There have been many questions regarding the effects of sensor filter cleaning products on the Canon 5D sensor filter which has the exposed non conductive dichroic mirror on it's surface. As your camera safety is paramount to Dust-Aid, we wanted to test and analyze this issue. We purchased a manufacturers standard 5D sensor filter in it's housing from Canon's service department for our testing. We cleaned the sensor over forty times with Dust-Aid before we produced the video you see above. During those proper cleanings we also subjected the filter to multiple, non-recommended, vertical vacuum enhanced removals of Dust-Aid. All of the cleanings had no affect on the exposed non conductive hot mirror coating. Dust-Aid does not affect the non conductive dichroic mirror coating on Canon's factory standard 5D sensor filter.
Above is a comparison image of Canon's 5D low pass filters. The one on the left is Canon's factory standard low pass filter with a properly coated Dichroic mirror. The filter on the right is a below standard 5D filter from Canon that has a failed Dichroic mirror coating. You can see at a glance how the two differ in color. The properly coated filter has a distinct red coating and the below standard coating has a yellow-orange tint in the center and a red tint on the edges. You can see some small specks on the below standard filter where the coating has been removed. A big "thank You" goes to Rainer Honle for bringing this to our attention and letting us use this image. The photo was taken with the same light source hitting both filters with equal intensity. We contacted Canon's Factory Service Department in California and asked if they knew that some of their low pass filters in the same camera line are different and some substandard. They replied by stating "all of Canon's low pass filters are made the same so there is no difference between them." It can be seen plainly in this image that these two filters are made different. We have subjected a below standard filter to multiple cleaning tests and it's weak dichroic coating was removed using Pec-Pads, Ethanol & swabs, Methanol & swabs and our product. We performed the same tests on Canon's factory standard filter and nothing happenend to the coating. So, we do not agree with Canon's statement that all of their low pass filters are made the same. Based on 5D cleaning issues reported on the net and our findings, we conclude that there might be a problem with a very small number of dichroic mirror coatings. With this in mind, we called a coating company that does various coatings for the military, optics and aerospace. They report that, "It is possible for coatings to be weak if, during it's lamination process, insufficient heat was applied to the coating or if the surface of the glass was not prepared properly. This weakness in the coating could easily lead to bond failure when cleaned." This would explain why our tests had no affect on the standard 5D filter but has affected a small number of 5D's. Dust-Aid has created a Canon Cleaner that can be applied to our current foam tape that will not remove below standard filters. You can read more about the Canon Cleaner here >>. If you discover that you have a below standard coated filter from Canon, which Dust-Aid has de-coated, we will replace the filter for you. Please contact us at service@Dust-Aid.com with any questions. The Dust-Aid Team
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