When particles of dust and debris get on your camera sensors, they can cause frustrating spots in your shots that ruin entire batches of photographs. Thus, many photographers like to regularly give their sensor a cleaning to make sure it’s free of spots. In the 10-minute video above, PhotoRec Toby offers a detailed look at how you should go about dry and wet cleaning your image sensor.





Toby begins by showing us exactly how dirty his Sony a7R’s sensor became after a recent photo trip to Iceland. Snapping a photograph of a white surface and then importing it into Lightroom for closer examination confirms his sensor needs a good bit of cleaning.

Starting with a bulb air blaster, Toby tries to remove larger bits of dust and debris. Unfortunately, in his case, the current of air isn’t enough to eliminate the particles clinging to the sensor itself. Using the camera’s internal sensor cleaning function is attempted but, unfortunately, isn’t able to get the job done. He then decides to try a more thorough wet cleaning process.

Toby uses the DustAid Dust Wand Kit and applies a bit of a liquid cleaning solution to the end of one of the wands designed for his full frame sensor. Carefully moving across his sensor, Toby is finally able to remove the undesired particles, removing them from the camera entirely (rather than just relocating it).

For photographers using DSLRs instead of mirrorless cameras, Toby also shows how to lock up the mirror and expose your sensor for the cleaning process. If you enjoyed this tutorial, you can find more of Toby’s videos over on his YouTube channel.

(via PhotoRec Toby via ISO 1200)