NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT

Here at The Dust Patrol, we are all about keeping the sensor in your D-SLR and Mirrorless camera dust free. The Phi Dust Catching Disc isn’t a sensor cleaner, but a tool that will help keep some of the dust from reaching your sensor. By placing a Phi Disc in the body cap and rear lens caps of your cameras and lenses, they collect the loose dust that is floating around.

The Phi Disc is 1.5” round and consists of 3 layers. The center layer is a polyester film carrier that doesn’t stretch. This helps keep the shape of the Phi Disc and makes it easier for removal when the time arises to replace it. The two outside layers are of a high performance acrylic adhesive which helps it adhere to the inside of the cap and to trap the floating dust.

The kit contains 4 Phi Dust Catcher Discs and full color printed instructions.

So just why do you want a clean sensor?  

Cleaning your sensor only takes minutes, just a fraction of the time you spend removing sensor dust in post processing. Having a dust free sensor provides you with the sharpest possible image that your sensor and lens combination can capture. If there is dust on your sensor, it is degrading the quality of your image even if you can’t see the hard specs. Dust always works as a diffuser and softens an area of your image. In certain circumstances, it will even leave a dark speck in your image. Content Aware Fill works wonders, but it takes time and still isn’t as sharp as if you would have had a dust free sensor to begin with.

Cleaning Mode For Sony A7 Series Cameras With Built-In Image Stabilization

Sony cameras such at the a7 II, a7R II and a7S II have built in image stabilization. So if you try cleaning the sensor with a wet method such as with the Alpha Swabs and Beta Optical Cleaning Solution, the sensor will want to move around on you while swabbing the sensor. There is a process in which you can get the sensor to become more stable for the wet cleaning process. This technique doesn’t make it as stable as the non-built in image stabilization but its much better than without using it.

1. Make sure your battery has at least 50% life left
2. Enter into the cameras menu and select cleaning mode. I have found this to be under option 3 in the toolbox section of most cameras.
3. Move the cursor so that the “Enter” option is highlighted and press the select button. The camera will now shake, trying to shake the dust particles off of the sensor.
4. After the shaking is completed you will be shown a screen that tells you to “Turn the power off.” Do NOT turn the power off as you are now in the manual cleaning mode. When you are done doing the wet cleaning, you should power the camera off.

The Dust Patrol LLC will be exhibiting at Photokina 2016, stop by and see our exciting new products.

Halle 4.1 Booth E-032

Beta Optical Cleaning Fluid

We are proud to announce the introduction of our Beta Optical Cleaning Fluid which is travel friendly, airplane safe and non-flammable. This product has been in the works for over a year and we feel the wait was worth it as this product is amazing. It dries fast and clean and just might even be better than the methanol based sensor cleaning products.

Updated Camera Model - Swab Size Chart

I just updated the Camera Model - Swab Size Chart to include all of the newly released cameras and updated a few of the older ones. If you have issues trying to figure out which swab is right for your camera, please don't hesitate to call or write is.

Only Swabs Made In The USA

I recently learned that our Alpha Swabs are the only sensor cleaning swabs currently being made in the USA. Sure we could save a lot of money by importing as others have reverted to, but we would rather put out a quality product than to cut costs.