How to Clean Your DSLR Sensor and Mirror 

mirror is safe to clean with almost everything, it has nothing to do with the image directly, just don't scratch it, you can apply everything on it and it's fine. Sensor is what should be careful for.

THANK YOU! I did as you displayed with locking up the mirror and blowing out the dust. WORKED LIKE A CHARM! You just saved me $250 from a local camera shop for them to do the same thing. The "dot" has been on every one of my white pics for 3 months and now I can finally enjoy a nice clean white background again! Thank You!

I cleaned My Nikon D7000, exactly followed your Detailed Tip, Thanks for the wonderful video

Nice tutorial and pretty much spot on, when I worked in a Fuji lab we had all kinds of people coming with broken sensors because they had "brushed" them clean, all we used was a hand blower with a static brush for use on the mirrors pretty much how you have used. We didn't used to charge for the service, but we refused a good few because people would bring in cameras with scratched or broken sensors asking us to clean them lol we didn't fall for it tho.

Super helpful video! I purchased a used Nikon D800, and and sensor dust all over my images. I was worried I needed to have it sent out to be cleaned. Nope! I followed your mirror lock up suggestion, and held the camera upside down. Blew a little air in and did not touch the sensor. Presto! No more sensor dust! Thanks!

Nice video and great advice on not attempting to clean the sensor with a q-tip. However, I always clean my own sensor, rather than sending it off each time. I get dust particles quite often and the blower itself just doesn't do the job of removing all the dust. There are great kits out there for cleaning the sensor, however, I would suggest that if you're not comfortable with cleaning the sensor yourself, then by all means, take it to a pro. But that can get expensive over time, especially if you need to clean your sensor more than a few times a year like I do.

I am saddened where people give up their time to share their expertise and experience, and others contribute nothing other than some (trite) criticism. Well done PhotographersonUTube! Thank you

Thanks mate! As someone new to DSLR photography I have found your videos tremendously informative, and I appreciate the time and effort you've gone to in posting them. Any clown who is critical, would do well to remember the old adage of not looking a gift horse in the mouth. A big thanks from Australia.

Thank you, thank you, thank you… :) I have been struggling with dust on my sensor, and after many articles and videos, yours was the first and only to explain, in detail, what I needed to do. After a few blows from the hand held blower, I was able to rid myself of that stubborn dust spot which prevented me from using F/11 and down. Amazing, thanks, and keep up the great videos! - a happy Canadian!

Thank you so much! I was thinking it'd be a long, expensive process to clean, but this saved me a whole load of trouble

thanks, found a spot just before shooting a wedding and no time to take camera in to be cleaned. got the spot out right away!

Wow,thank you so much for your help! I got a Canon a year ago! And there has been dust on all my pictures and this video helped me get rid of it!

Thank you for posting this video. I had dust problems for a few months now. My dust problems are over today. I thought something was wrong with my camera and that I would have to get another one. Thanks Again!!!

I just throw mine in the washing machine with some detergent

Thank you, I was finally able to gently remove a persistent small hair on the upper part of the inside of my camera. Now it can focus on my subject. :)

This video saved me probably two weeks of down time, thank you very much!

Thanks Jibran, Great tutorial. I look forward to the one on cleaning the lenses :)

Thanks! Very helpful video, didn't know the mirror could be locked - there was a hair on the corner, resulting in a rounded line across the corner of my photos. Carefully used tweezers and removed it!

honestly had no clue what to do thank you so so much for posting this!!!

Thanks for the q-tip tip! Just what I needed.

you've been great man. All this time I thought the speck on the viewfinder was because of the dust from the sensor. the q-tip worked really well.

Oh my gosh.. Thanks so much! I couldn't figure out why my mirror wouldn't lock up.. I changed my battery and blew off the dust and it's like new again! Thanks so much!

