! >>> >>> Cheers >>> Geoff >>> http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>> >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > -- // richard <http://www.imagecraft.com/> blog: < http://imagecraft.wordpress.com> // portfolio: <http://www.dragonsgate.net/pub/richard/PICS/AnotherCalifornia > // mailing lists: <http://www.imagecraft.com/contact.html> [ For technical support on ImageCraft products, please include all previous replies in your msgs. ]