Customer Reviews

Giottos AA1900 Rocket Air Blaster Large - Black

5 star:		(218)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I bought this product after finding multiple spots on my photos.

The best way to test if you have dust on your camera's sensor is to set your f-value very high such as f-22 and take picture of the sky or a bright piece of paper. Dust usually only appears in your photos at smaller apertures. You should be able to see most blotches clearly if you do the test right.

Anyway, this thing did the job perfectly. I know how sensitive camera sensors are, and am a little hesitant about using the "wet" method. And besides, this is much cheaper. All you do is go into a dust free room (bathroom worked for me), take off your lens, set your camera to mirror lock-up mode, stick the little red tube into the lens bay, and give it a few blows. Wait about 5 seconds after each blow to allow the dust to fall out. Just make sure you do this is a room free of moisture. Then you just pop the lens back on and take another test shot.

It also works great for taking dust off your lenses, off of your camera, out of your computer keyboard, or really anything.

The only cons I can think of are that it is too big to fit in my camera bag, and that it is loud. But it is still well worth the money, and five stars.

I had originally bought another brand of blower to clean my digital camera, but after using it once I ended up introducing more dirt and/or rubber bits than I care to remember. Long story short I don't use that for my camera anymore and it took me a long time to get all of that crud out of my camera. But then I decided to give another brand a try since so many people seemed to be able to use blower bulbs without any problems. When I got my new blower my sensor was already fairly clean, but after using it it was a little cleaner. You will still sometimes have those stuck on particles (I use sterile pec pads and eclipse solution to get rid of those with pretty good results, but do this at your own risk since it voids most camera manufacturers warranties.) I also keep my blower in the original packaging to keep it as clean as possible, I guess I am a little gun shy after my first experience.

Every picture of mine that included larger portions of the sky would have these stubborn spores on it. Pretty infuriating, especially when you got the shot just like you wanted it. Yes, you can always remove those on Photoshop (or cheaper yet, The Gimp); but isn't it cool when you look at a picture and say: "that is it, nothing to do on it!" ??

And it wasn't just the sky. Any off-white but light plain colored background would suffer visibly from the acursed specks.

With this blower, greatly priced (pity that Adorama doesn't have free shipping though), I put my camera on the tripod, pointed it down, squirted three or four times - and gone are the specs!!!

Great buy for DSLR owners.

Glance through my reviews and you'll see I'm hardly inclined to give a product five stars without a good reason. In this case I have no choice: the large Giottos Rocket Blaster is an item of such flawless quality and functionality that I literally can't think of a single way it could be improved.

In its standing position it has approximately the proportions of a large drinking glass. It's not small; in fact it's about as big as it can be while still fitting comfortably in your hand. That's an important detail: squeezing it is easy enough but because of its size it moves enough air to direct a strong, smooth blast at whatever you're attempting to clean. I've spent half my life trying to blow dust off lenses with junky little blower/brushes that don't do a thing, and through size alone the large Giottos blaster is a vastly better tool for the job.

Beyond that, there are lots of design details that help the Rocket Blaster do its job. The materials, particularly the expensive silicone rubber used for the blower bulb itself, are of obvious high quality. The bulb has a separate intake valve at its rear, so that it can fill more quickly than would be the case if the small blower nozzle were its only source of intake air. And of course its freestanding "rocket" design is itself simple, useful and unique. Look closely at the blower nozzle: the hole through which the air is forced is not round, it's an obviously-deliberate triangular shape, and if you think about it a moment it might occur to you that a this interesting shape might very well be more efficient at generating a coherent stream of air than a simple round nozzle. Just another detail.

The end result is an item that is deceptively simple but so nicely made that it just doesn't have any competition. It's a flawless little piece of Italian design that anybody can buy, appreciate, and put to good use. It might cost five times as much as a junky little blower/brush, but it must be at least a hundred times better.

Miscellaneous notes:

- This is the "large" Rocket Blaster. There is also a small model, and in some cases here on Amazon it has not been perfectly clear what you're getting from the item photograph or description. Here's how you tell difference: the small blaster has a round (spherical) bulb, the large one has an elongated, more or less elliptical bulb.

- The large blaster is not ideal for carrying in a bag: it's a bit too big. Buy one of the small models for keeping in your bag, and the large one for home. The large one is probably two or three times as effective as the small one, however, so if you only intend to buy one, buy the large one. Honestly, by the time you have a modest sum invested in camera gear, you really ought to have both.

- It's hard to quantify the strength of the airflow - too subjective. Here's my attempt anyway: Putting a penny down on a smooth surface, the airflow from the large blaster from a distance of about three inches will make it jump. At about the same distance, aiming the blaster at the palm of my hand will create a depression in the skin of the palm. I can make a piece of ordinary copy paper flutter by using the blaster from about 2-1/2 feet away. Compared to the small blaster, for those who have it, the large blaster seems to provide about double the force of air for about double the amount of time.

If you have a DSLR this thing is about as necessary as batteries & memory cards. Unless you've managed to get something gooey on your lens this will blow it off. I've not had to actually clean my sensors for a year...and my cameras have been everywhere from the middle of the Pacific (Hawaii & sailing) to Europe...and countless places in between. Just FYI, I ALWAYS change lenses with the sensor DOWN.

