Arctic Butterfly Sensor/mirror cleaning kit / brush

[crisscross]

Hi Chris,

Very puzzling - my Arctic Butterfly generally removes about 98% of dust bunnies. I've even shown people how it can pick up pieces of paper that are several millimeters square (so the static should have no problem with anything smaller). Might be worth doing a test to see if yours will do the same?

Not sure how much humidity comes into it - I usually clean my sensor in the workshop where humidity is probably quite low as I run a dehumidifier 24 x 7 to keep canvas / paper (and just things in gemeral) very dry (plus I just prefer a dry environment).

Have you cleaned the AB at all? How long do you whizz it up for? cap on or off?

Never ocurred to me to spin it with the cap on (cap comes off before twizzling on my instructions sheet) - thought it was meant to be scattering dust away (as well as aquiring static charge). Spin it for at least as long as 3 blasts suggested in instructions. It will pick up small fragments eg fine photo edge trimmings upto 6mm long, but nothing larger.

Humidity comes into it as it is meant to decrease static attraction of sensor to dust. (according to 2 scientist friends of a caliber to know)

Ian - I have the Delkin sensorscope which is an illuminated mini-telescope that fits the lens hole. The 'dust' is mostly minute reflective white specks, tho occasionally a curly fibre gets in (but does remove easily).

Above all, I was not doing anything this time other than what worked pretty well before

[Colin Southern]

Never ocurred to me to spin it with the cap on (cap comes off before twizzling on my instructions sheet) - thought it was meant to be scattering dust away (as well as aquiring static charge).

Hi Chris,

Yes - I think that spinning with cap off is the way we're supposed to do it - someone "asked the question" a while back - and whilst I'd assumed it was cap off, I never did get around to checking - just thought I'd check.

So I would have thought that so long as your dust spots were less than 6mm you should be OK then!

PS: The one time I DO keep the lid on is when I'm cleaning the brush - I just pour a little IPA into it - insert it - and give it a few whizzes (needs to be air dried most thoroughly after that though).

[crisscross]

....so long as your dust spots were less than 6mm you should be OK then!

But it has to overcome the secret Nikon crocodiles hiding in the filter plate that try to keep dust in their jaws; this was previous to current fashion for removing dust. I am sure that if you shot the plate with another camera using a polarizing filter you would see them just below the surface

[Dave Humphries]

But it has to overcome the secret Nikon crocodiles hiding in the filter plate that try to keep dust in their jaws ~ I am sure that if you shot the plate with another camera using a polarizing filter you would see them just below the surface

Chuckle

So do Canon's have 'gators then (I always thought it was the other way round - "Canon crocs" )

Well, you learn something new everyday