Canon Sensor Dust Cleaning / Reduction System Feeback

[dhauschild]

I have read many experts on the topic of dust on camera sensors, and like many of you I want to know if the ultrasonic shaking and sticky tape decrease sensor dust load or just redistributes it about the inside of your camera. First let me tell you about dust from a surgical scrub nurses standpoint, after all you wouldn?t want to be operated on with dusty instruments. Dust is a generic term for particulate matter suspended in the ambient air. This matter can be dry, thus it should be able to be removed with a lens blower, but not a can of cold gas which can convert dry dust to something much stickier. You will also find damp or wet particles suspended in the air, if these contact your equipment you can forget the blower. Micro water droplets, pollen, oil vapors, and other particles can glue themselves to a lens or sensor and be very difficult to remove, they can also grow due to ionic attraction. So in the hospital the main antidust mechanism is to limit exposure to the air. In other words do not change lenses outside unless you have to, do not run the shower to create steam to decrease dust in the room prior to lens changing unless you want to glue the dust to your sensor, have your next lens blown off and ready to mount and rapidly exchange lenses. I keep my camera face down while changing lenses to decrease outside dust from settling in the camera and I never lay the camera on its back. I use a Canon 30D and my dust prevention plan has kept the sensor surprisingly clean. Second, If you believe that dust can be sucked through a lens and deposited in a camera, then you need to re-educate yourself on modern lens construction and design. This is practically impossible to do. Yes you can suck dust into a poorly sealed, fast moving zoom lens, but that is where the dust will stay. My personal dust plan is to remove visible, bothersome dust with a blower, if it does not blow off, and if it is a serious issue, then, I will let an authorized canon tech clean it. If better do it yourself, sensor cleaning kits arrive I may change my plan. I also keep a clear plastic bag over my camera while it sets on the tripod to decrease dust from settling on the camera body when not in use. Hope this helps.

[beauh44]

Hi Rick, If you haven't already, check out: http://www.visibledust.com/ They offer both dry and wet sensor cleaning products. Not cheap, but then again, neither is your camera! And IMHO it beats sending my camera off to Canon making it so I do without for a week or more. At which time, both Elvis and Bigfoot would appear at my door disguised as vaccum cleaner salesmen. ;-)

[frank_dzambic]

Personally I don't need or really want an anti-dust feature in my camera. As has already been mentioned, depending on the design and implementation, it could just be something else that can break. I'd rather spend my money on ECF or DEP mode.

 

I've always used the Visible Dust brushes as needed. Sometimes once a day, sometimes once a month. They're outrageously expensive, but they get the job done.

 

Here's my sensor after a Visible Dust sweep.

[frank_dzambic]

I guess I should have captioned it. Note I also applied some massive sharpening and added a ton of contrast so that if ANYTHING was there it would show up.<div></div>

[J.W. Wall]

What Mendel said about Pec Pads and Eclipse fluid. Works for me (in Az).

[fanta]

Rick, my take on 1) and 2).

 

I have been using a digital Rebel XT (350D) almost since it became available in US. When traveling I do change lens quite often, say 10 or more times a day. I had to clean dust approx once every 1 or 2 weeks of intense usage of the camera in rough conditions.

 

Consider that some dust may not show up until you close the diaphragm enough, and I don't usually close beyond f/11 or f/14 with that camera, to limit diffraction. So I clean dust only when it shows at f/11. Also I found that taking the camera around, on a car, etc., shakes out dust from the sensor most of the time without need to clean it.

 

To check out dust while traveling I close the diaphragm to f/11, focus to infinity and take a picture of a blue sky, or just a piece of white paper, anything featureless. Then review the picture on the LCD zooming and panning. I do it once a day unless I forget.

 

My concern about dust is that:

 

a) if you don't spot it, then fixing it with Photoshop on tens or hundreds of pictures is a drag (I used to do it when scanning slides);

 

b) when you need to clean, you need to be careful; with the right tools it is not a big deal, but you do want to be careful and focused.

 

As a beginner I believe you can absolutely cope with dust, as many more already did before you. However, I would value the 400D functionality for "self-cleaning", for peace of mind and simplicity. Actually if that was combined with a decent viewfinder (larger than it is), I would upgrade to the 400D. The 2 extra megapixels don't mean much to me.

 

Good luck.

