So I got my new MP-E 65

Candid Arts

...HOW DO YOU KEEP DUST OFF YOUR SENSOR!!!???

I always change lenses very quickly, and keep the body facing down, or I'll put it up against my stomach or shirt.

Yet when I took some first shots with my new lens...DUST!!!

SO, aside from the standard keeping dust off your sensor techniques, how do you keep dust off your sensor?!

Anyways...sample pic (not much visible dust in this photo)



But there is more dust in this photo...:-/

Lord Vetinari

Congrats on the lens anyway
Don't think the MPE-65 introduces dust- it's just rather good at showing dust on the sensor.
When changing a lens I always have the new lens with the cap loosened, take the lens off the camera slowly with the body facing down. Place the old lens next to the new lens- swap end caps on the lenses and slowly bring the new lens upto the camera body. I wouldn't ever put the camera body against something when doing this esp yourself or a shirt - just keep it facing downwards. What you are trying to avoid is created any air movement and keeping the camera opening away from any likely sources of dust.
This is the sort of procedure I learnt as a PhD microbiologist to do sterile transfers.

Brian V.

Candid Arts

Thanks Brian. Very helpful.

So do these sensors actually attract dust or is it just a matter of dust falling on them?

craig_d

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Don't think the MPE-65 introduces dust- it's just rather good at showing dust on the sensor.

I don't (yet) have an MP-E 65, but I'm curious about this notion that one lens can make dust more obvious than another. It seems to me that if the lens is just placing an image on (and around) the sensor, the visibility of dust would have nothing to do with the lens per se, though dust presumably would be more visible on bright images with smooth textures (such as a clear daytime sky). Isn't it more likely that dust in MP-E 65 images would be on the lens's front element, made more visible by the MP-E 65's incredibly short focus distances? I suppose if you've made the dust in the images go away by cleaning the sensor (but NOT cleaning the lens at the same time) then that would shoot my idea down.

So far the sensor-cleaning capabilities of the XSi and the 5D2 have kept dust out of my DSLR pictures, but as I said, I don't (yet) have an MP-E 65.

Lord Vetinari

AFAIK the sensor does develop a charge when in use which does attract dust.
Craig - it's all to do with apparent apertures making the sensor dirt show more plus in general as you start magnifying things you are much more likely to have single colour backgrounds so the sensor dust shows more easily.

The aperture effect is caused by the the light becoming more directional and thus causing a sharper shadow from the dust as the aperture becomes smaller. The effective aperture of an mpe-65 lens at f11 at 5X magnification is F66.
Just try taking an OOF picture of the sky at F32 with a normal lens and you will get the idea.

Brian v

GOLDENORFE

congrats on new lens.
dont think i have ever seen that amount of sensor dust ever!

i only get the odd spot every now and then. you do turn camera off before changing lenses dont you?
phil

Candid Arts

GOLDENORFE wrote:

congrats on new lens.
dont think i have ever seen that amount of sensor dust ever!

i only get the odd spot every now and then. you do turn camera off before changing lenses dont you?
phil

It's a lot right! And I just had it cleaned in April...

I usually turn the camera off when I change lenses, but not all the time. Sometimes I just don't have time, just gotta change the lens. Apparently it makes THAT much of a difference though?

paddler4

Candidarts--

I may be off base here, but have you tried cleaning the front of the lens? I am only up to about 2:1, but when I got past 1:1, I suddenly started getting spots like these. I cleaned the filter on the front of the lens, and most of them vanished. My assumption is that the closeness of the front of the lens to the focal plane allows the dust to be apparent. However, I was unaware of the aperture effect that Brian mentions, and I did not keep the test shots, so I can't be certain that they were shot at a narrow aperture. Worth a try, anyway.

Dan