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Took me 2 years to admit I was wrong about cleaning sensor swabs
After frying a $400 shutter on a Canon 5D Mark III back in 2022 because I was too stubborn to toss a swab after one pass, what finally got through to me was a retired Nikon tech in Birmingham showing me the particle buildup under a microscope.
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dylan_thompson1mo ago
Yeah but that tech was probably just trying to sell you more swabs.
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Did that Nikon tech show you any side-by-side comparisons of single-use vs. re-used swabs, or was it more about just how much debris gets left behind? I've always wondered if the difference is actually visible to the naked eye on a test shot or if it's more of a "trust the process" kind of thing. Like, would a normal person even notice the difference between a sensor cleaned with a fresh swab versus one you've used twice, or is it only something you'd see pixel-peeping at 1000% zoom? I'm asking because I've got a box of swabs sitting here and part of me still thinks it's wasteful to toss them after one pass when they look clean. The shutter replacement cost is definitely a wake-up call though, so maybe I just need to get over myself and treat them like bandaids.
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