Step-by-step DIY CCD Cleaning with ... a dispensable cake knife! © Copyright sfhuang (Huang Shao Fei) Disclaimer: This information is provided solely for the reader's information and is not meant to be taken as an advice. The author will not be held responsible for any damages to the reader's camera and loss of warranty, where applicable, by following the procedures described in this article. The reader is taking his own risks by following these procedures! If you are a DSLR user, you will probably know that your camera CCD sensors actually collect dust when the sensors are charged. Like most other DSLR camera owners, when I first found that my camera (a humble Fujifilm S1 Pro) was plagued with dust (see sample pictures below) I threw my hands in the air and ran around the house going crazy. The specks of dust were pretty stubborn, clinging on to the CCD even after I used my entire arsenal of blowers. Sending the camera for cleaning at the service center was an option, but the prices quickly put me off. I cannot imagine paying S$50 and up for a simple cleaning job. I considered this a last option. I browsed the Net for answers, and found the following treasure troves of information and products pertaining to CCD cleaning. I highly recommend that you check these links out (because I will not be covering the basics)! 1. SensorSwab from Photographic Solutions [At approximately S$90 for 12 swabs, these stuff don't come cheap! Believe me at one point I was tempted to just go out and get these stuff. But at S$90?! Luckily I came to my senses and threw this option out the window.] 2. DIY CCD cleaning - Spatula CCD cleaner by Nicholas R. - Cleaning the CCD or why you might want to eat at Wendy's by Thom - Darren@Clubsnap's helpful step-by-step procedure for cleaning CCDs - tsystem@Clubsnap's CCD cleaner I considered all my options and with the valuable background information above, I decided to make my own CCD cleaner. I tried looking around the house for those spatula-like things that Thom and tsystem used, but the closest thing I found was a dispensable cake knife. That begain my adventure with the dispensable cake knife ... I am quite proud to say that the cleaner worked well for me and although I cannot claim that my S1 Pro is 100% free of dust, I am very satisfied with the results. Here then is the step-by-step DIY procedure for making and using your own CCD cleaner. Here's what you will need: Cleaning solution Lint-free cloth wipes Scissors Fine sandpaper Dispensable plastic cake knife (preferably with at least 2 cm width across blade) Step 1: Make the CCD cleaner holder Use a pen-knife to cut a thin shallow ridge along the plastic blade and break it in half. Then use the sandpaper to sand the blade to fit your camera's CCD. Make sure that the sanded surface is completely flat. I also recommend that you sand the blade's edge in a V-shape cross-section. In my example, I sanded the blade to 2.2 cm to cover the S1 Pro CCD width. Step 2: Cut 1/4 sheet of lint-free cloth wipe Cut a piece of square lint-free cloth wipe into four equal pieces. Step 3: Attach cloth-wipe to knife (Top view) (Bottom view) Take a piece of lint-free cloth wipe, fold it in half and place it over the blade's edge. Fold in the edges of the cloth taking care to fold in the two corners at an angle as shown above, and secure it with the rubber band. Folding in the corners makes for a flat contact surface at both sides of the V-shaped blade edge. Step 4: Expose the CCD The exact procedure for raising the mirror in the DSLR thereby exposing the CCD is different for each camera. For the S1 Pro, the manual recommends that we first connect the camera to an optional power adapter and set the camera mode to M. The camera should then be switched on *while* pressing down both the timer and AE-L buttons. The mirror can finally be raised by pressing down the shutter release button. (To lower the mirror after cleaning, press both the timer and AE-L buttons and turn the power to OFF.) If you are not using the S1 Pro, please refer to your camera owner's manual for detailed instructions on how to expose the camera CCD. * For the record, I do not have the power adapter and have been cleaning the CCD with my camera running on rechargeables. Now I've heard some folks claim that by not using a power adapter, current would still be flowing through the CCD and dust would be attracted to the CCD via static electricity. I see some truth behind this claim as some of the dust on my CCD just refuse to budge even after 2-3 sheets of cloth wipes! Step 5: Swipe blade up and down the CCD Here's the fun part. Place the blade across the width of the top end of the CCD, and with one firm downward movement (keeping the blade on the CCD at all times), swipe it down the length of the CCD. Make sure that you cover the entire the CCD sensor area. Now, place the blade across the width of the bottom end of the CCD, and with one firm upward movement (keeping the blade on the CCD at all times), swipe it up the length of the CCD. Make sure that you only raise the blade after you clear the CCD sensor area. When you're done, remember to lower the mirror! Step 6: Check the results Similar to the procedure for determining if your camera CCD needs cleaning, set the camera aperture to f/16 or more, point to a bright sky and take a snapshot. View the picture in Adobe Photoshop and perform an Auto-levels adjustment. If there are any dust left on the CCD, they should show up visibly. Assuming you are lucky enough to have removed all the dust with just one swipe in each direction (which most folks recommend), the cleaning procedure ends here. But if you have stubborn dust speckles glued to the CCD that just refuse to budge even after two good swipes, read on! Remember you have 3 pieces of cut lint-free cloth wipes left? Time to put them to good use. I have an unortthodox method that you may or may not wish to follow, it's up to you - but it worked for me. Using the second piece of cloth wipes, I do a vertical split swipe left and right to sweep the dust to the left and right edges of the CCD. Then with the third and fourth pieces of wipes, I do 2 swipes up and down the CCD with each cloth, taking care not to do more than 2 swipes. I know this may sound wasteful at first, but remember that if you re-use the wipes after two swipes the dust may dislodge from the wipe and glue back to the CCD surface! The results of my first CCD cleaning is shown below. Before cleaning Picture of the bright sky taken at f/16 easily deceived me into thinking my CCD is free of dust. But after performing an Auto-levels adjustment in Adobe Photoshop, evidence of a CCD badly plagued with dust showed up visibly. After cleaning Taking a picture of the sky again after the first cleaning. f/16 as before. After performing an auto-levels adjustment in Photoshop, I could see drastic improvement of the CCD's condition as compared to how it looked before the cleaning. Now I only see four specks remaining. Another cleaning would do the job, hopefully. The End DIY CCD cleaning is daunting for every DSLR owner. To be true, there are risks involved that some may find too much to stomach especially where they have made substantial investments in their camera equipment. But I have found that a DIY cleaning procedure is simple and straightforward, and if done the right way, would provide satisfactory cleaning results right from the first swipe onwards. I am still convinced that the prevailing prices for sensor cleaning services are ridiculous and unfair to DSLR owners like us. Unless I need absolute perfection in my shots (which isn't too often as I will choose film anytime if such occasions arise), I wouldn't be bothered with the few stubborn specks that cling to my CCD. After all, dust is a problem that won't go away so we need to learn to live with this limitation of current DSLR technology. I hope my article has been helpful to you as it has been to me. I welcome your feedback and suggestions to make the technique (or article) even better. Send them to me at wiz0rdry@yahoo.com.sg Last updated: 18 May 2003 © sfhuang 2003