My old way of cleaning mirror boxes was a mess

I used to just blast them with canned air. Dust everywhere. Got on the sensor too. Then a guy at a shop in Phoenix showed me his method. He uses a small vacuum with a soft brush head. Holds the mirror box at an angle. Goes slow. I tried it on a Canon 5D last month. Took about 15 minutes. Way less dust floating around. Now I do it that way every time. What other tricks do you all have for keeping dust down during a clean?

2 comments

2 Comments

xena_taylor641mo ago

My buddy learned a hard lesson about static. He was cleaning his Nikon's mirror box in his dry apartment, just wiping with a microfiber. Next time he powered it on, a new speck was right on the sensor. He swears it was static pulling dust in. Now he mists the cloth with a tiny bit of lens cleaner first, just to kill the static cling. Seems to work for him!

mia_fox981mo ago

Static is a real problem in dry air, your buddy isn't wrong. That misting trick with the lens cleaner is smart, it totally cuts the charge. Learned the same thing after fighting dust on my own sensor. A dry microfiber cloth just seems to attract every loose particle in the room, @xena_taylor64. Now I always use a damp cloth for any internal cleaning, never dry. It makes a huge difference and keeps new dust from jumping right back on.