Took me 12 years to realize I was cleaning sensor contacts wrong the whole time

Honestly, back in 2011 I started doing my own sensor cleanings on a Canon 5D Mark II. I always used a dry swab first, then a wet one, thinking that was the standard. Last month I was at a workshop in Chicago and this retired Nikon tech watched me do one. He just shook his head and said "you're dragging the dirt across the pins, not lifting it." He showed me the trick of using a blower before any swab, and then doing one pass only, never back and forth. All those years I probably scratched a few boards on customer cameras without knowing it. Has anyone else had a "wait, that's not how you do it" moment that came way too late in your career?

2 comments

2 Comments

val_taylor9d ago

My brother-in-law taught me how to grill steaks after twenty years of doing it wrong, same exact feeling. He said I was flipping them too much and pressing down with the spatula, and I just stood there thinking about all those dry, tough dinners. It's funny how we pick up a habit early on, watch someone else do it once or twice, and then just lock it in forever without ever asking why. I think it happens with everything, not just cameras or cooking. Like the way people hold a pencil or tie their shoes, we all have some weird method that works just well enough that we never question it until a stranger points it out. That retired Nikon tech probably saved you a bunch of future headaches, even if it stings a little now.

the_caleb9d ago

The older I get, the more I notice most people are running a lifetime of instructions they never asked about. @val_taylor, that steak thing is a perfect example, we just trust whoever showed us first and never look back. It's like that until somebody else comes along and shows you a simpler way, and then you're stuck wondering what else you've been doing wrong that nobody's bothered to tell you about yet.