I made the commitment to cleaning my sensor vs sending into canon for repair. ( 50D crop sensor)
I had several spots that definitely need cleaning from years of use, humidity, dust, condensation, and lens changing.

I tried the blowers and the compressed air.
But I needed more.

I bought
E Wipe cleaning pads and a Sensor Wand.
This method is effective and safe as far as I can tell.
I had to be rather vigorous to get some of the spots off.
I found I needed to use fresh pads with each wipe (I cut the large pad into smaller sensor size pieces, dropped them into place with a hemostat, then wiped with the sensor pad). Really pleased with the results. Took about 5 wipes and rechecks to get 95% clean.

I wiped the sensor (with the mirror locked up, the manual sensor cleaning setting in the menu) across, changed pads and repeated.
Used a moderate amount of pressure.
Took a photo out of focus with a white piece of paper and also against the blue bright sky at several f stops.
Repeated the process until clean.
95% clean
But I still have two small peripheral spots that can not be seen with the naked eye or with direct magnification,
but only when the file is opened in camera raw with some contrast adjustment.

My questions are:
I am not sure what is dust and what are spots (of condensation or the like) the obvious linear and odd shaped areas are obviously dust, but the round area are undetermined. I would tend to blow dust and wipe spots.
Second, why are sensor dust/spots more apparent with f22 than with f11 and f4
Thirdly is the top of the sensor the bottom or the top of the photo, and is right left? as optically objects get inverted though a lens.

All in all I would recommend this process to anyone, but just be patient and persist.


Thank you