I was cleaning a sensor with a Visible Dust solution. It has left a residue on the sensor. Can anyone offer advice to fix this?
There are four types of sensor contamination.
dust , dirt, and lint
oily
soapy
salts
Dust, dirt, and lint, unless stuck by an oily or soapy material, can usually be blown away with a puff of air from a hand blower.
Alcohol based solvents such as eclipse work well on oily materials and to a usually adequate extent, to soapy films.
Salts require a bit of water to dissolve them.
The visible dust solutions are water based but one of the two that they sell can cause a soapy residue to be left behind.
For my own sensor cleaning ritual, I do the following:
1. Try a blower. Something like a large Rocket blower or the visible dust filtered blower usually works, and f you are careful, canned "air" can be used from a half-full can.
2. if there is something that looks crystalline, such as a small salt particle, and only if there appears such particles, then a water based cleaning fluid can be used. Distilled water is the best IMO, however you can also use a soapy fluid such as the visible dust solution. The visible dust solution since it seems to contain a soap of some sort will also mostly clean off oils, but may leave a soapy film behind, especially if it is used too liberally.
3. Oily based droplets are best removed with a fluid such as eclipse.
Personally I do step 1, then step 3, and if that fails, then step 2 followed by a repeat of step 3.
Since I m paranoid, I use a blower before each wet cleaning step to reduce the possibility of dragging a sharp hard particle across the sensor cover glass.
-bob