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I created an account to warn everyone who will listen. The last few months have been a nightmare come true. To give you some background, I am a semi-professional landscape photographer who has been shooting for about five years. I purchased a Sony a7s in late 2015 and shot for roughly a year and a half before my camera needed a wet cleaning. I had a few welded dust specs that dry methods could not remove. I, like many others, feared giving my sensor a wet cleaning, so I looked into other options. I came across the sensor gel stick for Sony cameras and saw that it had a few good reviews and was being sold by one of the popular photography educators (a simple google search for Sony sensor gel sticks will lead you to his site). I decided to give it a try. I ordered direct from his site. From watching videos, it seemed like a foolproof method. I placed the gel stick on the first dust spec, expecting it to be removed without issue. To my shock, the gel stick stuck to the sensor. I immediately panicked and pulled the gel stick off with a fair amount of force and to my horror, it left a large smear of residue. At this point, I stopped thinking clearly and placed the gel stick on one of the sticky pads, thinking that it would make the gel stick usable. I proceeded to place the gel stick on the sensor once again, and to my dismay, it stuck to the sensor once again. I don't think I've been so angry and shocked in my life. I waited until morning to cool down before I shot an email to the photographer. He proceeded to refund my account and told me a simple wet cleaning would fix the problem. He said that the problem was that my sensor had never been wet cleaned, so the gel stick would stick to it. Not wanting to take any chances, I sent my camera into Sony's repair service provider. I received my camera back after a few weeks. To my dismay, the sensor was clean but it had a few new dust specs, plus there was a very faint mark at the bottom of the sensor. I thought maybe they didn't get all of the residue. I sent it back in, but received it in roughly the same condition. I concluded that the only way forward was for me to remove the specs and mark myself. I decided that since I would be doing the wet cleaning, I might as well give the gel stick another try on the dust specs since the sensor now had two wet cleanings performed on it. To add insult to injury, the gel stick left more marks, though not as bad as the first time. That was the last try for the gel stick. I went ahead with a wet cleaning. I used a few different products to remove the residue and dust. The mark was unable to be removed. At that time, I realized the mark was not residue but rather a scratch. The scratch is located exactly where I first placed the gel stick. I sent the photographer an email about this and received no response back. The product is still being sold on his website with the same disclaimer that he is not responsible for any damage from use of the product.

Hello, Hope you are doing well. Ive read a lot of conflicting renditions on the sensor cleaning procedure for an a7riv. If you choose to clean your sensor with a sensor cleaning kit I understand the way to do it is to try the cleaning mode first. If that does not eliminate the problem then on to a manual method such as wet/dry cleaning. My question is..... After you try the camera cleaning mode and you are ready to clean the sensor manually, do you leave the camera on during the cleaning process or do you turn the camera off before the manual cleaning process? Ive read numerous articles and the instructions say either to turn camera off, leave it on or they dont specifically say either way. No clue on how to proceed and not able to get on Sony chat help after waiting about a half an hour. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much, Rick

OK, I've been having a problem with dark areas on images taken with apertures of about f11 and smaller for a while. There are at least 2 very noticable areas of dirt on the sensor, but despite my best efforts to clean it on several occasions using a wet cleaning kit (swabs, sensor fluid etc. - you probably all know the drill) but unfortunately the dirt seems to be encrusted on the sensor and will not budge. Does anyone have any thoughts on other techniques that I couls use to remove the dirt that may be more effective? Thanks in advance.

'Wondering if the fact that the a7 II's sensor is not screwed down rock solid as other models are due to its IBIS feature, does this present any unique precautions or concerns when cleaning it with a sensor swab. Is the sensor immobilized somehow when the camera is switched off, and is it possible to damage the IBIS mechanism by physically swabbing the sensor and moving it around?