Never been so nervious in my life!

GraphyFotoz

Well I got up the chahuna's to clean my sensor today!
Talk about being nervious.....gezzz!:rolleyes

As you can see in the 1st shot it was really dusted up!!!! YIKES!!
Yes Andy I went with the CopperHill kit and method.....1st a good blast with the rocket blaster.

The results were good enough to call it good for me!
Didn't wanna tempt fate!:thumb
Not bad for a very nervous rookie!:giggle

Did I mention I was NERVOUS AS HELL??:rolleyes

Before




After
(Ignore the paragraph thing with the red arrow...used MS Word as a white BG for test shot)

Bob Bell

Not a bad job at all. Good Work.

My sensor is almost as bad as yours I need to get around to mine this week.

I found out recently that a lot of junk on the sensor is from the wear and tear on body and lens caps. Be sure to use your rocket blower on them when you get a chance.

GraphyFotoz

Bob Bell wrote:

Not a bad job at all. Good Work.

My sensor is almost as bad as yours I need to get around to mine this week.

I found out recently that a lot of junk on the sensor is from the wear and tear on body and lens caps. Be sure to use your rocket blower on them when you get a chance.

Yup I gotta get to all my glass next day or so.
Hope I don't hafta do that sensor bit very often....eshhh.:D
Supposed to get up around 50°F by this weekend.
If I can dodge the rain!

Bob Bell

GraphyFotoz wrote:

Yup I gotta get to all my glass next day or so.
Hope I don't hafta do that sensor bit very often....eshhh.:D
Supposed to get up around 50°F by this weekend.
If I can dodge the rain!

Depending on how much I shoot and if Im shooting mostly on locations, I end up cleaning my sensor at least once a month. AZ is dusty. I would image in NY you probably only have to deal with it every few months.

pathfinder

I try to not swap lenses in the field, when shooting birds, as there frequently are dusty gravel roads for access.

I wonder if some of the grunge comes from the camera itself - either from the shutter assembly ( are they cloth or metal these days??) or the cushions for the bouncing mirror.

I know trombone zooms tend to agravate the situation more than simple primes, as primes don't act as a bellows like some zooms.

The fasted I have ever seen m sensors get dirty was shooting airplanes with a1DMkll at an airshow where it was very hot and then rained and was humid and muggy. I did not change the lens, but by the end of the day my sensor looked like a gravel road.

GraphyFotoz

I was just amazed it went so well!
I guess judging by the results I did ok?
Yeah it does tend to be a bit dusty in these parts as well.
The Copperhill kit/method does work...if I can do it any numbskull can do it!

I live right next to a well traveled road so......
Dust is definately not a photographers friend!!

Scott_Quier

Yeah, you got off easy!

GraphyFotoz wrote:

I was just amazed it went so well!
I guess judging by the results I did ok?
Yeah it does tend to be a bit dusty in these parts as well.
The Copperhill kit/method does work...if I can do it any numbskull can do it!

I live right next to a well traveled road so......
Dust is definately not a photographers friend!!

You had it really easy. All you had to do was blow on it a bit. Tried that and got no satisfaction.

If you look here you'll get some idea of from where I started and some of the trials I went through to clean my sensor. I swear some of the grit on my sensor was glued on with bubble gum!

But, in the end, all was good enough for me.

GraphyFotoz

Scott_Quier wrote:

You had it really easy. All you had to do was blow on it a bit. Tried that and got no satisfaction.

If you look here you'll get some idea of from where I started and some of the trials I went through to clean my sensor. I swear some of the grit on my sensor was glued on with bubble gum!

But, in the end, all was good enough for me.

No no you misunderstand.
I blew it first with my Rocket Blaster THEN I used the Eclipse optic cleaner on a Copperhill sensor swab draped with a Pecpad.
I wish a good blast with the Rocket woulda done it but no such luck.

graeme_7799

hey, how did you perform the test to see the dust on your sensor? Do I need to use a macro lens or something? I'm interested in checking mine out too

Bob Bell

The way I do it is fine a white wall or an all blue sky and go to F16 or F22 and take an image. Use any lens you want, some of them cap at F16 or 22, so use one that will go slower so you can use 22 but for the most part any canon lens will work

GraphyFotoz

graeme_7799 wrote:

hey, how did you perform the test to see the dust on your sensor? Do I need to use a macro lens or something? I'm interested in checking mine out too

My Sigma 28-70mm opemed to f32 aimed at my Monitor opened to a blank page in MS Word.

graeme_7799

does the lens have to be focussed on the wall/paper? or should the image be out of focus?

GraphyFotoz

graeme_7799 wrote:

does the lens have to be focussed on the wall/paper? or should the image be out of focus?

Dunno if it matters but I had it focused.

pathfinder

The usual method is to focus on a grey overcast sky at infinity, and stop the f stop down to f16 or f22 or so. I'm not sure if infinity or near really makes much difference, but I think the preferrred method is at infinity - the light rays will be more parallel when shooting at infinity rather than at near targets where the light is diverging more, and must be more converged to focus by the camera lens.

The dust motes will not be visible if shot at wide aperatures. Then, when the image, ( frame) is in PS, do an Auto Adjust on Levels to make them really pop out.

Then, blow or brush or swab in that order, as needed.

Be sure to read the threads about sensor cleaning before attempting this.

It is not hard and not to be feared IF you know what you are doing. But it is not a place you want to wander in if you do not KNOW what you are about.

Make sure your camera battery is fully charged. You do not want your battery to lose its juice whlile swabbing or your swab will be busy removing your shutter blades on a permanent basis.

Scott_Quier

You're looking for dust on the sensor

graeme_7799 wrote:

does the lens have to be focussed on the wall/paper? or should the image be out of focus?

Here's something to think about.

• Everything in this post is driven by the fact that you are looking for the dust on your sensor and nothing else.
• The lens should be focused at infinitiy and aimed at something very bright. The brightness helps to overcome the fact that you are stopping the lens down. Graphy's "after" image shows a good example of why I would want to blur everything - it would be very easy for me to mis-read an imperfection/mark/darkness in the objective scene as a dust bunny and end up swabbing the sensor when it wasn't necessary.
• Aim the lens at your bright object (computer screen, white wall, etc). Get close. As you trip the shutter, move the camera (this to further blur anything in your objective scene).

I don't understand why the lens needs to be stopped down, but I tried it wide open and my sensor looked clean. I stopped it down and there were all sorts of dust bunnies on the sensor.