Dirty Sensor?

[mreul]

When i look in my view finder i see some tini ini dust particals and i just got

my 5d tuesday. Although today i assisted a commercial photog who wanted to use

my cam because he's going to switch his nikon gear to canon in a couple of

months. It was fairly windy and dusty on the shoot...and then i noticed my new

(baby) camera has some particals in the veiw finder and noticed that if i'm

shooting at say f22 i can see a tini spot in the same place on every pic....so

does this mean my sensor is dirty?

[mark_parker2]

The dust you see through the view finder are definately NOT on the sensor. Probably on the focusing screen. Not necessary to remove the particles unlsess they are bothering you.

 

The spots you see in the photographs ARE definately on the sensor. I'd use a bulb blower to try to get it off the sensor. You probably wont see the speck except at narrow aperture in a sky.

 

I clean my own sensors with ethanol and pec pads. But I could not recommend that to anyone who is not VERY technically inclined. One little slip and your sensor is toast.

[mreul]

how do they get on the focusing screen? how would one remove them? there are like six little dust particals....and it bothers me some...thanks...

[savagesax]

Could also be dead pixels, but we need to see a pic to be sure.

[mreul]

the stuff i'm picking up on my pic is so miniscule that i don't even think i could point it out to you but ofcourse my eye notices...i don't think it would be a dead pixel as it looks so tiny ini like a small grey dust speck....i mean it's small....and you can only see it at f22....

[mreul]

here are 2 pics - i left the shutter open and just painted w/ light - this is the best way to see what i'm talking about - it's on the mid right side of the pic...little black spot...<div></div>

[mreul]

i'll try this again - sorry...<div></div>

[savagesax]

Looks like dust. A pixel is a different shape.

[mreul]

omg - one more time - sorry i'm using lightroom i just got...<div></div>

[mreul]

so if it is dust what would you do? try to clean the sensor as mentioned above...w/ a bulb blower? I've tried doing this...but know i need to be more than extremly careful...??

[ben_rubinstein___mancheste1664880652]

Unless you shoot at f22 I wouldn't bother, one of my 5D's has a lot of dust on it, 4 months of shooting and changing lenses a lot but at f5.6 it's invisible and I never stop down more than that..

[robbie_caswell]

I'm getting the same thing. I've tried like hell to blow the thing away, but to no avail. Doesn't show up except at smallest apetures.

 

Also, at ISO 3200 I get some dead (hot?) pixels

[pete_s.]

Looks like dust to me too. Try shooting a white paper or the sky and it should be more visible. I wouldn't worry about dust visible in viewfinder if it's not visible in the image.

 

I also clean with pec pads and ethanol as I've seen the Nikon techs do it just like that - not for the faint of heart though.

[steve_levine]

What does one do if they discover dust on their sensor, after they've shot a 1000 frame wedding? Can this be bulk removed somehow? Or would each frame need cloning tool work? Just curious.

[ni_gentry]

Almost everyone has dust on their sensor, but in most shots it doesn't really show up.

Mostly in areas like skies or if it happens to land on someone's face, and also if you are

shooting at smaller apertures it's more obvious. <p>

Whether or not to clean your sensor depends on how bothersome it is in your shots and

how technically inclined you are.<p>

The blower thing didn't work for me at all. It just blew the dust to other spots and

sometimes made it worse. <p>

I've used the Arctic Butterfly from Visible Dust, which is a little expensive for just a staticly

charged brush, but it works well when you need it. Of course, I've only felt the need to

clean each of my camera sensors once or twice in the last year.

<p>

[ni_gentry]

Steve, <p>

You can Batch remove dust spots in Lightroom (probably other programs also). <p>

In Lightroom 1.0, there's a spot/clone tool that you can use to remove the dust spots from

one image, and then assuming the dust spot(s) will be in the same location for every frame,

you can just "copy" those "develop" settings to all the other images that need it.<p>

Just one more great feature of Lightroom.

[wedding-photography-denver]

As Ni says you can now map where the dust is and the software will do the rest.

 

OTOH, I use a pecpad and sensor swipe (aka rubbermaid spatula) with a couple drops of eclipse and after about 3 tries or so, all is well.

 

I rarely shoot at above f11 for weddings anyhow, so that simply doesn't appear much. The charged brushes are junk IMO. Tried them all pretty much and they only get the dust that's not 'stuck'.

 

Best, D.

[armando_rodrigues]

If it bothers you that much (it would bother the heck out of me), bring it to a canon dealer and (for a price) they'll clean it. I bet you know this, but just in case, don't change lenses with the camera on. With the camera turned on, the sensor is a magnet for dust.

[picturesque]

The 5D has a reputation for attracting dust in the viewfinder. There is a way of flipping the viewfinder screen down so you can maybe gently blow dust out with a blower. Maybe do a search and you'll run across some instructions. Otherwise, as others said, it affects nothing except your feelings about the camera.

 

About the sensor cleaning... I tried different things when I got my 20D, and found out several things. It might depend on where you live, and the kind of shoots, how much sticky dirt you get on the sensor. Some people seem to get by without any sensor cleaning beyond the blower--others can't. It might depend on the manufacturing process, how much dust/oil comes with the camera. You might have to go through an intial period where you need to clean a lot, then it'll settle down and you don't need to clean very often. Different people like different cleaning methods, and feel differently about sensor dirt. Some people can't stand knowing the dirt is there--others just leave it alone. Whatever you do, approach sensor cleaning with great care--don't become obsessed with a spotless sensor. I tried different methods, including a sensor brush and have settled on the blower as per the manual, a SpecGrabber, and a LensPen (they now have a product meant for sensor cleaning). I avoid touching the sensor at all, and have never performed a wet cleaning.

 

I notice that on my 20D, sensor dust does not show up until f11. On the 5D, bigger dust does show up at f5.6, smaller at f8 and smaller. One of the first shoots I did with the 5D, I had to clone out a couple of specs and a piece of lint off many files.

[mreul]

thanks so much everyone...i love this forum...i learn a lot! for now it's not that big a deal and i love my camera!

[william_gressler]

If you see the dust in the view finder, it is not sensor dust. If you see it in the image, then you have sensor dust. There is another way to clean up your images that you have already taken. Look at SensorKleen from www.imagetrendsinc.com. They have an interesting tool that removes the shadow of the dust from the image. Current product is manual - you have to point to the dust and brush over it. The next product will be fully automatic so you can use it on an entire set of images with a dusty sensor. It worked for me!