Cleaned Infrared Sensor

I mentioned in a previous blog entry that I had a big dust spot or dirt spot on the sensor of my newly converted infrared camera.  I also mentioned that I didn't know if I could still clean this sensor the same way I clean all other types of camera sensors so I went back to the website for the place that converted my camera to infrared to see if they address this question.

It turns out that I can clean my infrared converted sensor the same way I clean the sensors in all my other cameras.  That was good news because I am already well-versed in doing that quickly and easily.  

This morning, I removed the lens and placed my camera under my magnifying lamp on my desk.  I immediately saw that changing lenses outside in the windy environment the other day was an exceptionally bad idea.  I have never seen so much debris on a sensor!  I would definitely need to clean up this sensor.

My first step in cleaning a sensor is blowing it with a bulb blower.  I hold the camera in the air with the open lens mount facing downward and then I use the bulb blower to blow any loose debris off the sensor.  Once the debris is loosened from the surface of the sensor, gravity takes over and the debris falls to the ground away from the sensor.  Using the bulb blower on this infrared camera removed almost all of the debris on the first try.

I used the bulb blower a few more times in an attempt to break loose the remaining spots on the sensor.  All but one piece of some sort of debris was safely removed from the sensor without even needing to touch the sensor.  That is good news. 

Since all the other debris blew off quite easily, I figured this one remaining piece of debris would probably lift off without the need for a wet cleaning with cleaning fluid so I grabbed a soft artist's brush...  placed the camera under my magnifying lamp on my desk...  and carefully and lightly pulled the brush over the remaining spot...  it broke loose.  I then held the camera with the open lens mount facing downward and blew out any remaining loose debris using my bulb blower.  

I cleaned the back element of the lens before mounting the lens back on the camera.  

Now the sensor is clean again and it only required about two minutes of my time!

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EDIT:  After I mounted the lens on the camera body again, I went outside to shoot a couple of test photos.  I closed the aperture to f22 and shot a couple of images of the sky...  I still had two of the largest and darkest spots showing up in my images that I had before I cleaned the sensor!

This time I decided to use a sensor cleaning fluid on a swab to wet clean the sensor.  I did that even though I saw nothing on the sensor.  As I was mounting the lens on the camera body, I immediately realized that the worst of my problems was probably related to the lens and not the sensor so I checked the front and rear elements of the lens and quickly found that there were big pieces of debris on both sides of the lens too!

I used the bulb blower on the lens then cleaned the lens elements, front and rear.  I think the problem is resolved now.  It is now overcast outside so the conditions are not all that great for testing an infrared camera.  These cameras are best in bright sunlight.  

The crazy thing is that I knew that changing lenses in the windy conditions the other day would blow debris onto my sensor.  It was very windy and there is a lot of stuff out there to be blown by the wind.  Fortunately, cleaning a sensor isn't a major project.  It is pretty easy, actually.

Anyway, I'm now pretty sure that everything is sparkling clean like new again.