Giottos Rocket Blower:
Not all blowers are alike. I have been using this package from Amazon: Giottos Rocket Blower with description as Giottos Optical Cleaning Kit with Rocket Air Blaster, Brush & Liquid.: Electronics
Precautions:
- Always turn camera off -- during lens change. I always have the camera off when I change lens as static charge attracts dust. If you use blower without mirror lock up, also turn the camera off as an opened chamber with electric power will also attract dust.
- Apply blower from below -- upon mirror up, I tilt the body in an angle, and blow from below with air puffing upward to blow dust out of the sensor chamber.
- Leave blower at a distance -- I keep my blower at 1 to 2 inch distance away from the camera housing. This is to avoid blower tip hitting the inner housing and allow the dust to have more room to circulate out of the chamber.
- Never touch the inner housing -- whatever I do, I pay attention to avoid contact with the inner housing of the sensor chamber and mirror housing. You can look but no touching.
- Don't leave body facing upwards -- dust falls down with gravity
Air Blower operation:
I use two of my gadgets to demonstrate how I clean sensor dust with the Giottos Rocket Blower.
And as show in the below picture, I use my mini-tripod from REI to show I mount the camera at an angle, roughly like 45 degree and position the blower from down below. Always give the blower a few puffs to push off dust in blower before the actual operation on the sensor.
In Real Practice:
I have my battery grip mounted which makes it easier for me to hold the camera in one hand and tilt the camera at an angle facing down and blow air from below similar to the picture above where I used the Ultrapod II tripod as my other hand.
YouTube Video Demo
I found this video helpful and I want to include this with this blog post for reference. In the video, the author mounted the camera facing downwards and this will be more effective. But if you are on the road, try your best to tilt at a safe angle.
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