Yeah, I know there have been several threads about this already but...

The gear I ordered the gear to follow the copperhill method arrived today and after 5 or 6 attempts to shove a 14mm spatula wrapped in a pec-pad and moistened with a couple of drops of Eclipse fluid, the results have been absolutely...



...pathetic. Not a smidgeon of dust has moved :(

Anyone out there used this method successfully on a D70 or D2 series camera? The sensor is so deep down in it's little well I can't get the swab at it (14mm is too damn big never mind what they say on their website). So, I tried a Q-Tip...that didn't seem to have much of an effect either :(

I've been back to the Pbase site and re-read the tutorial several times but can't seem to shift anything off the sensor. The ONLY thing that works is to take a dust-off reference photo and then apply it in Nikon Capture...but I'd like to have a clean sensor as well!

Any tips? Leaving it in to Nikon isn't really an option at the moment -- they've still got one of my lenses in their repair shop two months after I gave it to them -- and my local dealer suspects that most of the time they are removing dust bunnies from sensors which is why it's taking so long to get it back!

You sure its not dust behind the AA filter on the sensor?

Using the eclipse should have worked, at least to move the dust about.

I've been using the dslr clean from intermos.

http://www.intemos.com/

Dry method, but works for me (although not for all)

It sounds to me like the spatula isnt making contact with the surface of the ccd ! even a tiny amount of eclipse would shift the dust !

Thanks for the replies guys. I think it might just be that as Ian says, the spatula isn't making contact with the CCD. 14mm is just about the width of the sensor from what I can see and I've tried again and either I'm not getting the angle right or the problem is elsewhere. I haven't seen any improvement at all and at one stage a new "hair" appeared which I got rid of with a blower.

I'm holding the camera about 45 degrees to my body and trying to get the sensor swipe down in from there but it seems to be too wide to me although this is apparently the right size for my camera :(

I did a couple of test runs on a CD case to see what way the fluid would work viz-a-viz smearing and it looked perfect...but it might be a case of trying to find the right angle (excuse the pun) to get at the CCD? With the swab being so big and the sensor being recessed I can't seem to figure out how to apply the instructions as indicated :(

Hi Frenchie

I bought some Digi-Pads and Eclipse fluid from www.warehouseexpress (http://www.warehouseexpress/) Its a simple case of 3-4 drops of Eclipse on the pad and then 1 wipe left to right across the sensor, turn the pad over and repeat. I was very worried at first but found it to be quite simple and very effective.
Hope this helps, the digi pads come in different sizes to suit your sensor.

Paul:)

Thanks for the advice Paul. It seems from what you say that the digi-pads are similar to the sensorswipe. I wrap a pec-pad around the swipe and off I go a-swabbing (or not at the moment :)!)

I emailed Nicholas at Copperhill Images last night and he reckons that I might have been sent out a swipe which was not quite as thin as it should have been which is why I've been having difficulty using it to get at the sensor. He's suggested I trim it with a razor blade and he's sending me out a replacement in any case. Can't say fairer than that. If that fails to work, I'll get hold of some digipads and give them a go.

Ah the sweet smell of success :) Trimmed a couple of mm off the swab and it worked! Just got two more little dust specks to clear away and the sensor is perfectly clean.

I wonder if there's any coincidence....the number of the image I shot to check the dust was DSC0666.NEF :D:D:D

Glad you sussed it :)

hmmmm i think that nef file is the spawn of the devil ! ;)

Ha Ha! Yes, I shall cast thee evil dust motes out with a mighty swish of my swab - out you little devils, out I say :)

:devil: