The short answer, but it is definitive, is YES. As I write this I just returned from 6 weeks in Africa -- Rwanda, Tanzania, and Kenya, and dust was no longer an issue.
Previously I tried to solve the dust problem with a digital sensor by keeping a 1.4X tele-converter mounted on my cameras, and simply exchanging my 600mm with my Sigma 120-300mm so that the sensor would stay protected. Occasionally, however, I had to remove the converter as the added magnification of either lens was simply too much. In every case I'd turn off the camera (which should have removed any charge from the sensor) before changing the lens, and I'd always aim the camera downward so that any particles would settle down and out, and not settle inside the camera. Nonetheless, after almost two weeks in Tanzania, on our first trip, I was simply shocked when I shot a scene that included a lot of open sky. There was dust everywhere! Where did it come from?
That afternoon I used the Visible Dust sensor for the first time on the trip. Waiting that long was simply stupid because the process of cleaning the sensor is quick and easy, but I was still misguidely hesitant and reluctant to mess with the sensor. But seeing what was happening to my images when I didn't clean it was too much -- it was time to clean.
From that point on, whenever I changed lenses I made it a point to clean the sensor that evening. At home, you can use canned CO2 to prime the brush -- per the instructions for visible dust, but I didn't pack a CO2 can with me. Instead, I used my usual large air blower (actually an enema bulb purchased at a drug store -- but never used for that!) to prime the brush. This creates an electro-static charge that particles attach to. After cleaning the sensor I again blow on the brush, hopefully removing any attached particles, and recharging the brush at the same time if I decide to do more than one pass of sweeping.
Using the Visible Dust system my images stayed clean. I had carried along the Sensor Swabs, and the cleaning solution for both the Swabs and also the cleaning system I had from Visible Dust (the sensor clean and chamber clean solutions and packages) but I didn't need to use either. The brush alone kept the sensor clean. It works, mighty fine.
Check out their website for ordering the visible dust cleaning system and for detailed instructions on how to clean the sensor at www.visibledust.com.
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