[glenn nk]

I'd like to offer one more piece of information about zoom lenses:

 

My zoom is weather sealed, and from all reports, one of the best sealed lenses (Canon 24 - 105L).

 

The rear element moves in and out during zooming (about 25 mm, and it's diameter is about 30 mm).

 

When the rear element moves away from the mirror box, the volume of the air behind the lens increases, which means that some air has to come into the camera from somewhere, otherwise a vacuum would result, and the force required to create a vacuum is enourmous.

 

The rear element of the lens acts as an air pump. From the point of view of fluid mechanics, it's simply unavoidable. Air must enter either the lens or the camera body. In the case of a weather sealed lens, the tendency would be for the air to enter the body.

[rixhobbbies]

More great stuff. I like my 400D, don't get me wrong. It takes great pictures. What I liked better about the 30D is the fit in my hands, the position of it's controls, the second dial, the larger and brighter viewfinder, the extra weight feels better with the heavier lenses (balance) and the build quality (though I don't believe it's sealed).

 

To give you an idea of how much the dust issue can sway a new DSLR buyer, the dust cleaning feature of the 400D outweighed all of those other features. Now, in retrospect, I realize that I made a less an ideal choice. I suppose if the 40D comes out (assuming that it's name) with the features of the 30D, 10 MP and an anti-dust feature, that would make for the ideal camera. What's hard to resist is the rebates on the 30D right now, especially since I've bought a lens too making the rebates double.

 

Anyway, I think I am going to look into the Artic Butterfly. If a blower bulb doesn't work, I'll use that. If I stop getting good results from that, I'll either look into a wet cleaning method or if the sensor only gets THAT dirty once a year or two, then I'll send it to Canon for cleaning.

 

Thanks everyone for chiming in!

 

Regards,

 

Rick

[rixhobbbies]

Well, I went outside and used the clear blue sky to test for dust on my XTi. I definately found some. There were 4 shadows on the image clearly visible at f22. At f16 all but one faded quite a bit. At f11 only one was visible.

 

Now, I removed the lens, put the camera into manual cleaning mode, and using the picture on my computer monitor as a map, I used a blower bulb on those areas while holding the camera with the lens side facing down.

 

I turned off the camera, replaced the lens, and went out side and took some more pictures. I check the results and the one spot that was most prominent was gone. The others remained, though no new dust spots appeared. I repeated the process, this time using more force on the bulb blower.

 

I repeated the test shots and I still saw two dust spots, but they were in different places. I think turned the camera off and on a few times to let the cleaning mechanism work and then retested.

 

Believe it or not, it's pretty much dust free after that last step. I can barely see something here and there at f22 and f18 but below that, it's crystal clear. I'm guessing those are probably the smallest of the particles and perhaps don't have enough mass to be disturbed by the cleaning mechanism's motions. Just a guess, though.

 

The point is, that it seems (at least using this first test) that using a bulb to dislodge the dust then following it up with the cleaning mechanism did the trick. At least this tells me that the cleaning mechanism *IS* actually doing something!

 

I may get the Artic Butterfly should I run into stubborn dust in the future, but so far so good. Also, I think I remember Canon stating they used special materials inside the 400D to reduce dust from camera wear, plus the anti-static coating on the filter may help too.

 

Does anyone know if the 30D or the 5D has an anti-static treatment on their sensor filters as well, or is it just the 400D?

 

Cheers!

 

Rick

[glenn nk]

Rick:

 

You are getting the hang of things very quickly - congratulations.

 

To date, the only Canon that has dust cleaning is the 400D.

 

But I would suspect that others will be coming out soon.

 

These Japanese camera companies (I've been using them since 1962) really do their research, and I'm sure they've found that the system is beneficial. It isn't my personal choice, as I'd rather have fewer gizmos than more gizmos to break down. That's funny isn't it, because I'm an IS fan!

[boardhead_head]

This article might answer some questions (or raise some more...):

 

http://pixinfo.com/en/articles/ccd-dust-removal/

[mphoto gallery]

I have a new 40D. 250 pic's. Dust on my sensor. I am VERY careful about lens changes but when you are in the field and need to change the lens, you change the lens. The cleaning feature has done nothing to keep the dust off the sensor in my experience and probably won't in the future either.

 

I can also confirm from personal experience that you can scratch the sensor cover very easily. I used a bulb blower and cleaned out my 10D and then used a sensor swab. There was a piece of crud on the swab and that was it. At least now I have a 10D to practice on.....