The Dust Patrol D-SLR Brush 16mm for 1.5/1.6 Multiplier Sensors

I own two Canon EOS-1d mk2's, one of them the fantastic full frame 1ds. The downside is there is no active dust prevention on the sensor and as such these are plagued by 'dust bunnies' (something my 10+ year old Olympus E-1 doesn't get !!). The 1d was pretty mucky when bought 5 years ago so much so I complained to LCE (without much assistance!), the 1ds was newer and VERY low shutter count and not much of a problem. Bigger zoom lenses (especially the 100-300USM) seem to work like vacuum cleaners for dust especially the case on the 1d after an airshow!! I have wet cleaned (with trepidation) the 1d on a couple of occasions but its a bit scary and I was never too pleased with the results. Using a blower does very little as the dust has a tendency to 'stick' to the sensor because of a small amount of static. This year the 1ds was showing some dust bunnies on blue skies and white clouds (the price of a 'real' summer?!) so the time had come for action, blower did nothing, a 'Lenspen' didn't help much, wet cleaning left streaks and still left spots of dirt behind (especially visible at small apertures). Pretty much every source says 'don't use a brush' so I was a little concerned about this acquisition but one or two sources including US reviews suggested this would work. Well it has been a revelation, I have just cleaned the 1ds and it looks to have worked a treat, field testing will be needed but so far I am a happy camper, now to give the 1d a clean! Important to remember though is that the brush needs 'charging' with a blower through the bristles prior to use and preferably re-charge for each pass over the sensor. the provided instructions recommend washing prior to use in distilled water and baby shampoo then wash in running water then again in distilled water..., something I did not do and have not so far found to be necessary (especially given the need to dry the brush afterwards!!) Last comment - you will notice I recommend the crop sensor brush for a full frame sensor - the reasoning was that the brush matches the size of the sensor which personally gave me concern as lubricants can be present in the shutter housing which inadvertently could transfer to a larger brush which may touch the edges hence getting the smaller brush - I'd rather hazard two passes than one and risk transferring grease onto the brush and/or sensor!

I used this brush in conjunction with an air blower to clean the sensor on my EOS 30 camera. The brush did a perfect job and my photos are now perfectly clear. Well worth the purchase.

As long as you give it a good blast of air from a decent blower it does the job. Cleaned up a lot of the dust left on my sensors after using a blower and saved having to resort to a wet cleaning on all but one camera. The product is extremely well made and comes in a tube to keep fingerprints/dust/other contaminants away from the brush. I have taken a star off for the price, as although it's a well made and somewhat niche product, it is rather expensive for what you're getting.

It may seem like a lot to pay for what is basically a little brush... But... It's not any ordinary brush. you need to blow air through the bristles with your rocket air blower a few times to statically charge the bristles which will attract the dust. 10/10

Does the job brilliantly

The brush is o.k. if you are prepared to wait a bit for it to arrive from Germany. The price is over the top for what it is. I have it now so I will keep it. The big test comes when I actually use it on the sensor so my review is limited to materials used, construction and price, and that at the moment is only 3 stars from me.

Had a couple of spots on the sensor, did the job of removing them.

I followed the instructions to the letter, but to get ANY charging of this brush you'd need a massive blast of air. It says use a rocket blower... yea ok... not a chance in hell. And even when I took it to a camera shop where they had the very unit they shown in the photo description (electronic air blower for sensor cleaning) even that wouldn't work. Absolute waste of money and returned for a refund, all it did was move the dust around that was there and add more to it.