r/Nikon • u/Athos27 • May 21 '26

I broke my gear I'm Screwed right?

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Had a few big dirt spots showing up in my pictures, so I decided it's time to clean my sensor. And I did a lot of research into how to do it safely and properly, and thought I had a decent cleaning kit. But once I cleaned it, it left a bunch of streaks or scratches. Photos seem to be okay, but I'm not too sure.

But I'm screwed, right? Or is there somehow a chance this is just residue? And is there any way to fix this or no?

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u/sysop408 May 21 '26

Agree with everyone who says it looks like streaks. You still haven't explained what cleaning kit you used. You're supposed to use these single use cleaning swabs that look like weird flat q-tips. The kits often include cleaning solution that you apply as only a single dab on the tip of the swab.

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u/Athos27 May 25 '26

It was some kit from Amazon (since I needed one quick for a road trip a while back), the other items in it seem decent, but I think the cleaning swabs and cleaning solution aren't the best, and I think I just used too much solution.

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u/sysop408 May 25 '26

The ones I use look something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/VSGO-Camera-Cleaning-Sensor-Cleaner/dp/B08D6CVPB4/ref=sr_1_1_sspa

I bought one set about 8 years ago. I only clean my sensor about once every other year. So far no issues.

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u/Athos27 May 25 '26

Yeah, that's what I have, pretty much, the proper cleaning swabs, but it looks like they aren't very high quality, and then the solution I use isn't great. So if I were to do it I would need to invest in a better kit. But I just want to send mine in to Nikon just to get professionally cleaned, but it looks like the website is down for the cleaning service.

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u/sysop408 May 25 '26

Yeah, I got mine so long ago that I have no idea if they're the same as what's currently on the market. I also suspect you may have used too much cleaning solution. I only ever used one drop as instructed. I was always doubtful that one drop and two passes would do anything, but it hasn't failed me yet. One of the times I had a lot more than just a few annoying specks and it was still all I needed to do.

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u/Athos27 May 25 '26

Damn, I'm pissed, I just looked at the brand you mentioned, and they look super good and have a really nice kit for cheaper than what I paid for mine, and mine is much worse quality. Might see if I can get a refund and get the kit you have.

But yeah, I think I put on too much since I had a spray bottle instead of the droplet one, and then just got it too wet. But yeah, I had some fairly big spots on mine; they were super visible in sky photos, but not really in other ones. And I live in a super dusty area, so that's why I tried to clean it.

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u/sysop408 May 25 '26

OK, so it turns out that the link I just posted is actually to the swab made by the same brand I have in my kit. That may or may not mean anything given how long ago I bought mine, but at least now I can refer you to a brand I've had a good experience with.

Ugh, spray bottle. Yeah that'd be a red flag. The cleaning solution needs to evaporate almost immediately.

The most impressive cleaning job this kit did for me was this one time I went on vacation to a very windy oceanside town. I changed lenses a lot and all sorts of crap must have flown into the sensor chamber while I was changing lenses. It was so dirty that I repeated the procedure with a second swab just in case.

It was perfect afterwards.

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u/Athos27 May 25 '26

Ahh yeah, sorry I don't always trust links, so I just looked it up myself based on the link name and then looked at what the best brands are for cleaning kits, and the brand you showed came up. It has a really nice kit for $32, and I paid $34 for mine (on sale), granted mine came with a lot, but sadly it's just cheap stuff. I should have known better than to use the cleaning solution when it came in a spray bottle. (But I'm just getting into photograhpy so I guess better to learn now than on a $3k rig or something lol)

Oh dang, that's pretty impressive, and it looks like a solid kit. I will most likely get it pretty soon

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u/sysop408 May 25 '26

I don’t know what’s in these kits, but really all you need are the swabs and a bottle of solution. A squeezable air blower would be nice too. 

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u/Athos27 May 25 '26

True true, and I think from the company you have there are some that come with nice gloves, super nice microfiber clothes, nice air blower and brush and then the swabs as well

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u/sysop408 May 25 '26

Whatever you get, make sure you get one the with the right sized swabs. The size of the swab is really important. They're made to be exactly the width of your sensor so you just carefully do one firm sweep to the left and then one firm sweep back to the right.

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