concern about dust on CCD and interchangable lenses?

[diana_hellman]

Hi. I'm about 99% sure that I will buy the D70s as my first foray into

the DSLR world, but I have a question about the interchangable lenses.

My dad, a 1-yr D70 owner, recommended to just stick with the kit lens

(18-70 mm) and don't bother getting the 55-200 mm lens that B&H sells

as a special kit. His logic was that he worries about getting dust on

the CCD because usually you change lenses out in the field, and here

in the desert it's mighty dusty. I was looking for guidance/other

opinions--please provide your thoughts!

 

Thanks in advance!

[erickpro]

I do not think you should be worried about changing a lens. I mean, why do you buy an SLR if you do not plan on changing lenses? I guess only because if gives you better quality prints than point and shoot smaller sensors. But, do you really need an SLR ?

 

In the desert? could you not just change the lens inside a plastic transparent bag? If you do get dust inside, it is not very difficult to clean it as long as you really take good care of what you do and avoid touching the sensor, just use air and vacuum around.

[bphotos]

CCD dust happens everwhere. You need to have a plan for cleaning it. I use swabs but I'm hearing good things about the brushes from Canada.

 

Don't let dust make your lens decision for you. Pick the lens that works best for the type of shooting you want to do. Don't let dust stop you from changing a lens when it's needed for the shot.

 

I have a 28-70 2.8 that is my main multifunction lens. With the multiplier it's about 35-100. That works well for most stuff. I assume that 55-200 is slower than the 18-70 and for real life faster is better. A slower 55-200 (70-300 with multiplier) will be a limited use lens but if your main thing is daylight sports it could be your best choice.

 

Remember that you need enough light to give you 1/xxx speed where xxx is the lenght of the lens to prevent blur. At full extension you'd need 1/300 at least to get any sharpness at all. A low end zoom most likely won't give you its best sharpness wide open so calculate your light requirements based on the f-stop you'll need to get sharp shots.

 

All this said I go back to the start. Don't let dust make your lens decision. You will have mulitple lens and you will need to swap them. Choose your first lens based on your need.....rb

[roger mitchell]

As others have said, choose your lenses according to what you want to photograph and don't be overly concerned about dust. I just came back from a shoot with my over 1 year-old D70 and I was changing between 3 lenses frequently (10-15 times/day). Yes, some dust got in but 99+% can be easily removed by careful use of an air blower like the Giotto's Rocket (B&H, less than $10). After about 16 months, I finally cleaned my sensor with a Sensor-swab and Eclipse fluid - easily - and I'm good to go. You'll adapt; buy the lenses you really want and don't be afraid to change them.

[ShunCheung]

Diana, it is just like you need to do your laundry once a week or two. Cleaning sensors is simply part of digital SLR photography and isn't a big deal.

[ilkka_nissila]

How many times have you guys cleaned a sensor? I haven't done it yet after a 15 months with a D70, and probably about 13000 exposures. Am I blind? :-)

[jay_blocksom]

<BLOCKQUOTE><I><B>Diana Hellman, jul 05, 2005; 09:55 p.m.</B>

<br>

Hi. I'm about 99% sure that I will buy the D70s as my first foray into the DSLR world, but I have a question about the interchangable lenses. My dad, a 1-yr D70 owner, recommended to just stick with the kit lens (18-70 mm) and don't bother getting the 55-200 mm lens that B&H sells as a special kit. His logic was that he worries about getting dust on the CCD because usually you change lenses out in the field, and here in the desert it's mighty dusty. I was looking for guidance/other opinions--please provide your thoughts!

 

Thanks in advance!

</I></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

Your Dad has a point, but he's letting it become the tail that wags the dog.

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About a year ago, I was in almost exactly your position -- I'd made the decision to "bite the bullet" and jump into the Nikon system with the D70 as a digital replacement for my long-loved Konica Autoreflex-series film-based system; but I was more than a little paranoid about the widely discussed dust-on sensor problem.  Now, for the first two or three months, I "made do" with just the kit lens, in part because I was still learning the camera and making decisions about what additional glass I really needed.  But starting at around Christmas-time, I started adding additional lenses to the kit -- and I haven't looked back since.  Hence, I've been regularly swapping lenses for about six months now, and sensor dust has *yet* to become a problem (tho' in fairness, it's probably about time to do a "serious" dust test; and pending the results, perhaps clean the sensor for the first time).

