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Sensor cleaning . GRD/GX100

luis patricio

luis patricio

New Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2007
Messages
144
Sooner or later the GRD/GX100 sensor will get dust, its a fact!
Any tips/tuturials/links on how to dismantle a GRD/GX100 to self clean the sensor???
Any experiences/storys?
 
I'm trying to find the GRD/GX100 service manuals somewhere. But as the number of worldwide Ricoh service centers is very small, it's probably useless effort :( They keep it in secret...

I think the one way would be to blow the dust off with compressed air. You know, without disassembling ;) It will not remove the dust but there is a good chance it would move it out of the sensor?
 
odklizec":03ea2 said:
I think the one way would be to blow the dust off with compressed air. You know, without disassembling ;) It will not remove the dust but there is a good chance it would move it out of the sensor?
Click to expand...
Air Blow without disassembling = There is a good chance it would put more dust in the sensor.

We can use any mini vacuum sensor cleaning kit if we find the correct way to disassemble/assemble the cameras!
http://www.green-clean.at/index.php?id=16&L=1
 
Actually my GRD has a few dust spots in the image, but I don't know, if they are on the sensor, since they get sharper when I stop the lens down. Anyway, the dust is not on the front element of the lens, so I'm not able to remove it. I'm going to give it for service, because I have still guaranty on my camera.

A few days ago, I found a few videos on youtube.com of disassembling an iPod, and I also searched for GRD, but there are no videos of disassembling it, like I presumed.
Anyway, if someone is going to disassemble his GRD or has a broken GRD for experimenting, it's a good idea to make a movie of that and put it on youtube :)
 
Luis, do you have a link for such a webpage with instructions for dismantling a GX100? After hearing reports of dust problems I am curious about how easy this would be, in case it becomes necessary to clean my GX100 at some point. It's ok if the page is in Japanese.
 
luis patricio":2hohcugk said:
Anyway Pjphoto59 "Black Blob" (http://ricohforum.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=233) seems more like a shadow from dust in an internal lens element than sensor dust, waht do you think?
Click to expand...

In my case (mentioned above), Ricoh exchanged the whole lens, including some camera cleaning work. I think, the problem is the extending lens mechanism. On one hand it makes the camera compact, but on the other hand, there is lot of air flow between the inner and the outer of the camera. And air contains dust.
 
Luis,
Could you point us to the instructions for taking apart the GX100? I have a camera that has a black blob just as described in the other thread. thanks
doug
 
I tried taking apart a GRD I, and wouldn't recommend anyone try it! Firstly I had to remove the rubber grip in various places to access several screws, as well as under the flash hotshoe. Then you find on removing the screws that they were fitted into small pieces of metal which are held against the inside of the camera body by the tightened screw, as you remove the screw these metal pieces fall inside the camera, not good. Once the screws were removed I was able to open the camera body slightly, but there is a ribbon cable attached to the LCD with very little slack, it appeared to be soldered in place (I could be wrong but couldn't see an easy way of disconnecting it) I couldn't remove the front section away from the interior components either so decided that further disassembly was a bad idea and ventured no further. Putting it back together even at this fairly early point was quite difficult as I had to retrieve those pieces of metal from inside the camera as well as use about 3 hands(!) to hold them in place whilst reassembling it.
I suspect that unless you have access to a 'clean room' that you would cause more harm than good in terms of dust on the sensor even if you were able to disassemble the camera entirely.
 
as for the lcd you can just flick the switch and it will open.. all you have to do is clip it back when you want to re assemble it.
 
I used a vacuum cleaner in the lens while turning on and off the camera. Incredibly it worked in removing a big dust spot I had in my GRD2
 
Ok, it sounds like a REALLY bad idea, but it worked for me too...

1. Turn on your GRD so the lens is extended
2. Switch on your vacuum cleaner
3. Put vacuum cleaner nozzle over front of lens for a few seconds
4. Switch off vacuum cleaner
5. Start taking great photos again, rekindle your love for your GRD II once more, etc.
 
Firstly I had to remove the rubber grip in various places to access several screws, as well as under the flash hotshoe.
Click to expand...

Was going to replace the LCD screen for my GRD3 by myself, got almost all screws loosen at the back but there is one kind of underneath the hot shoe. Wonder how to assess to that particular screw.
 
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