I'm looking for a little advice on lens and sensor cleaning.
This weekend has mostly been spent performing spot removal duties from my almost 400 images that I took the weekend before.
I know my wide angle lens needs a proper clean, but I have no idea what solutions are safe to use that won't strip the lens coating or damage the glass.
Also, I'm not sure if my sensor has dust on it. There's nothing I can see with my eye but is there any sort of test that I can perform to determine this?

I suppose I really need to get my lenses clean first, so any personal preferences as to what you all use to keep your glass clean would be well received.

Mark

I'm looking into this right now - check my blog.

First up, I'm going to try a locked up mirror and blower routine, possibly with a clean and dry sable artist's paintbrush. If that doesn't work, £20 will be heading to Amazon for one of these kits.

I'm still to pluck up the courage.

Do it quickly or I'll beat you to it.
So, that's the sensor cleaning sorted, now then, what about lens cleaning?

Mark

Microfibre cloth? Plus a large soft artists' brush - natural hair not nylon or anything.

I refuse to use anything wet on my camera gear. I find a "huff" - I think you know what I mean - and careful clean with a spectacle cleaner cloth does the trick. And judicious use of the air blower, though that tends to blow the dust off the lens only for it settle somewhere else, leading to games of "chase the dust speck"!

I was the same, but I've got a seemingly immovable spot on my lens. I think it was a drop of dirty water that I neglected to remove immediately and it dried. I've removed about 90% of it, but there's a spot that just refuses to leave the glass. No amount of gentle breathing on the lens and wiping has shifted it. (8+(

Mark

In that sort of case, I find if I lick the end of my finger - or wet a cotton bud the same way - and just touch the spot I can clean it up with the microfibre cloth fairly easily. Saliva seems a little better at stubborn spots than plain water, I find.

I worry about damaging the special coatings when I clean things, but then again I would think they're designed with that in mind.

I think I share your concerns.
I'll try the finger-tip/cotton bud method this evening and I'll let you know how I get on.

Mark

You can buy lens cleaning fluid for cleaning your glass. I have used this successfully in the past to shift stubborn marks. As for the sensor, I did use the DustAid kit on my 5D sensor with success. Some people may be squeamish at the though of using something sticky on the sensor, but I used a full set of 10 pads over about a year with no problems.

I use the cloth that came with my Samsung HDTV (also got another - smaller - one with my Samsung monitor too) to clean my lenses. Its works brilliantly. As for the sensor its supposed to be self cleaning. I did notice some spots when taking some pics a while back but since cleaning the lenses havent noticed them again (yet). Hopefully it wont need a proper sensor clean 'cos that scares me!

I suppose I'm in a slightly different position - with my mirror, nothing touches that except the rare blast of air if there's any dust on it.
For my lenses, I tend to check them over at least once a week, blowing any dust off them. A fine sable brush is useful.
If I've been at the beach, for example, then there's often water marks to be dealt with on the barrel and the glass.
I use Calotherm lens spray with a soft microfibre cloth - the sort of thing you'll find at an opticians.
I'm not adverse to running my filters under some water either.
The only one that's been troublesome is the skylight filter that turned on up on the front of my 28mm-200mm.
There are marks on that I just can't shift, so I'm in the market for another 72mm skylight and CPL...

Mirror - don't touch - ever. Rocket blower is the limit there unless you want to damage the coating with resultant autofocus probs.

Sensor - I use Eclipse fluid and Sensor Swabs. I'll dig out the tutorials when I get home but it's well worth it. Nothing to be scared of

Lenses - 'huff and lens cleaning cloth' method for me (the cloth doesn't get used for anything else).

Cotton buds are not dust resistant and *could* scratch any coated elements.

Al

It's glass, it's not afraid of a bit of water on a lens cloth from the opticians.

What about those pens for the lens? They tend to shift marks on the lens nicely and smear less than a cloth i find.

I've somehow got dust inside my lens, you can see it clearly but can't get to it. As for the sensor, I use a Lenspen Sensorklear Clicky

Me, too. It's in my Canon 24-105, which I have to say is not the most well-built lens I own. I considered briefly disassembly, but when I checked it out on the interweb it looked more likely it would break the thing completely! As it happens, the speck doesn't impinge on the sweet spot, so provided it doesn't move further I'll live with it.

I don't remember it being this complicated with film cameras.

Dust inside your lens is more of an issue with the zooms than the primes; as the elements move in and out as you change the focal length, air gets squeezed in and out as well, remember.
It's fairly inevitable. I've sent one lens off for a clean, but mainly because the aperture blades were sticking. I have a 70mm-210mm (constant 1:4.5) lens that could also do with a good clean, but more to do with fungal growth than purely dust.