Hey gang... Well, I had some issues with dust, as we all do, and took a look around at sensor cleaners. As most have seen, the "dust removable" function on the K10D may work for some dust but it's definitely not a cure all by any means.
So, after searching around and deciding that I didn't want to spen a lot of money on something that I can easily cure in Photoshop (Spot Healing Brush anyone?), I tried to locate Pentax's own recommended kit, the O-ICK1. Luckily enough there's a gentleman on eBay who sells them directly from Tokyo. I paid a total of $47.99USD through PayPal ($34.99 + $13.00 shipping) and I had the kit in like three or four days. It consists of a "cleaning stick" with a jelly like rubber "stamp" at one end (there's a protective cover for the stamp), a set of "cleaning sheets," and a manual (mine is in Japanese and English). Cleaning is fairly straightforward. You navigate in the camera menu to sensor cleaning and lock the mirror and open the shutter curtain. The manual notes to make darn sure you've got battery power since an exhausted battery will close the curtain on the stick while you're in the middle of cleaning...not a fun scenario. Then you simply use the stick to apply the stamp to the sensor and then to the cleaning sheet. The sheets are supposed to "grab" all of the dust and oil and whatnot from the stamp. I have found that you can probably use one sheet for about three-four cleanings. When the sheets are exhausted you need to buy a new kit. It doesn't say how many sheets come with the kit but I would say at least 20. So the kit is good for about 60~80 cleanings. Not bad for $35, IMHO. Does it work? It does. I had to redo my first attempt but all of my noticeable dust was gone after the second attempt. The stick has a raised marking on it that shows you how far into the camera body you have to go before touching the sensor which is good since slight pressure is, of course, the way to go. The end of the stick mimics the horseshoe shape of the stamp which helps you orient the stamp to get into the corners of the sensor (very clever!). Anyway, here's a couple of pictures of the kit and a close up of the stamp. Photos curtesy of my handy Optio W10. http://www.primelensphoto.com/o-ick1.jpg http://www.primelensphoto.com/o-ick1-1.jpg Cheers! -Brendan ____________________________________________________________________________________ TV dinner still cooling? Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV. http://tv.yahoo.com/ -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