Perfect. I had a spot that was driving me crazy and now it's gone. Thanks for showing me how to get at it. :)

This is helpful. Cleaning the DSLR requires careful attention and the right procedures.

awesome man! i was about to do a shoot then i seen dust and i nearly cried, this video saved me! thanks so much

Thanks man for this wonderful/simple tutorial

You are my Hero I am waiting for my new camera for Christmas!Now I know so much thank you !

This video just saved my ass! I was getting an Err 70 code and my camera wouldn't respond. I took out and reformatted the SD card and voila! No more error code! Thank you so much!

Basically the same question everyone's asking what do you do if the sensor doesn't get cleaned by blowing air on it? if it has sticky spots on it. As you say take it to the company, but they charge you for the whole thing. Also for the mirror would the lens pen carbon tip part work for cleaning ?

Thanks for taking the time to create this video, it is very helpful.

Great!!! I was confused with a black spot on the pictures. Your video helped me to resolve the issue with a Q-tip to dust off the dirty on the image sensor. Thank you very much :-).

FINALLY! Sane, experienced wisdom on cleaning your camera. I can't believe how many crazies I went through to get here. But, I think the best advice is to never get it dirty. How? change lens only when needed, I don't take a lens off until I need another lens. When changing, I make sure that i'm in a dust free area, OR i shield my camera when I VERY QUICKLY change the lens. Cleaning the mirror is one thing, the sensor is another matter, as mirror up can do more harm by introducing more dust, skin, hair, or fibres. Holding the camera upside down is a little ridiculous as dust isn't heavy enough o be effected by gravity, in my humble experience. ( Just look at the dust in a room) I would be very careful about blowing air with a bulb type blower, and wouldn't recommend blowing several times quickly, as this can also do more harm, introducing more dust, and or it getting into other areas IE: the prism, curtain, sensor, and moving parts. I blow once carefully, and hard in a direction carefully chosen, or blow softly only 2 or 3 times. I have worked in Scientific Photography and this was done very carefully. A dry Q-tip is better than using liquid and very lightly wipe the mirror, prism, or sensor to dislodge any remaining dust if blowing did not remove the speck.

Cleaning a camera may look daunting for some but with this video, people now know the proper way of doing it.

great video! just used it to clean mine. First time and NO WORRIES! thanks!

Thanks for an informative and easily understandable demonstration.

Thanks a lot for detailed video on cleaning the Sensor, a must knowledge for all DSLR users

Perfection. Thanks for the tip!

You just saved my life. Thank you so much

this saved me so much money! thank you!

Thank you sooooooo much for this tutorial :) I thought my camera was broken,I had spot in my images. I did what you did with the sensor clean & the spot is gone... :)))))

Thanks for the instructions. I appreciate the video unlike some of the clowns below. The one thing I hate about RU-vid is all the negative comments even when you're trying to help other people.

Thanks was a big help

Thanks a lot... The best tutorial ever seen..! (y)

Thank you. Your tutorial really helped me

Awesome video. Complete newb here to cameras and you have fixed my image issue. Thanks.

Thanks so much I'll be sure to check it out. This is all so new to me, but I want to be able to use my camera to it's fullest potential.

Thank you, that really helped me, I had dust showing on the view finder but not on the images, it really annoyed me. But then after watching this you showed me that the dust was inside at the top. Thanks

Great info thanks, I have a question, When I went out today to take some photos I saw a dark line on my pictures. Could that be a hair or something in my sensor, I have a nikon d5200

Awesome. Good to know, especially for beginners such as myself. Thank you.

Dude massive help to me thank you so much for this video keep going

A real positive help, many thanks.

simple and understandable... thanks mate :)

Oh shit! I wiped my sensor with a KFC wet towel, then dried it with a mircrofiber cloth. I now have a fuzzy image through my eye-piece viewer. HELP!!!!!!! Have i destroyed my sensor?

Thank you so much for these very important videos

Thank you. It works for my DSLR.

thanks for the info its a big help but i just like to ask how often we should clean it as a maintenance procedure regards...

Very good demonstration. I liked it very much.

