QJ Review: Green Clean Touchless Sensor Cleaning System
Have you ever downloaded photos from your camera and started reviewing them, only to notice a little dark spot showing up in the same spot throughout the catalog? (Check out the photos from the sinking of the Oriskany – you’ll see a similar spot to which I speak of.) Yeah, it’s happened to me, and it’s really annoying.
So it’s time to check your glass – everything clear there? Sensor time! I always get a bit queasy when having to go anywhere near my Sensor, let alone completely exposing it for cleaning purposes. Since it’s essentially the brain behind your camera’s abilities, the last thing you want is a scratch, or some piece of dust lodging BEHIND it.
Typically, cleaning options revolve around the blow method. Puff some air in there and the debris goes whooshing away. But what if it’s something (dust I’ll assume) that ends up getting lodged deeper into your camera’s innards, as I just mentioned above? Suddenly your problems are much larger than before.
Enter Green Clean’s touchless solution to the problem. It sucks. No really, it’s a little vacuum action that actual SUCKS the debris away from the sensor and other sensitive parts of your camera. There’s even a filter to capture the dust and debris, to prevent it from falling back down and settling inside your camera body again! Very cool.
Have you ever downloaded photos from your camera and started reviewing them, only to notice a little dark spot showing up in the same spot throughout the catalog? (Check out the photos from the sinking of the Oriskany – you’ll see a similar spot to which I speak of.) Yeah, it’s happened to me, and it’s really annoying.
So it’s time to check your glass – everything clear there? Sensor time! I always get a bit queasy when having to go anywhere near my Sensor, let alone completely exposing it for cleaning purposes. Since it’s essentially the brain behind your camera’s abilities, the last thing you want is a scratch, or some piece of dust lodging BEHIND it.
Typically, cleaning options revolve around the blow method. Puff some air in there and the debris goes whooshing away. But what if it’s something (dust I’ll assume) that ends up getting lodged deeper into your camera’s innards, as I just mentioned above? Suddenly your problems are much larger than before.
Enter Green Clean’s touchless solution to the problem. It sucks. No really, it’s a little vacuum action that actual SUCKS the debris away from the sensor and other sensitive parts of your camera. There’s even a filter to capture the dust and debris, to prevent it from falling back down and settling inside your camera body again! Very cool.
When I first heard about it, I loved the idea, yet I was a bit skeptical of how well it would actually work. So I decided to test it out for myself. Luckily I haven’t had much of anything that needed cleaning on my camera’s innards, and so haven’t wanted to push my luck and open things up for fun and games. But recently I shot a couple weddings with another photographer, and swapping lenses in the great outdoors will introduce a bit of dust to the equation. So I finally had my opportunity to play with Green Clean.
There are instructions included with the kit, so if you’re initially perplexed as to how it all goes together, it’s really no sweat. I got it put together (without the instructions – that’s just how I roll) in a few moments and was ready to rock. The process was extremely simple and quick. And I didn’t have to touch the sensor at all.
Since there was more visible dust and debris on my glass, I sucked those elements clean as well. I was really impressed at what a great job the Green Clean system did. This thing really sucks, and I couldn’t have been more pleased with the results!
In addition to the vacuum touch-free system, I had the opportunity to try their wet & dry swabs. Back to the touching part – getting queasy again… I gave my filters the wet & dry treatment, as they had the worst collection of ‘stuff’ on them, and would benefit the most from the wet part. (Plus, if anything were to go awry, I’d much rather spend a few bucks on a new filter, than have to replace a lens, or heaven forbid, a camera sensor…) I was yet again, pleased with the results, and continued on to the wet and dry swabbing of the sensor itself. My whole kit was shiny and clean, inside and out, and ready to hit the next photo safari.
The wet swab was a lint-free towelette on the end of a plastic stick. It’s soaked in a solution which Green Clean refers to as ‘S4’. The dry swab was on a similar stick, but with a shammy type of cloth on the end. The result was EXCELLENT. My filters and sensor haven’t been this clean since I bought them. And it was fast, simple, and free of any mess or hassle. Just the way I like things.
If you’ve got a need for a digital camera cleaning system, I highly recommend you try this out. I was truly surprised at how well it worked on my Canon Rebel 350D, and will confidently clean all my camera’s elements with the Green Clean system in the future. You can order online at BKA Photo – the full kit goes for $79.95, or you can buy the different parts a la carte.