New Product Announcement!

Here at The Dust Patrol, we are all about keeping the sensor in your D-SLR and Mirrorless camera dust free. The Phi Dust Catching Disc isn’t a sensor cleaner, but a tool that will help keep some of the dust from reaching your sensor. By placing a Phi Disc in the body cap and rear lens caps of your cameras and lenses, they collect the loose dust that is floating around.

The Phi Disc is 1.5” round and consists of 3 layers. The center layer is a polyester film carrier that doesn’t stretch. This helps keep the shape of the Phi Disc and makes it easier for removal when the time arises to replace it. The two outside layers are of a high performance acrylic adhesive which helps it adhere to the inside of the cap and to trap the floating dust.

The kit contains 4 Phi Dust Catcher Discs and full color printed instructions.

So just why do you want a clean sensor?  

Cleaning your sensor only takes minutes, just a fraction of the time you spend removing sensor dust in post processing. Having a dust free sensor provides you with the sharpest possible image that your sensor and lens combination can capture. If there is dust on your sensor, it is degrading the quality of your image even if you can’t see the hard specs. Dust always works as a diffuser and softens an area of your image. In certain circumstances, it will even leave a dark speck in your image. Content Aware Fill works wonders, but it takes time and still isn’t as sharp as if you would have had a dust free sensor to begin with.

Dust Prevention

The sensor shakers use double sided tape to try to collect dust once it shakes loose so why not put some double sided tape in your rear and body lens caps? The mirror-less cameras will benefit from this the most as their sensor is exposed to the elements 99.9% of the time.

Cleaning Mode For Sony A7 Series Cameras With Built-In Image Stabilization

Sony cameras such at the a7 II, a7R II and a7S II have built in image stabilization. So if you try cleaning the sensor with a wet method such as with the Alpha Swabs and Beta Optical Cleaning Solution, the sensor will want to move around on you while swabbing the sensor. There is a process in which you can get the sensor to become more stable for the wet cleaning process. This technique doesn’t make it as stable as the non-built in image stabilization but its much better than without using it.

1. Make sure your battery has at least 50% life left
2. Enter into the cameras menu and select cleaning mode. I have found this to be under option 3 in the toolbox section of most cameras.
3. Move the cursor so that the “Enter” option is highlighted and press the select button. The camera will now shake, trying to shake the dust particles off of the sensor.
4. After the shaking is completed you will be shown a screen that tells you to “Turn the power off.” Do NOT turn the power off as you are now in the manual cleaning mode. When you are done doing the wet cleaning, you should power the camera off.

New Sensor Cleaning Fluid

The Dust Patrol
Has released a new Travel Friendly sensor cleaning fluid called Beta Optical Cleaning Fluid. This sensor cleaning fluid dries fast and clean making it one of the best options for sensor cleaning.

Web Site Update

We just added direct links that you can use for some of the major on-line retailer to be able to buy any of the items discussed on www.CleaningDigitalCameras.com. This is of course that you don't have a local retailer that is stocking these items for you.

New Web Site Is Live!

After a lot of work including re-evaluating all major sensor cleaning products we are live with the new site. I am sure that we will be tweaking areas from time to time but if you see anything that needs some attention please don't hesitate to let us know.