The Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly

The Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly 724 arrives in a leatherette zip case with a quick release attachment to strap it (presumably) onto your camera bag/rucksack. Inside that case is a soft touch (turquoise?) plastic box with 'Arctic Butterfly' engraved on the top and 'Visible Dust' engraved on the latch. Inside protected by a foam surround is the 'Arctic Butterfly' itself. It is made of the same soft feel plastic (not sure how else to describe it). Emblazoned on one side is the name and logo and on the other 'Super-charged Fibre (SCF). Man this is 'designer' sensor cleaning and with a price tag to match! . Everything looks just like it should for a really expensive and presumably 'the best' piece of kit. Impressed so far. Sadly it's downhill all the way from here on.

No batteries included, for that money you'd have thought they'd include a couple of little AAA batteries. Not impressed#1

Using it on a 5D; my very first attempt out of the box, untouched by any fingers resulted in smears over the sensor! Had it been returned and resold as new or was there some other reason that the brush was not uncontaminated?. Either way there was something on the brush that smeared the sensor. No it didn't touch the sides and no I didn't touch it with my fingers, I was very careful about that. It should either have a seal to show it is unused or instructions to clean before first use. Not impressed #2.

Their brush shape is not strong but straggly. Some filaments splay out awkwardly after spinning and make it way too easy to touch the sides. Even if only one little filament does this it could spread grease or oil. Not impressed #3

The brush is too insubstantial. They even sell a more substantial version as a separate attachment. So why not include the substantial version as integral. i.e. why make an inferior product knowingly (except to maximise profit at the expense of customer satisfaction). Not impressed #4

On returning the brush to the cap, the cap entrance and in fact the whole cap, is too narrow to avoid bending some of the bristles back on themselves, unless you are very careful. Bad design. Not impressed #5

The first one I received I returned immediately without even opening as half the brush was bent back on itself inside the transparent cap. (underlining my previous point). not impressed #6

My final opinion on this product: 'style over function' - the marketing and advertising hype could be interpreted to mean that this is a superior piece of kit. Not in terms of its ability to clean your sensor It isn't. There are better and much much cheaper alternatives out there. Save your money.