I have tried numerous products to clean my sensors over the years. Without a doubt, the Sensor Gel Stick sold by Photography Life is the BEST one. It takes a couple of minutes and cleaned my sensors which get very dirty after a season of hockey games the cleanest they have been since I opened the camera's boxes. There are knock offs out there...they are not as good as the one linked above. There are many videos on youTube which show how to clean sensors using this product.
Ha! I love the disclaimer for Sony mirrorless cameras. You can thank MOI for that one - or I at least contributed. I used one of these once, and it left horrible residue on the sensor when pressed - I ended up doing 3 wet cleanings afterwards and of course never used the gel tab again - I let the company know, and they were kind enough to actually research the issue and confirm it seemed to be something with the coating of the sensor protector on the Sony models. I'm back to my usual 3-step process - blower first, brush next if the blower doesn't do it, and wet cleaning only when the brush can't tackle the spots.
I saw Moose Peterson tested that product and didn't get a year of service out of it before it lost its stickiness. Now, I know he uses his a heck of a lot more than any of us would, but he found the cost per lifespan to be higher than the Copper Hill Method he was using previously and switched back. YMMV Also, has anyone else noticed that the longer you own a camera, the less often you have to clean it? I have found with all 3 of the Nikon DSLR's I've owned that they were quite dirty out of the box, but once I finally got all the loose dust out of the inside of it they rarely need cleaning.
Some things I have read in the past state that new cameras tend to spray lubrication and metal shavings around until they get "broken in". Not sure if I totally buy that or not but I guess it could happen.
I haven't found issues with lubrication or metal shavings. Mostly the insides of the cameras seem to have a lot of dust in them when I get them.
All I can say is it worked great for me. Considering all the times I have wet brushed them and barely made a difference or made them worse, the Gel Stick gets my endorsement. Will keep you updated on it's stickiness over time. If Michael is right, maybe I won't need to clean them that much in the future. BTW, I think is was great they listened to Justin and others about the SONY issue. Not that today's Social Media would allow it to happen.
Those sticks seem to work better for some than others. I know someone who hates it, and someone who loves it. I'll be sticking with my Visible Dust system, especially since I have enough of the fluids to last me many years.
Update on an older topic...Sony users check this out: http://photographylife.com/sensor-gel-stick-for-sony-cameras The Sony version is official now. Good to hear - I may try one just for the heck of it. I'm fine with my 3-tier cleaning methods already, but I admit that after bulb-blowing and sensor-brushing, the gel stick could be a nice tool to try before I resort to wet swabbing. I don't mind wet swabbing, but it does tend to take a while and usually 3-4 passes to get everything - the gel stick could possibly pick up a stubborn sticky dust spot without having to resort to the wet step (as it is, I wet swab roughly once per 6 - 8 months at most).
