Good preventative cleaning starts with the
external camera body and lenses.

• Brush off all external parts of the camera body (a soft paint brush is ideal), remembering all crevices, corners and inside card doors.
• Use an air blower to finish off and a Micro Fibre Cloth to polish panels and menu windows.
• Clean up the lenses, taking especial care of the back (the part that fits into the camera) - you don’t want dust to drop into the camera because of a dirty lens.
• Clean in and around the lens mount using a cotton tip applicator (we use the Dove / Swisspers brand available from Coles supermarkets or Priceline shops) moistened with a contact cleaner or mentholated spirit.
• Finally, before before cleaning the sensor, take care to clean the  Mirror Chamber thoroughly.
  Fluff, fibers, mount shavings, and dust particles accumulate and stick to the anti-reflective material applied to most cameras in the mirror chamber. Eventually some of the debris end up on the Image Sensor.

Here’s a simple effective tool to make that will assist in cleaning the mirror chamber for loose particles and debris. Remove or cut off the cotton from one end of a Cotton Bud. Pull off a good length of sticky tape and stick the end onto the stick as shown on the first picture.

Give the stick a half turn so the overlapping tape end sticks to the rest of the tape as in the next picture. NOW turn the tool clockwise so the rest of the tape ends up with the sticky side OUT and the tool is ready and should look like the stick below.

Use your Air Puffer to blow away any loose debris with the camera mouth held downwards.

Gently lift and hold the the mirror up. Take care not to obstruct the small sub-mirror hinged behind the main mirror as you lift it up.

By gently rolling the tool up and down the sides and along bottom of the mirror chamber the sticky side of the tape will pick up fluff, hairs, fibers, and dust particles. You will notice the sticky surface becoming quite contaminated as the anti-reflective material inside becoming clean. It may be necessary to renew the sticky tape and clean a few times.

Take great care NOT to touch the shutter blades, sensor, or focusing screen during the cleaning process. Only when the mirror chamber and external body are clean should you proceed with sensor cleaning.

Set the camera to Sensor Cleaning Mode as per instruction manual. Then open the shutter and puff out any loose dust with your Rocket Air blower.

Now lightly whisk across the sensor surface with your energized Sensor Brush and the static charge will attract the dust particles lifting them off the sensor filter surface. Recharge the brush and repeat  if necessary. Check a test image between each clean to confirm result.

The bush method is the safest and fastest way, but it cannot remove smears or debris otherwise stuck onto the sensor surface and occasionally physical cleaning may be required to properly remove such spots.