My suggestion, check your sensor fairly often (so things can't get really stuck)...toss this blower into a ziplock bag (to keep it clean) and carry it with your camera always (so you'll actually use it BEFORE you need a full sensor cleaning.) Simple and very effective. Oh, and I AM a pro...and I've been shooting since the 70's...if that helps any. ;-)

When I noticed dust on the sensor of my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi, I did what most photographers would in such a situation: fainted. OK, not really, but I did freak out a bit. Any serious photographer knows that cleaning the sensor is as delicate an operation as performing a heart transplant.

Most experts will tell you that direct contact with the sensor is a last resort (and for times when that's required, there are special swabs and fluids made just for that task).

The first line of defense, however, is air. While some people would suggest using compressed air (from a can), most would argue against it because the gas inside can become liquefied, which would only damage your camera's sensor even more. The same goes for simply blowing into the camera body. Hence, the item that's become a staple of almost every photographer's arsenal, is the Giottos Rocket Air Blower.

Similar in theory to the bulb aspirator used to remove earwax or mucus from babies' orafices, a simple squeeze of the Rocket Blower gives off a concentrated stream of air to effectively blow off any dust particles that may have landed on your sensor. Because it's made so that the air enters at the bottom and leaves through the top (the red nozzle), there's no chance that the dust you blow away will be sucked back into the blower. Plus, the "fins" of the rocket keep the bottom valve from directly touching any surface, which means it's more likely to stay dust-free.

The first time I used my Rocket Blower, it was to remove a minute piece of hair that was visible to me only through my viewfinder. One or two squeezes with the Rocket Blower, and the hair was gone. It couldn't have been any easier.

I whole-heartedly suggest the Giottos Rocket Air Blower to anyone who cares about their gear.

I went to our local camera store and picked this up yesterday. After three tries (of multiple pumps each), I was able to remove the big dust specks, but most of the little specks remained. I read a review that I think stated it best, most people are reviewing this like it is the end all image sensor cleaning system, rocketing it to mythic proportians. It is good at what it does, blowing some dust off the sensor, but you will still need a professional cleaning every once in a while. I had my sensor cleaned once in the last two years, but I am looking at doing it every six months now because nothing beats a professional cleaning! I recommend this product, but it is for upkeep, not the solution!

Ok to start off I've heard different opinions about camera sensor blowers..some say it works like magic some say it can make it worse. So I gambled and bought this Giotto blower.
I didn't want to buy all the cleaning swabs, liquid ect and rub it off...seemed like a annoying project. So I gave this blower a try.
I never had that much dust on my sensor but when made my aperture smaller f/22 to be exact and did a picture of the blue sky I noticed a few blobs or dust spots. I wanted them off...now heres where the blower comes in. I used it a total of 3 times and it removed 98% of the dust off my sensor..thats really really good in my book for a $9 device. Now I have like 2 tiny dust spots on my sensor and I can easily live with that..or I could try to use it a few more times to completely get it off...
In the meantime I'm very happy with the dust I got off it.
Buy this blower....its a no brainer.

Let's be honest, the rocket air blaster is a rather simple tool. However, it does what it needs to do. It packs enough air power to clean away most any item on your camera's sensor. It's easy to use and is safer than alternative methods. I also use it for general cleaning of my other electronic equipment (keyboards, computer components, etc) instead of canned air.

There were two small spots on reference photos taken with my Nikon D40x. Based on recommendations here and at some good photography websites, I bought the Rocket Blaster and a 4-pack of pre-moistened Sensor Swabs from Amazon.

The Sensor Swabs added more spots than they removed, and also streaked the sensor. (The new spots and the streaks were apparent in reference photos.) Given the many positive comments people have posted about the Sensor Swabs with Eclipse-2, I attribute these problems to my own lack ot skill.

With some trepidation, I switched to the Rocket Blaster, cotton swabs (Cue-Tips), and moist breath (distilled water vapor). After several iterations of blowing, wiping, blowing, and testing, all of the streaks and most of the spots were gone, and there were no scratches. Finally, I just used the Rocket Blaster (no physical contact) between test shots until all of the spots were gone.

So, the sensor is fine again, and I was lucky not to have damaged the sensor. It's possible that the only way to remove the original spots was by using the Sensor Swabs, but the Rocket Blaster is what really helped the most.

Now for a couple of comments about the Rocket Blaster itself: it puts out a lot of air and is very easy to squeeze. There's a one-way valve to minimize sucking air back through the nozzle.

At first, I thought the four fins at the base were just a decorative gimmick, but in fact, they are feet: the Blaster stands on them, so the tip of the nozzle doesn't have to touch the table.

So, as the title of this review says, I'd suggest trying the Rocket Blaster before spending money on something else. You may have to squeeze it many times, but it won't hurt anything as long as the tip doesn't touch the sensor.

P.S. Although the cotton swabs / moist breath worked for me, I do NOT recommend that method.


Update, 2009-08-13.

Got a new camera yesterday. It came with a self-cleaning sensor and a large, prominent spot of dust on the sensor. Well, wasn't that considerate of the manufacturer, to give me an excuse to see how well the self-cleaning feature works?

Didn't work. Tried several times. Began to feel just awful.

But! Sitting on the shelf is the Giottos Rocket Blaster, which I bought a couple of months ago and have discussed in the original review above.

Flipped up the mirror, squeezed the Rocket Blaster hard, several times, put the mirror back down, put on a lens, and took some more test shots.

No dust.

Life is good... again.

NOTE: the tip of the Rocket Blaster is hard plastic, which you do not want to contact anything in your camera. I cut the tip off a soft rubber ear syringe and stuck it on the tip of the Rocket Blaster. Nothing should ever touch the sensor, but this gives a little protection against human error.