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Survey of cleaning techniques for IQ4150

weldonbrewster

weldonbrewster

Member
There is something funky about cleaning the IQ4150. It's not nearly as easy to keep clean as my other digital backs. I don't know if it's the cover glass or what but dust seems to find a way to it in a hurry. I've tried the 2 solution method, Eclipse and the Visible Dust solutions that came with the back. All with varying degrees of success.

What methods do you guys use to clean your IQ4150?
 
C

Christopher

Active member
Airblower, so far after 11 months I haven’t needed anything else to clean the IQ4. It’s similar to my previous backs. I only wet cleaned the IQ3 once in 100k exposures.
 
D

dougpeterson

Workshop Member
weldonbrewster said:
There is something funky about cleaning the IQ4150. It's not nearly as easy to keep clean as my other digital backs. I don't know if it's the cover glass or what but dust seems to find a way to it in a hurry. I've tried the 2 solution method, Eclipse and the Visible Dust solutions that came with the back. All with varying degrees of success.

What methods do you guys use to clean your IQ4150?
Click to expand...
From a theoretical perspective I can't think of any reason it would be different in this regard than previous P1 backs. Other than that the same dust will be larger (as viewed at 100%) on a higher res back than on a lower res back.

From a practical perspective our rental and support teams have not noticed any difference (they have the most experience cleaning, and keeping clean)

In-house we use the same two products we sell:
https://www.dtcommercialphoto.com/product/sensor-cleaning-wipes/
https://www.dtcommercialphoto.com/product/phase-one-visible-dust-cleaning-kit/

Many years ago the wipes P1 sold and included in their kids would fragment and fray, which was, frankly, horrible. The new* ones do not.

*Not really "new" since what they did was start to use the (very good, and non-fraying) Leaf wipes instead.
 
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weldonbrewster

weldonbrewster

Member
I've read and bought everything I can find to try and figure this out. I've also had conversations with both the CI and DT tech support teams. I've had 11 different digital backs and this is by far the hardest to keep clean. I was hoping for some input from forum about other peoples experiences.
 
Mexecutioner

Mexecutioner

Well-known member
weldonbrewster said:
I've read and bought everything I can find to try and figure this out. I've also had conversations with both the CI and DT tech support teams. I've had 11 different digital backs and this is by far the hardest to keep clean. I was hoping for some input from forum about other peoples experiences.
Click to expand...
Are you shooting a lot outside here in the LA area? The close to 0% relative humidity, crazy winds and fires have certainly changed the air quality this past few months. I do notice a bit more dust, just cleaned the IQ4 last Sunday as I found a couple spot while reviewing some files from last week. I will keep checking and see if I notice any difference from IQ3100.
 
C

Craig Stocks

Well-known member
I haven't noticed any difference compared to previous backs. So far (since December) all I've used is a blower, which is also all I ever used on my IQ3100.
 
weldonbrewster

weldonbrewster

Member
Mexecutioner said:
Are you shooting a lot outside here in the LA area? The close to 0% relative humidity, crazy winds and fires have certainly changed the air quality this past few months. I do notice a bit more dust, just cleaned the IQ4 last Sunday as I found a couple spot while reviewing some files from last week. I will keep checking and see if I notice any difference from IQ3100.
Click to expand...
I shoot exclusively outside and you are right, the air quality here in LA has been strange to say the least. I'm wondering if it's a static electricity thing with cover glass. In past, I just used a rocket blower with occasional wet cleanings.
 
Bill Caulfeild-Browne

Bill Caulfeild-Browne

Well-known member
I rarely need the clean my IQ4 and if I do, I simply use the Visible Dust brush - the one that rotates between swipes to induce static that attracts the dust. I have never wet-cleaned it.

One of the benefits of country air and a lot of care in changing lenses.
 
GrahamWelland

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
Ditto for me - both the IQ3100 and IQ4150 have been very easy to keep clean. I use the Zeeion anti static filtered air blower.

Humidity and dust were my only issues with earlier models.
 
J

jng

Well-known member
Hmmmm. I found myself wet cleaning my IQ160 sensor glass constantly. But with my IQ3100, I've *maybe* done one wet clean in the past year. The occasional blast with the blower has been all that I've needed. I wonder whether there's been a change in the coating between these two generations of backs.

John
 
Shashin

Shashin

Well-known member
weldonbrewster said:
There is something funky about cleaning the IQ4150. It's not nearly as easy to keep clean as my other digital backs. I don't know if it's the cover glass or what but dust seems to find a way to it in a hurry. I've tried the 2 solution method, Eclipse and the Visible Dust solutions that came with the back. All with varying degrees of success.

What methods do you guys use to clean your IQ4150?
Click to expand...
Long shot question, but what body are you using with this? Could the dust becoming from the body--for example, if you have this on a tech camera you have been using for longer than the back, could you body be contaminated with small particles? The back might just be sucking up what is in the camera. Perhaps blowing out the body might help. Just a thought...
 
weldonbrewster

weldonbrewster

Member
Shashin said:
Long shot question, but what body are you using with this? Could the dust becoming from the body--for example, if you have this on a tech camera you have been using for longer than the back, could you body be contaminated with small particles? The back might just be sucking up what is in the camera. Perhaps blowing out the body might help. Just a thought...
Click to expand...
It could be, I recently switched to new XF body from another XF body. However, the new body tested clean at another facility.

Thank you very much for your replies on cleaning, it's been very helpful. With the help of my buddy Steve I think we are narrowing it down to environmental. A neighbor is doing construction, we live in a wooded area of Pasadena that is pretty dusty and last but not least this little scamp recently adopted us. Short of building a clean room I'm going to figure out how to scrub the air in the studio.

One last question, do you think the pixel size of the IQ4150 makes dust show up that we couldn't see before?

IMG_8194.jpeg
 
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