Rant: Stop using compressed air dusters for sensor cleaning

I keep seeing people in here say they blast their sensor with a duster before a wet clean. That's a bad idea man. Last week a guy brought me a Sony A7III he tried that on and the compressor shot some oily residue straight onto the low pass filter. Took me 45 minutes with a swab and Eclipse to get it off. I've been using a Giottos rocket blower for 8 years on my Canon bodies and never had that issue. The bulb blower pushes enough air without any chemicals. Why risk a $1000 repair to save 5 bucks on a blower? Has anyone here actually had good luck with the compressed air method or am I just seeing the disasters?

2 comments

2 Comments

valgibson25d ago

Nah, never worth the risk.

valgibson25d ago

...and that's exactly what I tell everyone too, the rocket blower has never let me down. But here's the thing I'm still trying to figure out - did that guy use a regular duster from a hardware store or one of those expensive camera-specific compressed air cans? Because I've heard some people swear the camera brands are supposed to be free of propellant and moisture, but I've also seen posts where even those left a weird film. What was the brand on the can he used?