Camera Cleaning Accessories – Here Is What You Need

This is the ultimate guide to camera cleaning, including the best cleaning accessories and some tips and tricks to keep your camera, sensor, and lenses clean.

Best Cleaning Accessories | Essentials

Every photographer should own the basic camera cleaning gear. I’ll list all the products I have and use regularly starting with the most important. A rocket air blaster. There are of course other brands that work just as well, but I like the rockets because I can set them upright and they don’t roll around.

Air Blasters

Air blasters should be your first line of defense when it comes to keeping cameras clean. Always bring one of these with you if you ever plan on going anywhere where you may change your lens. This is the best and fastest way to get the dust off your lens and use these for cleaning before you try anything else.

They also work great for getting dust and lint of UV filters and lenses. And don’t forget to keep your lens caps and body caps super clean.

Micro-Fiber Cleaning Cloths

These are must-have items. I’ve purchased this same pack a few times since they do get dirty over time and stop working as well. I also keep a few in all my different bags.

Sensor Brushes

Using a sensor brush is the second-best way to clean the dust off your sensor. Every so often you’ll see a few pieces of dust that are statically charged and won’t come off your sensor with the air blaster. That’s when the sensor brush comes in. Since I’ve started using the sensor brush, I haven’t had to use the “wet method” once.

Here are a few tips on how to use a sensor brush.

First – never touch the bristles with your fingers since your body oil will ruin the brush causing it to leave behind the oil on your sensor.

Second – use your Rocket Air Blower and blow some air on the bristles of your brush. This does two things; removes old debris, and creates a static charge on the bristles which will help it collect dust off your sensor.

Third – brush across the sensor, very gently a few times. When doing this, think about how you would brush your eyeball with the brush while causing as little pain as possible. Now brush your sensor like that. Make sense? Good. 

I love my brush. It’s a must-have and I always keep one in my travel bag. This one here is German made, it’s the best.

Camera Cleaning Brush

Cleaning Accessories Essentials | Wet Method

When the dry method doesn’t work you’re left with the only option, that’s the wet method.

This is for when you get oil, water particles, or spit on your sensor. Something more than dust that’s just nasty. Maybe you sneezed while changing the lens. These things happen and you need the wet method to clean up the mess.

Before using the Wet Method always make sure you’ve used the dry method to get any large particles off your sensor or you’ll risk rubbing those into your sensor and scratching it.

How To Cleaning Your Sensor

Before You Begin – Create A Dust Free Environment

The first thing you need to do before you can ever even consider cleaning your camera sensor is to prepare a dust-free environment. 

I have a few Air filters I turn on full blast in a small area like a bathroom that can work but you definitely don’t need one to clean your sensor.

One trick I like to use is to turn your shower on and steam out your bathroom for a bit. This will cause dust particles to stick together and fall. Make sure all the steam is out of the air before you start cleaning your sensor as you don’t want excess moisture inside your camera.

Then you can use one of the above techniques to clean your sensor depending on how dirty it is and what is required.

Start with the air blaster – if that doesn’t work use the sensor brush.

If you have oil or something that is not dust, go straight to the sensor swabs. If it’s saliva or something you could end up ruining your sensor brush.

How Not To Clean Your Sensor

First – as far as I know, on Sony cameras, you shouldn’t use cleaner with Alcohol in as it can mess with the coatings on the sensor. That’s what I’ve heard at least. I’ve also heard Sony say they use Alcohol products. Maybe it doesn’t matter, but I stick with eclipse and it’s been fine.

Second – don’t ever use a microfiber cloth on your sensor, also, there are these gel sticks that have this sticky material. Never use those. It’s just about equivalent to using one of those sticky hands we grew up with that you can get from a quarter machine and they can damage your sensor by pulling it apart.

Third – never use canned air. It’s just too risky. You don’t want the little tube to fly out hitting your sensor, and you don’t want it to spray that nasty cold mist onto it either.

Good luck. These are the methods I use to clean my DSLR and Mirrorless Cameras. They’ve been effective for me both on my old Canon 5Dmkii and my new Sony A7r cameras. They will work on most DSLR and Mirrorless camera sensors but are by no means the only methods, just some of the methods out there that I like.

Please leave a comment if you’ve found other methods or techniques that you like to use for cleaning your mirrorless sensor.

What To Do If You Scratched Your Sensor

If you’ve scratched your sensor it’s not the end of the world, don’t panic, don’t get depressed. A lot of times scratches won’t show up or affect your image quality. If it’s scratched bad and is affecting your image quality then there is a fix. But it is expensive. Often times around $300.00 USD. 

What you’ve done is actually only scratched the High Pass filter or UV filter or glass that sits in front of the sensor. You haven’t scratched the actual sensor. So you can take your camera in to be serviced and you can often get that piece of glass replaced. No big deal, just call your camera service center associated with the brand of camera.