How to really clean your sensor

Unless you have a fixed lens camera, you surely have been frustrated by the struggle to keep your sensor clean. If you don't do this, your photos will have dust spots and eventually you'll spend more time removing the spots in your editing software than going out to photograph. While we have myriad solutions for this cleaning process, in my experience, very few work well. Over the last few months, I tried almost everything, and now I am confident I've found the best solution.

What surely doesn't work

Before I started to buy almost every possible solution to test them, I did some research to find out what photographers use and what works for the majority. As usual, from 5 different sources, I got 10 different opinions. The latest electronic blowers that were advertised as the best possible solution for this task simply turned out to be the worst. I’ve tried it multiple times, and I ended up having more dust on the sensor than before.

Rocket blower

While it is a great tool to remove some dust, even from your lens and your sensor, it is only good for cleaning the bigger non-sticky dust from your precious sensor. I recommend buying one with a filter so you don't blow other particles onto your sensor's surface. Overall, the rocket blower is a great start, but in reality, it is far from a complete solution.

Different magic devices

Electronic air blowers, static brushes and other magical devices. In my experience, they just never work as advertised. They work to some degree, but if you don't use other methods, they never work. You can remove some of the dust, but if you try to rely solely on these, you'll spend lots of money and waste lots of time.

Swabs and liquids

For years, I tried different combinations of these. Never had success with only one cleaning phase, but usually after two or three passes, these usually work fine, although still not 100%. If you have something sticky at the edges of your sensor, then it can be hard to remove with this method. For me, the best combination is the Eclipse sensor cleaning fluid with the Eclipse sensor swabs. But I'm sure that any good quality combination can work just fine.

The big discovery: Sensor gel stick

I've read about this a few years ago, but never bought one. Probably because it had mixed reviews, and I couldn't decide if it's worth the price or not. But now, as my ongoing struggle with keeping my sensor clean failed, I decided it's time to purchase and test one. This is one of the most expensive solutions on the list.

Essentially, it is a special sticky gel at the end of a stick that can easily remove any dirt from your sensor. Then you have some cleaning paper to remove the dirt from the cleaner. The usage is very easy, you shouldn't use any force, just go through your sensor with this. If you know you have an extremely dirty surface, you might want to clean the gel part multiple times.

And the result is: 99% success even after the first use.

This is a solution you can even use in a hotel room while you're travelling. Safe, fast and very effective. I believe I've found my absolute solution for cleaning camera sensors from now on. For the absolute best result, combine the gel sticks with the cleaning swabs. Utilizing these two methods will surely solve all your sensor cleaning issues.