Ensuring clean air when cleaning the matrix of a digital camera

I think many owners of interchangeable lens cameras are familiar with dust spots that have fallen on the matrix of their digital pet and, accordingly, visible dark spots in photographs (usually not exposed).

There are many ways to deal with them.

Programmatically : for example, in Photoshop by hand, or by creating control pictures, followed by their automatic removal by means of camera software or special programs.

Mechanically: Buying various brushes, sticks and cleaning fluids, pears for blowing dust, ionizers for repelling dust from the inside of the camera and other tricks in order to get rid of such annoying dust particles. So-called dusters (ultrasonic cleaning systems of the matrix) have appeared on many modern cameras, but the dust sticks anyway, and the appearance of the ill-fated points in photographs is just a matter of time. In principle, all cleaning methods are described well on the network and it is difficult to say something new here. I want to focus on mechanical cleaning (I consider the last resort to remove software that I could not remove with my hands).

All mechanical cleaning methods have one weakness, the place where we carry out cleaning already contains dust flying in the air.Attempts to remove one speck of dust often result in a dozen new specks of dust. And this process can lead a person to despair (as it was already once with your humble servant). And considering that cleaning products are sometimes quite expensive and can punch a hole in our budget, the device that I propose will be useful to many.

How to ensure clean air?
The solution suggests itself, a clean room where the air does not contain dust or even a fume hood. After a short search on the network, it became clear that if you did not intend to open a matrix cleaning workshop yourself, then the pleasure would be more expensive than buying a new camera with good optics. But there was a way out.

A flight of thought led me to a hardware store.

There I bought the following things:
1. Linen box
2. A pair of rubber gloves
3. 2 adapters for the kitchen pipe (gloves are then attached to them) see photo.
4. 2 clamps of suitable diameter
5. A piece of plastic for the inspection window
6. Fasteners (various bolts and nuts in order to fix all this
7. Respiratory filter (the one that you use when painting)
8. Self-adhesive rubber seal that we use for windows and doors so that it wouldn’t blew
9. A bathroom fan (in my case, I used an old fan from the server cabinet)

After that I did the following:
1. I cut a viewing hole in the lid and inserted a plex and insulated everything with sealant.
2. From the cut piece, filter shape cut out pr olive with trim.
3. A compass cut holes on the sides for pipe adapters.
4. I inserted pipe adapters into two holes, into the two remaining air filters and an exhaust fan (I think it is clear that the air should be pulled out of the box, not vice versa). The joints were treated with sealant.
5. I pasted a self-adhesive rubber tape in the place where the lid fits.
6. I put on gloves on the adapters and secured them with clamps.

The result is such a design:
image
If desired, the exhaust fan can be replaced with a vacuum cleaner (if you are not afraid of the thought of noise during cleaning). The device has shown its usefulness and has been used by me repeatedly. And not only for cleaning but also for changing lenses. Size allows you to put the box in the trunk. That's all. Cheap, cheerful and comfortable enough. A sort of portable fume hood do it yourself. In principle, it can be useful in a bunch of other cases where you need to ensure the purity of the process. E.g. cleaning of the optics or as suggested by the respected Shiva Kaladhara when replacing the display in cellular itp. The scope is limited only by our imagination and the size of the device.
I hope the article was useful to a respected habro-user, because With digital cameras, we often have to deal with both work and leisure.

ps I’m not sure that it’s appropriate to give a link to my photos on the network, but if anyone is interested I will give a link later.

Sincerely, Mikhail Chervonenko.
Russian programmer in Germany.

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