I had the CCD sensor on my K10D cleaned today. I took it to Calumet, which is near our local mall and they cleaned it while I waited. I’m glad to have it clean again because there was a really annoying “dark blob” that had appeared sometime in September that was ruining some of my shots. Apparently, it was some kind of lubrication fluid or something that had gotten on the sensor. The K10D has a nice sensor shake function that can shake dust off the sensor, but it doesn’t work for fluids. Anyway, I’d like to avoid having to get my sensor cleaned professionally as much as possible, since it’s pretty expensive. However, doing it myself is risky. Without knowing what I’m doing, it would be pretty easy to scratch the sensor or damage the camera in some other way. So, I’m looking for information on how to do it properly and what tools/supplies are best. Any suggestions?
11
Nov
07
[Insert Witty Title Here] 
I’ve never cleaned my sensor, so I’d be interested in learning how to do it as well. Whenever I shoot at a high f-stop, I get dark blotches of dust on my shots. That’d be nice to fix.
Dust is easier to handle than other gunk. There are brushes and little vacuum devices for getting rid of dust. I was just reading through the monthly Calumet magazine/catalog and they had a review for a product called Dust-Aid, which is an adhesive pad that you can press onto the sensor to remove dust. From the review, it seems like it’s easy to use, relatively low risk, and works well for dust. However, if you have stuff on your sensor other than dust – like the lubricating liquid that was on my sensor – this particular product is not going to solve all of your problems.
It seems to me that liquids and such are more of a problem for newer cameras since the moving parts in the camera were recently lubricated. On the other hand, most newer cameras have some sort of dust removal system built-in. I think that all the DSLRs that use sensor-shift shake reduction (Pentax, Sony, Olympus) use the sensor-shift capability to shake the dust off. The new Canon and Nikon cameras (D300,40D,1DS Mark III; NOT the D3) also use vibration to shake off dust, usually onto a sticky strip somewhere inside the camera. However, again, with all these cameras, splotches of goop are unaffected by vibrating the sensor and require sensor washing, which is where I have no knowledge. Putting liquid inside the camera just seems like a big risk.
If anyone knows anything about the techniques and products used in the washing of sensors, please let us know.