Sensor dust

[U-Man]

It seems that part of digital photography is sensor dust. I’ve googled a bit on the topic and some of the stuff you can do to get rid of dust is made to sound scary and risky. What do you guys do?

If this is a repeat subject, would somebody kindly direct me to the proper thread? I did a Farktography search without success.

[swampa]

I found a heap of dust recently on my sensor, here is what I did:

1) Grabbed my bulb air blower.
2) Put a fresh battery in my camera, took off the lens and set the mirror lockup function on.
3) Held the camera so the lens opening was facing the floor and sat there gently pumping air onto the sensor (and around it in case any dirt was sitting on the edge) for about 30 seconds.

That seems to have done the job.

[Analogy]

I use special sensor swabs and cleaning fluid. Does the trick for me, I haven’t broken anything yet.

You’re not actually touching the sensor, it’s actually the low-pass filter in front of the sensor, if that’s what’s worrying you.

[logicsurrenders]

http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/ has a decent write up on doing the actual cleaning. As long as you’re careful you run very little risk of damaging the camera itself.

Personally, I use Eclipse and sensor swabs and have had good success.

[corsec67]

I found a heap of dust recently on my sensor, here is what I did:

1) Grabbed my bulb air blower.
2) Put a fresh battery in my camera, took off the lens and set the mirror lockup function on.
3) Held the camera so the lens opening was facing the floor and sat there gently pumping air onto the sensor (and around it in case any dirt was sitting on the edge) for about 30 seconds.

That seems to have done the job.

One big note:
Don’t use the mirror lock-up if you can avoid it. Using the special “sensor cleaning” mode is much better, because the sensor isn’t energized at all. Some dust can be stuck to the sensor with static electricity, and having the sensor energized means that they are going to be sticking a little bit harder.

I had to wipe my sensor with a sensor wipe once, that isn’t too bad if you know what you are doing.

Most of the time, I just need to set the sensor cleaning mode and use my Giottos rocket blower a bit.

[U-Man]

Thanks for all of the comments. I went to the camera store today and, as usual, spent more than I intended to. I am now the proud owner of a Hurricane blower to augment my wimpy brush blower. I also got some VisibleDust sensor swabs and cleaning solution.

After brushing and blowing and brushing and blowing the inside of my camera with and without the sensor clean mode activated, I still had some specks and one smear on the low-pass filter. I then used the sensor swab and solution. Mama Mia its-a clean-a! It was easy and I’m happy with the result.

Here’s the yucky gray sky outside right now….without specks.

http://photos.imageevent.com/ulle17/fark/Sensor-dust.jpg

[Curious]

i really need to do a test shot occasionally to see if mine needs cleaning. a really good shot which i had blown up to 20×30 has a spot that only i see but it bothers the heck out of me.

[Author]

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