Hi All, Just a question. I might get flamed for trolling, but.............. Suppose somebody cleaned their sensor with sand paper. Fairly large grit. Could the sensor be saved, or would you need a new one? Yeah yeah I know..."Why would someone be stupid enough to do that?" Its hypothetical.... Thanks, Neal/Betty
There's a glass plate protecting the sensor. If you sandpaper it... well, you will total your camera. Clean it with an Arctic Butterfly, DSLR fluid sensor cleaning kit or take it to your local camera shop for cleaning. If you or a friend has tried sandpaper, it's a trip to your service agent for repair.
Thanks silver. What kind of cost would you be looking at for repair if you scratched the glass plate in this manner?
Ask for a repair quote first, it will be expensive. I can't tell you how much, only that Ramen is a fairly cheap food source.
I've got to ask.... What happened? But in answer to your question - depending on the camera the sensor may be covered with a 'removable' infrared filter. If it was just the filter scratched it might be possible to have it removed and turn the camera into a tool for astro photography: http://www.hapg.org/camera mods.htm
The simple answer is... the dude thought it would be a good idea to sandpaper the image sensor. The long answer is... the dude thought it would be a good idea to sandpaper the image sensor because it had a spec of dust on. He is due to hand the camera back to his friend soon and is worried he may have damaged it.
Close feathers, but the unfortunate truth is that someone has an ex gf who did not get her camera back after a breakup and took it very badly indeed.....
In that case Camera would need new sensor and most likly a strip down to clean all the bits of sandapaper dust that are now flitting about the interior of said camera ready to drop back onto a sensor or knacker the shutter at somepoint in the future. Depending on if its a entry level or pro level it might be cheaper to get a new one.
The truth is that pretty much everything is repairable, but the question is if it's worth it. The obvious is that the IR-filter is damaged, but the sensor might have taken a hit as well. Sometimes the IR-filter is removable, but in some cases it's a one-piece deal with the sensor. Those things aside, taking a large grit sanding paper to the insides of a dslr has probably done some other damage as well. Mirror assembly, AF-sensor, shutter and the pentaprism (well, viewfinder) box come to mind. If the camera isn't pro series, I don't think there's much reason to fix it. I'd go about this by demanding a new camera from the person who broke it in the first place. If this is not possible by just reasoning with the person, contact his/her parents (I'm getting a feeling the broken up couple aren't too old and mature) or make it official and file a report with the police. If someone did this to my camera, I probably would cut out the middle-man and go knocking (maybe on the door, maybe on the head)
My 7D recently stopped functioning. Slowly slowly throughout 7months the shutter kept getting stuck until it was unusable. The warranties and everything was long gone. Sent it to Canon. They changed the shutter mechanism and refurbished the whole camera (changed used hot shoe + cleaning + back focused) Charged me less than 300usd. When it came back I found a new issue, some weird spots in the photos/live view. Sent it back and they replaced the sensor for free. I was amazed with the service and how cheap it was. Don't overlook the service your camera company provides. They usually give a free quote if you just send the camera.
@Cheap Mod Wannabe, The problem there is that your camera wasn't damaged on purpose. It's bad publicity if the shutter gives out way before its (estimated) time and it seems that your camera had other issues which might have been manufacturing errors in the first place. It of course doesn't hurt to ask for an opinion and an approximation of the repair costs from the manufacturer, but if someone brings around a camera which has a sanded down sensor, I doubt that they are willing to bend backwards and repair it on the cheap. You also need to take into account that if they do evaluate the needed repairs, they also have to give a warranty for the repairs. In this case there might be a lot to repair and who knows what will give out in the following six months or so if the camera was repaired. But again, it doesn't cost much if at all if you have the camera evaluated.