Cleaning starts 04:50

Hello, That is a great video, thank you very much for the information. Kind regards Hassan

thanks man! really helpful!

that really helped, i have just blown the dust of my d600. really good simple video. x

Thanks for the perfect explanation. Now I know how to safely clean my camera. I wasn't sure about it at first, but now I see it can be done very safely and easy.

Thanks a lot for sharing this video. I must for me because i carry my camera on different locations and regular cleaning is really important.

excellent--it worked!

Big thanks this was really helpful thank you again

VERY Helpful - Thanks !

Good video. Thanks man. I'll try it out 👍

thank you very much... I was to afraid to clean inside the camera, but now I know how....

Your videos are the bomb man. You have taught me so much in just a few days. Did you finish the lens cleaning video yet? I don't see it listed?

Ur sound is more than clear 5/5 :D Luv ur videos :)

Worked perfect thanks a lot !

Thank you! you are so helpful...

Thanks for the tip. Will be using it on both Nikon d500 and Canon 600D

really helpful, thank you

Thanks mate, it was a good informative video.

Great training! Thanks...

Great tutorial tips, but I guess, in my own opinion of course, you don't need to be so much paranoid about the sensitivity of you camera sensor. Always remember that they're made by very good companies like Nikon or Canon, and they made it to be strong and tough. Image sensor is actually covered by a "GLASS" on top of it (I'm not talking about the mirror). The sensor is actually what's inside the glass, and basically when you clean your sensor, you're touching and cleaning just the glass on top, so your sensor is very safe sitting behind that glass.

Thank you Sharing this video on youtube. Very informative and easy steps.

Hi there. Thank you for your videos as they are really very helpful for someone like me. I have been very interested in photography lately mainly outdoor, landscape, scenery etc. I am waiting to purchase a nikon d5100.

You the man, thank you!!

Just got back from Wedding in Las Vegas and Honeymoon is Cabo...Cabo photos have dust spots all through images :-( Photoshop them out ok, but definitely following this clear easy to follow tutorial. Thank you!

You're awesome

Very Much so , great directions how ever I used compressed air .At the time I could not find my Giottos Air Rocket , so I grabbed some compressed air . There were a few spots on the view finder but not on my pict . Thank you now spot free :)

thanks, I just removed a dust particle from my sensor. Now it works perfect again!

Nice tutorial, you recommend using a Q-tip, just a thought, would a foam Q-tip work as well or would it possibly leave traces or damage the mirror?

Thanks! This solved the problem! 😊

Tanks. I see yoy in Brazil, nice information.

i would recommend using a cotton bud on the image sensor but if you do press really lightly be patient and have a area with good lighting so you could see what you are doing at first i had more than 20 dust spots and blowing only got rid of 2 spots so i tried using a cotton but and now there are not left but i took me about 5 - 10 mins to fully clean the image sensor

Thumbs up for making tutorial using Nikon :D

Great video! I do have a question... my camera seems to be backfocusing and I contacted canon and they told me to try and clean the metal connectors between lens and camera with a soft lens cloth to see if it helps. Any tips on how to do that and where to start? Thanks!!

i had issues with the q tip leaving little strands on my mirror. took my camera to a repair guy in denver and he advised wrapping masking tape (sticky side out) around a toothpick and then using that to dab any debris on the mirror. that seems to work better.

Worked for me just using the blower on the sensor...... Before i tried it i would have put money on the spots i was seeing in the photo's were oil, obviously not the case. Thanks for the tutorial ;-)

Fantastic help and thank you for the explanations. You should work for Nikon!

Thank you for this video...I am new to this and I saw something in the pics and was scared I had scratched something inside the camera

Thanks so much worked like a charm

Dude no worries your a pile of awsomeness. Also once again tyvm for the awsome vids! ^^

thank you very much bro :) i cudnt find on the web how to clean the mirror :) and i was about to use wet swab on sensor hehe

Thank you for showing how to clean the sensor 3 thumbs up

Nice that's very helpful to know

Thankyou very much this is very very big help to clean DSL clean thanks again Sir