skyler_jackson27•26d agoProlific Poster

Old timer told me to heat the sensor before cleaning it and I thought he was nuts

This guy named Frank at a shop in Chicago told me to take a heat gun to the sensor before blowing it off. I figured he was messing with me. Tried it on a stubborn D700 that kept throwing error codes and it worked like magic. The dust just popped right off. Anyone else do this trick or is Frank just lucky?

3 comments

3 Comments

vera_robinson3626d ago

Funny you mention that. My dad was a mechanic for 30 years and he had a rule about everything with moving parts - heat first, then clean. I saw him do it with an old film camera once, said it's the same principle as warming up a cold engine before you start working on it. In my experience, a lot of these old timers picked up tricks that work across totally different things. Like how a little bit of heat makes paint peel easier, or helps loosen a stuck jar lid. It's just one of those things that sounds crazy but makes perfect sense once you think about how materials react to temperature changes. Frank probably learned that trick from some guy who learned it from another guy, and now it's passed down like a secret handshake. Your mileage may vary but I've seen it work on more than just cameras.

the_simon26d ago

Yeah, that's dead on @vera_robinson36. Heat is basically a lazy person's best friend when it comes to getting things unstuck. It's amazing how many problems a hair dryer or a heat gun can solve that people will spend an hour cussing at with tools. I've seen guys try to muscle off a rusted bolt for half an hour, and one quick pass with a torch and it spins right out. It's like the metal just gives up and cooperates.

stellaperry26d ago

Huh, that's a good point about it being passed down like a secret handshake. But here's something I don't think anyone's brought up yet - it's not just about the heat making the dust or dirt loosen up. It's also about the moisture. When you heat up the sensor, you're burning off any tiny bits of oil or moisture that might be holding the dust down. Dust doesn't just sit on a sensor, it's usually stuck there with a film of grime. So the heat dries that out, then the air blast actually has something to push against. I never thought about it that way until I tried it on a camera that had been in a smoky room. The dust was straight up glued on until I hit it with a heat gun first.