Unpopular opinion: that guy on YouTube saying 'just clean the sensor with a swab and call it a day' is why I keep getting other people's messes on my bench | Camera Repairers

Betty Fisher · 2026-09-30T21:05:06.147167+00:00

I was watching a repair video last week where some guy with 400k subs says sensor cleaning is a 5 minute job and anyone charging more than $50 is ripping people off. So this customer brings me a Nikon D750 from Columbus that he swabbed himself three times, and now there are streaks across half the frame plus a scratch near the corner that wasn't there before. I spent 90 minutes with my loupe and a fresh batch of swabs just to get it usable again, and I still had to tell him the scratch may show up wide open at f8. The thing is, the actual cleaning isn't the hard part, it's knowing when to stop and what not to touch. I've seen people use canned air and blow dust deeper into the mirror box, or soak a swab in so much fluid it wicks behind the glass. So when someone tells me $80 for a wet clean is a scam, I just point at the D750 on my bench and say nothing. What do you all do when a customer quotes some video at you like it's gospel?

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Unpopular opinion: that guy on YouTube saying 'just clean the sensor with a swab and call it a day' is why I keep getting other people's messes on my bench | Camera Repairers - The Design Community Hub