My first sensor cleaning

As I have noted before, I am one of the many who has experienced the dirty sensor issues of the Nikon D600.  After already sending my camera to Nikon once (at around 2500 images) for a "real" cleaning, I was not in the mood to wait 3 more weeks for another cleaning by Nikon.

I am at around 4000 shutter clicks right now and images taken at f16 using my 50mm Nikon lens were full of probably 40 small dust spots.The spots were not nearly as visible with my Tokina 17-35mm lens.

50mm at f16. Image enhanced to show the spots

I purchased a wet cleaning kit and used probably 10 or more swabs over the sensor in an effort to get things clean.  Pretty scary process at first, since I had never done this before. At one point I had made things worse. The end results were far from perfect but I still think it is an improvement. What do you think?

Below is a sample image after cleaning.

50mm lens at f16 AFTER cleaning. Image enhanced

50mm at f8 AFTER cleaning. Image enhanced

Image enhancements done with Color Efex Pro.

UPDATE:

I have been shooting for over a week since I cleaned the sensor myself and so far I haven't seen a single spot. This has probably been the first time since sending the camera back to Nikon that I have been dust free.

Image 4500 taken today:

Cleaning was done with a Sensor Swab kit:
https://secure.copperhillimages.com/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=45&=SID#MOREINFO

Before and After

I haven't made a blog post in a while, but I thought it would be interesting to post a couple of pictures that show the water level at the EBRPD Del Valle Park has dropped dramatically in the past year and a half.

June 2011

December 2012
Note the water gauge to the right of the building

I haven't been to the park since December, but I suspect it isn't much better. I may return in June 2013 to see if it is much lower.