Artic Butterfly, part 2

Today, I returned to the Toronto Photographic and Imaging Show at the International Centre by the airport. I had one thing in mind: get the Air Butterfly brush. Which one though? There are two versions: 724 and SL700. The 724 costs $30 more than the SL700. Which one to buy? In photography, you usually get what you pay for, so there is probably something about the 724 that speaks for the extra $30. After chatting with the technician, this is what I found out.

First, the brush for either the 724 or the SL700 is good for 10,000 uses. Second, the 724 brush is replaceable while the SL700 brush is not. Third, the 724 brush needs about 20 seconds of spinning to get ionized -- it does have two batteries so it spins faster than the SL700. The SL700 brush needs about 40 seconds of spinning, although the instructions say to spin it 5 seconds three times. I think I will go with the 40 seconds of spinning. Besides these two differences, the 724 and the SL700 are the same.

I bought the SL700 because it is rare that I will need to clean my sensor, and because I do not need to replace the brush for another 9999 uses. Mine looks like the one in the photo above but light green (green handle and green case).

To clean my sensor was simple, and it seemed to work fine. Here is what I did:

• Replace my D80 battery with a fully charged battery
• Remove the lens
  
• Select the mirror lock-up option in the D80 menu -- btw, the lock-up option is available only if the camera thinks the battery has enough juice
  
• Press the shutter button once to flip the mirror up and lock it in that position
• Leave the camera on
  
• Turn on the Artic Butterfly for 40 seconds
• Turn off the Artic Butterfly
• (At this point, if you want to be extra careful, remove the battery from the Artic Butterfly)
  
• I brushed the sensor in one smooth motion in one direction
• The bristles covered most of the surface of the sensor and that seemed to be good enough to pick up all the dust
  
• Turn off the camera to close the mirror
  
• Put the lens back on
• Turn on the Artic Butterfly for 20 seconds to free the dust particles it picked up
• Turn off the Artic Butterfly, and put the cap back on

My sensor is dust free!