Lens and Sensor Cleaning

My wife has spots in all her pictures

[akmac]

Rather than hijack one of the existing threads-I thought I'd start another. Do any of you professional photographers have any tips for lens and sensor cleaning?

My wife has a Canon 20D and lately all of her pictures have the same spots in them. I think her lenses and sensor are dirty-but I'm afraid of making the problem worse with my shop vac. Any suggestions?

[travelin cat]

Not sure about cleaning the sensor (or how it got dirty), but for the lens, breathe on the lens surface to fog it up and then gently wipe it with a clean microfiber cloth.

You can get the cloth at most supermarkets or hardware stores.

Don't ever use a paper towel or ordinary toilet paper, they can grind dust in to the lens and they leave residue.

[akmac]

I'm probably using the wrong terminology-I'm referring to the mirror you see inside the camera body when the lens is removed. I think that part (or something else internal) is dirty, as there are similar spot patterns even after switching lenses.

[travelin cat]

If you are referring to the mirror, don't touch it... ever. Try using an air canister GENTLY. If that does not work, you should have it professionally cleaned/repaired.

If you touch the mirror, even slightly, you can move it out of its default position and this would make all of your images even worse then they are now.

[akmac]

That sounds serious. She bought some sort of cleaning kit for it some months ago and tried to clean the mirror... Maybe that's the problem.

[danielpk]

this might actually help...give it a shot,

[youtube.com...]

good luck