For all of you out there that shoot a good amount and change lenses, you’ve probably noticed black spots starting to show up on your images over time. It might be one spot or a bunch of little spots. These little black spots are caused by pieces of dust on the sensor that have gathered there. This can be extremely annoying when it comes time to edit. I’ve had them show up on faces or just in places where it’s very obvious, and then I have to spend time removing it from every photo. There are some quick ways to clean it up, but I’ve found that it doesn’t always work. The best way to deal with this issue is to get your sensor cleaned. In the past this meant I either sent my camera in to Nikon or a local camera store. I finally got around, though, to learning to clean my sensor myself, so today I’ll tell you about that experience in this Altura Sensor Cleaning Kit review.
Altura Sensor Cleaning Kit Review
There are a few issues with letting someone else clean your sensor for you. First, it takes time and leaves you without a camera. I don’t know the time frame for Nikon, but I’d guess it’s a week or two week process. The reason I didn’t use the local camera shop was because they only cleaned on Saturdays and as a wedding photographer, I needed my camera on most Saturdays either for engagement shoots or weddings. When I clean the sensor myself, I can do it whenever I want, and it takes literally five minutes. Second, letting others clean your sensor can be expensive. I want to say it’s about $30 at Nikon, but then you have to pay for shipping. At the local store it’s $100. The Altura kit I bought cost $20, and it’s something I can reuse multiple times.
The Altura kit I bought came with several different items that actually serve multiple purposes. For cleaning the sensor, it came with cleaning fluid, 6 swabs, and a blower. I used all three with the sensors, but the swabs and fluid did the most. The blower can be used for cleaning off the body and lenses as well. Besides those items, there were also several tools for cleaning lenses and the camera body. There were two wipes for the screen, and these pens with brushes on them and one has a special tip for cleaning the glass on the lens.
I’m not going to go into detail on how to actually clean the sensor because I don’t want to be held responsible, but there are plenty of videos from Altura on how to do it. It is really simple to do, so I think anyone can handle it.
I was so excited when I was able to clean my camera sensor myself. One of them had been dirty for probably two years, but again I never could get it sent off. This has given me freedom and also cleaner images. I plan on cleaning my sensors myself from here on out, and it will only cost me about $2 per clean. I hope my Altura Sensor Cleaning Kit Review has been helpful. If you have a dirty sensor, I highly recommend you check it out.
