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When I was shooting with a D800, I would use a gel stick to clean the sensor. I now have a D850, which has no AA filter. Is it safe to keep using a gel stick to clean the sensor? This is my first body without an AA filter.

It still has a protective glass filter so yes!

Scott A. Flaherty wrote:When I was shooting with a D800, I would use a gel stick to clean the sensor. I now have a D850, which has no AA filter. Is it safe to keep using a gel stick to clean the sensor? This is my first body without an AA filter.

Hi Scott,

Living in damp NZ I guess we get a lot less dust blowing around compared to where you are living, and over the years I have never had to use a pad or a sticky gel stick ever, relying solely on the vibrating gismo in the Nikon D800/D810/D850 series bodies.

I DO have an EYELEAD gel stick (Just in case!) though, - can you tell me..

I don't know how "aggressive" they are - Do these gel sticks tend to pull hard on the sensor when applied?

Is there a preferred technique (for their use in general) that you can advise about?

Would it be worth cutting up the gel pad and applying the smaller bits with tweezers to the sensor for a less aggressive pull on the sensor?

Thanks!

John Sibley

Scott. moved over to Nikon in 2007. Can still count the times I've needed to clean a Nikon sensor with what I needed to use other than a blower brush, and one of those Canadian brushes on the total of my entire kit.

3 times. no pads. no gels.. D300. D3. D7100. D800. D500. D850. The only one's that needed an extra tickle were the D3 once, and the D800 twice. (my personal experience being that if I had some persistent dust, a blow on a pocket rocket, then if needed a swipe on a brush with the camera upside down cracked it...

BTW. UK not a great dust bowl, but Kenya was, so the above holds true.