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In short, it's just not as much of an issue in the real world as all the hype and blather had led me to believe.

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Now OTOH, I also have not (yet) been operating under what might be called "extreme conditions"; and I *do* make a point of being careful in my lens-change technique to keep the body pointing at least somewhat downward at all times, so as to minimize the opportunity for large chunks of "stuff" to fall into the open craw of the lens mount.  But that said, I seriously doubt I really *need* to be as paranoid about this as I am.

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In your situation, where you are (apparently) routinely operating in very dusty conditions, you can also take some simple steps to minimize the problem, such as using the plastic bag technique that others have mentioned, or ducking into your car (and then waiting a minute or two to let things "settle") to change lenses.  And then there's just the "common sense" stuff -- like don't change lenses in the middle of a dust storm (for that matter, *my* gear would stay ensconced in the bag for the duration anyway).  Do use a good quality "full time" haze/UV filter on your lenses, if they're regularly subjected to a lot of dust -- better to scratch up a $20-30 filter cleaning off that guck, than a several-hundred-dollar lens.

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Which brings us to the "Bottom Line":  Sensor dust/cleaning is really no more of a "problem" than lens-dust/cleaning has always been; and in both cases, you need to use care to both minimize the accumulation, and to *properly* clean it when necessary.

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One final comment, not really related to the "dust" issue, per se:  While it's fairly obvious that you are precisely the sort of target market Nikon has aimed that new 55-200mm lens at, don't necessarily assume that it is the most appropriate or logical choice.  There still isn't much available in the way of really solid objective reviews; but based on what I've seen so far, I'm greatly UNDERwhelmed by this product.  See <A HREF="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00CiiR">THIS RECENT THREAD</A> for both my reasoning, and some possible alternatives.

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[diana_hellman]

THANK YOU everyone! These were exactly the sort of answers I was looking for--real-world experience about cleaning the CCD and actual experience about quantities of dust. I felt that my father was overreacting to the idea of dust, and I completely agree that the whole POINT of getting an SLR is to be able to exchange lenses! Otherwise I'd look at one of the other "prosumer" cameras that doesn't allow for interchangeable lenses. I agree that lens-changing technique is important, and while life is quite dusty here in the SW I will certainly be keeping a good filter around. I didn't think about changing the lens in a bag, but that's a good idea too.

 

Regarding the comments about lenses... I am specifically interested in a tele lens so that I can take shots of wildlife--action shots aren't a big deal for me, but animals certainly move quickly! Jay, thanks a LOT for the link to the other thread--I think I will definitely look at some of the other lenses out there. You're right--I'm the market that Nikon is gunning for when they introduced that lens. I have a lovely old Minolta X700 with several nice non-AF lenses, so since none of this is compatible with anything new I am stuck starting over, and I figured that the kit with the two lenses was an easy way to start up my new collection. I'll definitely be researching the lenses a lot more now.

 

Again, THANKS everyone!

[ShunCheung]

Ilkka and any DSLR owner who wants to see how much dust they have on their sensor, try to shoot a uniform blue sky or a white wall. Take a look at the image; that should give you an idea how much dust is there.

[ky2]

If you're that worried about dust on the CCD, get an Olympus.

[ilkka_nissila]

Shun, I've done that and there are a few spots, but they move from one exposure to the next, so I guess the mirror movement causes enough airflow that the dust doesn't stay in one place. If it did stay in one place, I would clean it, but for some reason I just have very rare dust spots on my images, and since the dust moves, wiping the sensor wouldn't do any good.

 

I do switch lenses very quickly.

 

I just made my case clear because a lot of people fear dust in digital SLRs and you hear stories of people in field trips having to clean the sensor every day. I just don't see the need, and my pictures come out fine.

[wilfred_wong]

Ilkka ...if dust in your camera can move.... you can simply blow them away, right?

 

I've never performed any sensor cleaning with D70 since march 2004. I just 've blow the sensor for a few times. D70 isn't as attractive to dust as D100, dust love D100 more than D70. I'm not living in a desert but in a rather dusty city...lots of sand in the air too.

 

I change lens quite frequently yet dust is never a big problem with my D70. When i change lens in the field, i always 've the 2nd lens ready... losen the rear cap, unmount the lens with the body faced down and quickly mount the 2nd lens.

 

i actually can't understand why those sensor cleaning kit sell so well.

[ilkka_nissila]

Wilfred, yes, I could but because there is so little of it, I don't bother :-)