I just had another quick question on wet cleaning of dust with the 5D. there were earlier posts saying that the eclipse solution should not be used with the 5D, XT and the new 1DIII once it is out. Instead the new Eclipse E2 was recommended.

However, neither Vistek nor The Camera Store stock the E2 and i was told by the sales staff at The Camera Store that while they will probably get the E2 at some point, they would not recommend Eclipse solution to anyone anymore. I was told that they would be getting visible dust solutions in the near future, but in the meantime, I should just order directly off the Visible Dust website. Vistek also recommended Visible Dust over Eclipse.

I have a couple of questions. First of all is there been problems with the Eclipse solutions that they should be avoided Secondly, if Visible Dust solutions are preferred for wet cleaning, what solution should be purchasedThey have so many damn products listed and in their chart, it is confusing which one should be used... it seems like they want you to buy 3 or 4 different things bcoz there is different benefits with each type of solution.

I can only say that there's a couple of 5D owners who encountered serious issuses with Eclipse on the french Chasseur d'Image forum. You can also try to search for Eclipse E2 on DPReview.com forums (1D,5D forum). So I would avoid Eclipse although I've cleaned a 5D a few times without any problem. In the future, I'll use either Eclipse E2 or VD stuff. I don't know what is the best fluid / swab. I've only used their Sensor Clean and Smear Away wet cleaning products.

Thanks again Francios. Someone on another fourm pointed out the following thread started by the Presidnet of the company who had a posting regarding using their products with the 5D:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp...essage=22929248

What is the difference between Sensor Clean and Smear Away? If you use VD products do you need to use both??

i've found that sensor clean doesn't always do the job and i need to use smear-away, however that may be the result of extra oil in a new 5D - after a few thousand images the sensor does not seem to get dirty as fast, and cleans up easier (is the reported anti-static in the visible dust products really working??)

I also had to use both as Sensor Clean left some smears. I don't know if it was oil but it's very possible. Smears Away did help to clean the 5D I was using.

On Chasseur d'image forum (french), you can read the thread and see some images of the damaged sensor.

• Damaged sensor photo and another one
• Discussion thread (in french)
(Note that the owner of the damaged 5D is an experienced person)

Hi, I cleaned it before but I didn't trust myself do I asked in a great tech support site how to do it, they have free live support so I had him chatting with me throughout the process. I am sure you will find some information there.

Here is the page for Canon 5d Support

Good luck

gary

There is another product called "Green Clean" which has a wet foam swab and a dry sweeper. Does any one have any experience using this on a Canon DSLR sensor?