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Help with D700 cleaning please -


hooman_b

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<p>Hi everyone,<br>

I'm not sure which I need cleaned - the sensor, mirror,? Take a look at the attachment. These spots (top left quadrant mainly), are usually only visible on the photos which have sky in them, and become much more pronounced when adding filters in post, or darkening that section up. I have clean the lens with RayVu, and it happens with 2 different lenses, so I'm pretty confident it is the body.<br>

I'm looking for any advice on this... Thanks.<br>

<img src="http://www.vesic.com/img/sample.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="532" /></p>

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<p>They look like classic specs on the sensor/AA-filter. The f/20 aperture you used will make them more apparent than larger apertures.</p>

<p>I'd suggest a search on "sensor cleaning" here or Google to get the broadest survey of techniques. Personally, I favor a static-brush (ex. Visible Dust's Sensor Brush) for most cleaning, with pads and solvent for more difficult specs (ex. "Photographic Solutions" stuff).</p>

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<blockquote>

<p><em>"... so I'm pretty confident it is the body."</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>And you would be right. Dust spots on the sensor (quite a few by the looks of it). Usually only visible in even toned areas of a photo (like sky), and become more pronounced and more visible with smaller apertures (the above was at f/20).</p>

<p>Dust spots on the reflex mirror *never* show up in your photos, and dust specks in a lens can not be rendered as sharply focused defined spots at the image plane as seen above.</p>

<p>Do a search on "sensor cleaning" and you'll come up with lots of tips.</p>

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<p>Yes, that's most certainly sensor dust. The reason why it is more pronounced at smaller apertures is because the larger depth of field causes them to be more in focus. You'll never see dust at f/2.8, for example, because the depth of field is far too shallow and the dark discs of dust will just enlarge and fade into nothing.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><em>Umm, no offense Hooman, but how in the world did you get that much dust? Are you changing lenses in a Mohave dust storm? Yikes?</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>My D40 easily showed this much dust at f/20 (or f/32, as it is a DX frame) after three-quarters of a year, and I'm not careless.</p>

<p>My advice to Hooman is to use Eclipse (E2, in your case) and Sensor Swabs. As long as you have reasonably steady hands are willing to take the time and care to read the instructions do it right, it's very easy to do and should get rid of 90% of the dust.</p>

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<p>First off try using your sensor cleaning function on your D700. Read your manual if you're not sure how to do this. Actually you can set the D700 up to do this on every start-up automatically. Next, research how to safely blow the dust off your sensor with a Gitzo rocket blower or similar. No doubt you'll still have some dust there, but you may be lucky and get away without having to swab the sensor. </p>

<p> </p>

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<p>First off try using your sensor cleaning function on your D700. Read your manual if you're not sure how to do this. Actually you can set the D700 up to do this on every start-up automatically. Next, research how to safely blow the dust off your sensor with a Gitzo rocket blower or similar. No doubt you'll still have some dust there, but you may be lucky and get away without having to swab the sensor. </p>

<p> </p>

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<p>1st step.... Lock up mirror and blow off sensor with a bulb blower like a Rocket Blaster. Shoot the sky or a plain wall, out of focus, at f/22, and see if you need to do more.</p>

<p>2nd step.... Use the sensor cleaning function on the camera. Do step 1 first so excess dust is removed from the whole mirror box area before asking the dust buzzer to do it's thing. Run the sensor cleaner in the D700 then repeat step 1. Then shoot the sky or a plain wall, out of focus, at f/22, and see if you need to do more.</p>

<p>3rd step.... A proper dry brush static cleaning using something like a Sensor Brush. Repeat step 1. Then shoot the sky or a plain wall, out of focus, at f/22, and see if you need to do more.</p>

<p>4th step.... Epp's Eclipse E2/Sensor Swab wet cleaning. Shoot the sky or a plain wall, out of focus, at f/22, and see if you need to do it again. After all this, an occasional puff with the Rocket Blaster will send most dust away.</p>

<p>5th step.... Set the D700 so the sensor cleaner function runs every time you turn on the camera.</p>

<p>6th step.... Consider f/11 or f/16 your max. Diffraction starts to kill your image above f/8 with D700-sized pixel sites, and by f/16 the image is way past the point of soft results and loss of detail.</p>

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<p>I have no idea how that much dust came on the sensor. The camera is only 8 months old and I never have removed the lens from when I originally put it on when I first got the camera. I also do use the sensor clean before every shoot as well on both my cameras, but as several mentioned, there really is no reason to make it an auto feature when you turn the camera on, so I'll set that to auto. Thanks for all the input and product recommendations!</p>
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