Does the duration of time the spots on your digital sensor have been present affect the method of cleaning you choose? If the same spots have been there for weeks or months are there better approaches to cleaning as opposed to those that are obviously fresh?

Yes, if they have been there for a while, the simple blowing or the electrostatic brush techniques become less effective since moisture welds the particles to the sensor.

I keep my cameras mostly protected from dust by avoiding continually adding and removing teleconverters. Back when I owned a 500mm lens, I used the 1.4 and 2X a lot, and my camera sensors showed it. Switching to the 800mm was a good move for my sensor cleanliness, as I rarely remove the camera from the lens, and no longer use teleconverters much. The other biggie was the camera companies inventing the self cleaning sensor.


I find a jeweler's magnifying hood to be of tremendous help for vision enhancement when I do have to clean the sensor.


My main source of dust grime originates from where the lens screws on. I clean that area on both the lens and the camera with a moistened microfiber cloth, dust with a Visible Dust brush, then finish with the rocket blower.

For the sensor, I use the rocket blower, then the lens pen sensor cleaner after I tamp off the excess graphite onto a clean microfiber cloth. I wet the lens pen with Elipse fluid. This is the key to getting off old, dried on spots, wetting the pen.

After I work off the spots I finish polishing the sensor with a dry lens pen and then the blower.