I have followed this thread with a great deal of interest. I have recently purchased and used the product in anticipation ofusing it on safari in africa. In the past I have encountered a great deal of dust, even when eliminating all lens changes. I normally clean my sensors using a very high quality surgical microscope and fiber optic illumination (yes I'm a doctor). Initially I was disappointed that the DustAid did not get all the dust in the first attempt, however it did after two more applications. I saw absolutly no change to the surface of the AA filter (NONE). By the way, this was my 20D sensor that I had cleaned. I use the new Eclipse 2 on everything else. My view is that one stands less chance damaging a sensor with this method than with any sort of brush (I have them all). I still prefer the Copperhill Wet Method with occasional air blower in between. The point of this post however is to to state that in my hands this technique resulted an absolutely no visible damage to the surface of the covering AA filter.
Cheers
Roger_Salmon wrote:
The so-called "silvering" is a dichroic film which is designed to reflect near-IR light and prevent it reaching the sensor. This film is always on the outside of the sensor assembly for Canon, ie., it is what you are cleaning when you perform a "sensor clean". It is possible that the film was poorly applied in this case. I believe it is applied by vacuum coating techology similar to lens coatings.
Just to make sure: is it still OK to use Eclipse fluid and Pecpads on the 1DmkIII, 5D and 400D?
The so-called "silvering" is a dichroic film which is designed to reflect near-IR light and prevent it reaching the sensor. This film is always on the outside of the sensor assembly for Canon, ie., it is what you are cleaning when you perform a "sensor clean". It is possible that the film was poorly applied in this case. I believe it is applied by vacuum coating techology similar to lens coatings.
Incorrect. The correct description has already been posted here: the dichroic film is on the inside of the sensor assembly in this camera. The only cameras that have it on the outside are, once again, 5D, 1DMK3 and 400D. 20D, if assembled correctly, has it on the inside. In this particular case we are dealing with an incorrectly installed filter (incorrectly installed by Canon, of course).
So sorry to see your disaster, but on the other hand you helped me verify the gut feeling I've had about cleaning using sticky tape or these new pads. *Shudder*.
Korben Dallas wrote:
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Incorrect. The correct description has already been posted here: the dichroic film is on the inside of the sensor assembly in this camera. The only cameras that have it on the outside are, once again, 5D, 1DMK3 and 400D. 20D, if assembled correctly, has it on the inside. In this particular case we are dealing with an incorrectly installed filter (incorrectly installed by Canon, of course).
I hate to diasappoint you but you are wrong. I actually work on most of these cameras as a business, converting them for near infrared use by replacing the existing filter stack with visible blocking filters. All of the Canon filters have the dichroic IR reflecting filter on the front surface. I have converted many cameras and have yet to see a filter stack assembled the wrong way round. I suspect this is yet another "urban myth" propagated by those with little or no actual knowledge.
I wonder if all the finger pointing at Canon's quality control or the OP using the wrong side of the tape is a defensive reflex from those who spent $45 on this kit and are second guessing the purchase (no offense intended)?
I just don't see how Canon could put the AA filter on backwards without it influencing the image quality. My techinical expertise on camera construction wouldn't fill a Dixie Cup but I think Canon's quality control would catch a inverted AA filter.
The cleaning concept sounded good but I don't think there was enough testing and research on this. I wonder if Canon or Nikon was contacted by Dust Aid to see if there were any dangers to the method? When you watch the demo video, that crackling sound the tape makes when it is pealed from the AA filter makes your skin crawl. It was only a matter of time before something went wrong.
Retainer agreement on the way Rog...