cleaning a CCD

H

half man half centau

Member
I picked up a used GL1 cheap the other day. It's just like new except one tiny spec that shows up on the screen. It almost looks as if the lens has a dried water drop on it. I was told by the guy who sold it to me that dust somehow got into the camcorder and landed on one of the chips. He said he contacted Canon about it and they said to send it to them to get it cleaned for a fee.
Does anyone know how to clean a chip?
thanks.
 
I would consider trying a very clean compressed air source; if shop air, don't use an "oiled" source and even better would be one that has undergone refrigeration drying to extract all the moisture. I would probably avoid canned air, but a bulb type blower could be useful. The surface of a CCD is fairly robust but don't go overboard with a high pressure stream, also, any containments which are left on the surface will have serious optical consequences.
 
thanks. what types of contaminates would come from blowing the air? Is there anything else I should know about before attempting to open the camera?

Oh, and Canon said they'd clean it for a fee, not for free. I think it was like $200.
 
Canned air can have any number of contaminates present (propellant, intentional solvents, residual oils form the manufacturing process of the can, etc). When you compress air, whatever was present (moisture) is concentrated by the process, so even fairly "clean" air can come out less than "clean" after being compressed. Mechanical compressors almost always add some oil (from their internal lubrication) so a really good dryer/separator is a minimum.

I would suggest starting simple, just get a good photographic bulb/brush combo and see if that is active enough to clean up your imager. If it isn't then step up the size of the source to something larger and with more volume and pressure.

Let us know how it all works out for you.
 
Do be very concuss of the fact that a CCD can be damaged by static events. Consider getting a static conductive work surface and a wrist strap (you can purchase these at places like Radio Shack) whenever you are inside a sensitive piece of electronics, like a camera. At a minimum, use a sheet of aluminum foil on your work surface and be certain that the camera body (a conductive part - metallic part of the body) is in contact with the work surface mat or foil along with a part of your body (an elbow or forearm is a fine) to lessen the possibility of a different potential between yourself and tools that you use and the camera.

If you are too nervous, then consider having a trained tech perform this job for you.
 
Well if you are brave - take a look at what I use to clean my CMOS sensor in my DSLR's - yes a slightly larger target - but specifically designed for cleaning sensors and NOT damaging them.

http://www.visibledust.com/

Works a treat - but as I said the GL1's CCD is a smaller target - but highly recommend the crew at Visible Dust!!!!

Cheers, Nathan.
 
Ok, I'm a bit confused here, as we seem be talking about a GL1, adn the last time I checked, that was a fixed lens camera, sooooooo, sure you can clean the ccd with air or the censor swabs, but how the hell do you get the lens off, bypass the prisim, and remember there are 3ccd's not one, so you will have to clean all three. Surely $200 is a lot less than the potential damage you could cause to your camera.
 
If I were you, I would simply pay US$200 and don't worry about that. :grin:

BTW, someone has to make a living. Just give them that opportunity. :laugh:

Regards
Leigh
 
I have been operating under the assumption that this individual has already disassembled the lens assembly to asses that the CCD was in fact in need of cleaning (hence my suggestion of an antistatic mat and wrist grounding strap). If this isn't the case, then an assessment of the problem (is it only in one channel indicating that it is directly effecting one of the CCDs) or is it effecting all three channels (indicating a lens or perhaps beam splitter contamination) should be performed?

I have done a number of camera tear downs, and if you have the proper tools and experience, the task isn't difficult at all. If not, then leave it to someone who has both. Assuming that the task is a 2 - 3 hour job (which seems a bit high to me, but I have not been inside a GL1) then $200 might be reasonable.
 
Leigh Wanstead said:
BTW, someone has to make a living. Just give them that opportunity. :laugh:

Regards
Leigh
Click to expand...

this is very true.
It's just since I've owned my own home and figured out how easy some things are to fix, I've slowly turned into a DIY guy. Once I try something I'm a quick learner. I figured there'd be people on this board who know what to do. Since I have a few other cameras, I figured maybe I could try to fix this one myself without endangering any projects I have on the horizon.

Everyone has been very helpful as always.
BTW I check out everyone's links to their sites. Almost everything I've seen is very impressive. I wish everyone had a link to their work in their forum signature.
 
No I'm not sure, but you can actually see movements of colors inside the small spec. That's what leads people to believe its a dirty chip. I've never seen what a dead pixel looks like. I would have to imagine its a black dot.

BTW, I'm sending it to Canon for a free estimate and to make absolutely sure it's diagnosed correctly.
 
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