Sensor dust

[jarrodeu]

What do you guys do for sensor dust and to keep the general camera and lenses clean?

Jarrod

[T. Adams]

Re: Sensor dust

Rocket blower for the sensor after every day of use. I use a cheap, cheap, small 2" paint brush to clean the outside of the bodies and the lenses, or a dry hand towel if they are really filthy. I use a lenspen/brush combo on the front of the lenses, but just a blower on the back. It is never a good idea to touch the rear glass of a lense, at any time.

[Stevo]

Re: Sensor dust

I also use the Rocket Blower but recently ran into a few specks that would not leave the sensor. So, I did a bit of reading (many hours actually) and in the end bought brush called the "Sensor Sweep" and have been really happy with the results. It's not for everyone though.

[ignomini]

Re: Sensor dust

I'll use the wet method (best in my experience) for cleaning a sensor back in the old hotel room, but forget about it in the field. This may be controversial, but in the field I have found the Sensorklear to be effective, and to date has shown no ill effects on a 10D and 30D.

[T. Adams]

Re: Sensor dust

By the way, if you send your camera in to Canon, this is what they use to clean the sensors. Better off saving the money and doing it yourself. I have not tried it yet, but I do have some stubborn spots. I think I am going to buy a couple.

http://www.naturescapes.net/store/product.php?productid=184&cat=14&page=1

And no, I'm not pushing naturescapes.net. You can buy these many places.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Sensor dust

I may well qualify as the "oldest" DSLR shooter in this forum, having bought an original Nikon D1 back in July of 2000 to shoot at Reno that year.

I knew NOTHING of sensor dust and man was I in for a comeuppance on reviewing my photos!!

I could write a lengthy journal on my experiences with getting the stuff off the sensor, but I'll try to keep it short and to the point. (just rereading.. yea.. right)

When I returned home after Reno 2000, I was quite distraught.. my new $5000. investment was producing pretty much totally worthless images. They were TOTALLY spotty!!! (was using the Sigma 50-500 which may be the worst lens out there for being a vacuum cleaner for the surrounding dust in the air)

Long story short, I was living in downtown PDX and walked down to Camera world, the guy behind the counter was a D1 shooter (snowboarders) and he told me... "put it on bulb, get a can of 'not air' put the nozzle on it, open the shutter and get REALLY close and blow the snot out of it"

I had the camera all set up and, was going to send it in for a cleaning but sucked it up and tried it. Scared the bejeezus out of me but it worked.

I became sort of an "expert" at getting REALLY close to the sensor and blowing the crap out of it.. (BE REALLY CAREFUL OF YOUR SHUTTER CURTAINS WHILE USING THIS METHOD!)

OK... if you're going to do it this way.. (it does work) you absolutely HAVE to be VERY careful to keep the can of notair level, don't use a new one (half or less full is best) blow it through the nozzle a bit to ensure there is no crap in it and do your thing. I goofed one morning and forgot to clear it first.. Blew a blob of the liquid that makes notair right onto the sensor.

In that morning, by total desperation, I found that the sensor is pretty robust. I wound up using my silk sunglasses lens cloth wrapped around the eraser of a pencil, my hot breath and a lot of prayers to get it off.. it worked. (somewhere on this site, the reason I was so desperate to get the thing clean is available... pace plane ride with Gene McNeely at Oshkosh) (note: editing this post, I actually found the image and uploaded it.. my first open canopy A2A... as you can see, the air was pretty misty.. it was magic! We were licking the bottom of the overcast.. damp, dark... buy me a few beers and I'll go on for hours about it!)

Anyway... over the years, I graduated to the "sensor swab" method.. you buy some really expensive swab things, put some pure alcohol on them and "swab" your BIG DOLLAR investment.. It too works, although, it makes me REALLY nervous doing it!

As of late, I am using the Sensor Sweep method. It's a really clean "paint brush" thing.. you blow canned notair over it to achieve a negative charge, then you sweep it on the sensor and it pretty well cleans the damn thing up!

Important thing to remember when you are "playing" this game.. At least on the Nikons.. I'm not familiar with what Canon uses, the low pass filter, that covers the actual sensor, is a polycarbonate type substance, about as hard as your plastic sunglasses. Think about it as being about as fragile/strong as they are. Be very careful, READ A LOT on the net in various forums on the subject (there are some very good pictorial directives), plan on checking for dust DAILY back at your hotel.. don't try to do it in the field! (it's WAY too dusty) You'll be OK..

Do Remember... This IS a daily thing, though.. depending on what lens you use, some are much worse than others. Despite popular belief that most dust gets in when you change lenses, I truly don't think so. It's the zoom function that does it.. put, for instance, a Sigma 50-500 up to your lips (very sensitive region of your body) and zoom it in and out while the camera end is near your lips.. You'll feel where the air vents.. it's an area that is inside the "chip chamber" when mounted.

Look at the construction of the lens, think about all that "stuff" moving in and out displacing air and you get a pretty quick feel for where the dust comes from.

Hope this wasn't too long winded.. and hope it helps and as some of my best friends have done in the past.. DO NOT ask me to clean your camera! It's nerve wracking enough doing my own!!! Read, learn, buy the supplies and go for it. It's daily maintenance. Don't think you're going to be able to send your body back to the manufacturer when it gets dusty. It's DAILY!

[Kilo Hotel]

Re: Sensor dust

It's DAILY!

Wayne -

This is the only part of your post I feel the need to quibble with. I don't think sensor cleaning is a daily thing for everyone. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it shouldn't be a daily thing if you can avoid it: there's too much risk involved.

I use the brushless bulb method when needed, but this summer I've shot seven or eight thousand frames without cleaning the sensor. And that's with plenty of lens changes in the field, too.

I have a couple of dust spots that show up at f/8 or smaller, but only in areas of open sky; they've been there for months, since sometime after my last cleaning. I can live with that, since I always pass an image through Photoshop CS2 before it makes it to print or web, and removing a couple of dust spots in open sky represents a trivial fraction of my per-image rework time.

I'm shooting a Canon 5D with one or the other of my three Canon zooms 99% of the time. I wonder if you stopped using that Sigma zoom whether you might be able to get away with cleaning your sensor less frequently. A lot less frequently.

Just my two cents; YMMV