Review of the Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly 724, Rotary Motion Fiber Cleaning Brush

John A. Blackwell
johnb@regulusastro.com

It is never recommended that you clean your CCD chip cover glass, nor the pre filter of your DSLR camera, but there are moments!! Those pesky little dust specks will get in there, guaranteed, and you will find yourself wishing that there was a way to remove them. Sure... you try canned air (not recommended as the propellant can stain chips and optics if you are not extremely careful), and then a blower bulb. You are tempted to use a brush, maybe even the one on the end of your bulb! Don't! They actually will add dust to your sensor's light path and make matters worse. This is where the Visible Dust product line comes to save your day (or night). They make a series of Fiber Cleaning Brushes for sensors. I chose the economical (just over $90 US) 724, Rotary Motion Fiber Cleaning Brush.

I had been experiencing dust blots on my images of clear sky for months and then religiously removing them from the images using Adobe Photoshop's clone tools. This works, but, if you are like me, it takes a load of time to remove the same dark splotch from a couple of hundred images. Taking photos became a pain... more work than it was worth. I hunted for solutions.

Solution one: The Giottos Rocket Air Blaster, a unique little air bulb blaster that has an air intake filter (no dust in means no dust out!) and a built in stand to keep the tip and the filter from touching a dusty surface. Using this gadget, you can blow away some 99% of the dust on your DSLR sensor, CCD cover plate, filters, etc. It is a gem. Get one. Still, there are little pieces of dust that remain and drive you crazy.

Solution Two: The sensor brush. The Arctic Butterfly sounds like some other kind of toy, but do not be fooled. This is a professional device manufactured by Visible Dust, a Canadian company who specializes in dust removal technology by studying biochip attractions for DNA and proteins. Their products are a bit pricey, but so was that chip of yours, right?! No Q-Tips here, folks. This is the real deal. The Arctic Butterfly (from now on AB) 724 comes in a nifty little zip-up pouch. The brush is already attached to a handle and has a protective cover to keep dust away. The handle holds two AAA batteries which serve to power a small, but fast, electric motor that spins the brush.

Note: DO NOT spin the brush while cleaning your sensor! The spinning is done after each individual swipe of the brush across your sensor, and held well away from your work area. The spinning throws attached dust off of the brush, thus cleaning the equipment for another swipe.

The Procedure:

When you are satisfied that no other non-physical dust removal method will work to clean your gear:

I suggest reading the directions that came with the brush, as the following are not meant to be definitive.
get your AB 724.
Wash your hands, and find a clean space to work in.
Grab your sensor and expose it to the air.
Grab the sensor brush, expose the bristles to the air and spin its motor for 3-5 seconds in a series of three times: on- off, on- off, on-off.
Carefully wipe across the face of your optics once.
Repeat the process by spinning your brush again, away from your work area!
Check your gear. Only the hardest to remove dust would still be attached after this.

Images:

This is an image of the whole kit as it comes. There is a cardboard box for shipment. Included is the zipper case with a carabiner syle keychain attachment, the brush handle and the brush itself within a second protective plastic case. Also included is the safety cap for the bristles.

The brush with its protective cap in place
Here is the brush still protected by its safety cap. The cap screws on (Do not pull it off). This keeps offending dust off of your now-precious sensor brush.

The brush itself: A specially made set of fibers which attract and capture dust from your sensitive CCD cover plates or DSLR pre-filters.

Conclusions

If you are a DSLR owner, this is for you. There will be a time when dust makes its way into and onto your sensor's optics. You will want to remove it. This is a safe, easy and effective way to do just that. There will still be the ocassional piece of grime on a cover filter or sensor that needs to be removed. For this, even the brush might not work. You still have choices though: You could send the camera back to a cleaner for professional work (about $40), or you could purchase some sensor swabs and cleaning solutions from Visible Dust. They have a whole range of dust removal solutions which do pay for themselves. Recommendation: Buy one!

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