DustAid Platinum DSLR Sensor Cleaner

The Dust-Aid is a effective way of removing most dust from your camera sensor.I have use it on both DSLR and my Leica M9 fullframe successfully.This product is kind of a anti-dote to the huge volume of products for cleaning DSLR sensors, its shockingly low-tech and works exactly as expected.REMEMBER: Always use a FULL FRESH CHARGED battery when clearing your sensor.!How it works, in the box you get a little sticky pad on a stick, its not very sticky, just enough to collect the dust without tearing out the sensor. So set your camera to cleaning and open the shutter, then start gently pressing the pad-on-the-stick in the one corner of the sensor, proceed "stamping" until you have covered the complete sensor. DO NOT try to wipe with this, only stamp straight down and up again.Once you have cleaned the sensor it is time to clean the dust-aid stick. The kid comes with a couple of cleaning pads, you use them by peeling back the tape on a cleaning strip and then tap the sensor cleaner on the cleaning strip, this strip is more sticky than the sensor pad, as you basically transfer the dust to the cleaning strip. I suspect using 3M blue low-tac tape would do the same trick, but since I have a stack of replacement cleaning-strips for $10 why take the chance with my sensor.These things are cheap and works well, the kit comes with a little red storage box, about 4 x 1.5 x 0.75 inches I put the box in a zip-lock bag to keep dust out, then jammed it in the bottom of the camera bag.Naturally sensors DO pick up nasty spots sometimes and there might be a time you need to do a wet-wipe cleaning, but the dust-aid will clean regular dust very easily, it is a great travel solution for giving your camera a once-over at night when on the road.A word on dust, the dust you see in the images are generally sitting on the surface of the glass protecting the chip, the dust is removed from the sensor by a small distance, because of that distance, dust is more noticeable when using small apertures, you can see dust easy if you do a test shot at f.22 or f.16 - at large apertures like f.1.4 dust will be less visible, but just as annoying if big enough to be seen. I am too lazy to clean each day, but there is nothing like a freshly cleaned sensor.Highly Recommended.

Initially I was disappointed with this product, but after some consideration I blame my expectations and am giving this a four-star rating. I have a Canon 30D that has traveled 100,000+ miles without ever getting a proper sensor cleaning until now. Expecting a $30 kit to perfectly clean a sensor that's been subjected to many lens changes in dirty environments (often without facing the open body downwards) is probably unrealistic.I used three of the six cleaning strips, testing the results each time by manually focusing to infinity on a white wall and then white LCD screen at f22, ISO 100 on various shutter speeds. I also took a few shots before cleaning (after blasting the sensor with a Giottos AA1903 Rocket Air Blaster Large-Red) for comparison. I used the air blaster before and after each cleaning. The initial cleaning took about 70% of the dust off the sensor; not bad but not great either. The second and third cleaning both removed around 50% of any remaining dust. In the end over 90% of the dust (which couldn't be removed by the air blaster alone) was gone. There is still dust on the sensor, but it's much less noticeable and will probably only show on light colors and skies at small apertures. A couple more cleaning may remove what's left.In summary, I'm very satisfied with the ease of use and mostly satisfied with the performance. My one major complaint is the low number of cleaning strips including in the kit. People of DustAid, if you're reading this, you should at least include as many strips in your PLATINUM kit as you include in the refills (my recommendation is 24). That said, I'll probably buy a refill since I've already invested in the $25 silicone cleaning wand.

I first learnt about this product which watching a tutorial by LensRentals. They do a lot of sensor cleaning and seem to have a process down that works well. After using the Giottos rocket air blaster, and taking a test picture, there was some improvements, but problem spots were present. The DustAid did a superb job is getting out 90% of the spots in my first run (I purposefully was conservative around the edges the first time, was scared of getting lube on the silicon and smearing it on the sensor). After a couple more test pictures and DustAid cleanings, my sensor was 98% spot free. The few spots that were there were very small, and seen only at an aperture of 32 (which should not be the aperture one uses for the majority of photography applications). The product is excellent and deserves a 5 star rating. I have seen many professional cleaners unable to achieve this level of cleaning. My local shop wanted to charge me $100 to clean the sensor.Advice: DO NOT touch the bottom of the product, finger oil will require a wet clean to remove from the sensor.Take test pictures (white backround, high aperture, focus to infinity, process with high contrast) to identify problem zones. Dust first with a manual rocket air blaster or foot controlled air blaster (never compressed air, I know many people have done so without issue, but virtually every expert advises not to [high pressure, contamination, etc.]). Press straight down, evenly, and lift up evenly. Do not press hard, some dust on a sensor is better than a broken sensor.

I purchased this in an effort to skip paying $50+ for a professional camera shop sensor cleaning. I originally had a few (5-6) problem specks that would irritate me. I followed the instructions to the letter and ended up with more specks than I started with. The entire system would probably work well with a single problem area but anything requiring attention will most likely need a light and loop. I will just add this to the pile of "maybe" products that I have acquired over time. Overall I would skip this product since the cost is just a little less than a professional cleaning...