[Leica] M8 Sensor Cleaning

[don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory)]

Jesse,
I have had pretty good luck using the canned air that I used to use to blow
off negatives.  I get the can to a "not full" by blowing off the keyboard if
it is new.  So, my cleaning flow is to take the lens off and blow out the
chamber with the camera tilted down; wait a minute or so and repeat.  Then I
engage the sensor cleaning function and blow off the sensor with the camera
about 45 degrees from upside down using a sweeping motion from the top to
the bottom.  Wait and repeat.  So far no issues and I don't take any special
precautions when changing lenses: for example maybe ten lens changes on the
dunes in Death Valley.

On 7/8/07, Jesse Hellman <hellman@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> This has been discussed before but it becomes more pertinent to us
> all as problems develop: sensor cleaning. After blobs appeared in sky
> and background I got a Giotto bulb and used it to gently blow into
> the upside down body (yes, sensor exposed). No luck. Then I tried a
> harder blast. One big blob of something that won't budge. So, I got
> out my trusty darkroom 5.5 power NPC loupe and after unscrewing it
> could see that there were other blobs as well. More Giotto, still no
> movement in the blobs.
>
> The Giotto is new, and I squeezed it hard a few times away from the
> camera to be sure there would be nothing it would deposit on the sensor.
>
> So, is the next step an Arctic Butterfly, and if that fails a wet
> cleaning with Visible Dust Sensor Clean using their swabs?
>
> For Leica not to advise how to do it seems wrong. You can't send your
> camera to Solms (yes, that's what it says and I live in Maryland! New
> Jersey is a lot closer) because of a little dust.
>
> But there seems to be nothing more fearful than the possibility of
> damaging that sensor. For instance, how strongly can you use the
> Giotto to blow the air? What is the experience with other methods?
>
> I saw Frank suggested turning off the camera when changing lenses.
> Sounds like good advice.
>
> thanks for any help!
>
> Jesse
>
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>



-- 
Don
don.dory@gmail.com