Digital Camera Imaging/Sensor Cleaning

[John Little]

Well, I could not help myself.

I looked at the price of the D80 and the D200, without realizing that the store had not updated it's prices in the display for the D200.

With the price reduction, it was a no-brainer. So when my D50 gets back, it will become my back-up camera, and I have promoted the D200 for day to day use.

After I get some time with it under my belt, I will report back. I have posted about 20 pictures that I have taken during the week on my lunch break at KAPA.

These are settings that I took from an online recommendation, but I am going to adjust them back to some defaults because the pictures with the online settings are way to washed out for my taste, and would need some real work in Photoshop (thats my next purchase).

I just don't shoot NEF or RAW, because JPG really turns out just fine for my purposes.

Is there anyone else shooting RAW ?

[Guy Pambrun]

Using a Canon 100 - 400mm IS lens on my 30D is an ideal piece of equipment for photographing aircraft with one exception. Because the lens has a push / pull system for zooming it tends to suck a lot of dust into the camera and place it on the sensor. I have to clean it quite often and have purchased the " Arctic Butterfly " cleaning brush along with " VisibleDust Sensor Cleaning Swabs " & " Smear Away " fluid. ( http://www.visibledust.com ) If a person follows the instructions to a tee they should obtain next to professional results. Granted the entire package added up to quite a bit of cash( about $180 Cdn ) but in the long run it has saved me time, money and the frusteration of sending my camera away. There is an alternative in my area and that would be to take it to a service shop but at $50 a cleaning I thought it best to do myself. It's a decision I don't regret.

The following link is a " must read " imo if one decides to use a brush of any sort. If you follow the steps he points out it will save you a lot of frustration. The link will also provide great reading on the entire subject.

http://www.prime-junta.net/pont/How_to/a_Brush_Your_Sensor/a_Brush_Your_Sensor.html?page=4

I hope I've been of some assistance.

[John Little]

That may be the difference, is the use of the brush type cleaners as opposed to the use of the "kits" that rely on the liquids and thin layers of cleaning clothes that are sold.

I got the D50 back and the folks I sent it to did a great job, and at only 65.00 to have it done, I am not going to complain.

I have now sent in the D200 for cleaning (only 5 weeks old), and what I noticed was that right out of the box, the sensor had a great deal more dust than the D50 had out of the box. The 70-300 VR had never been off the D200 body since it was purchased, I keow that field and randon dust had not gotten into the camera due to use.

The store I purchased the D200 from (as well as the D50) told me that there had been a greater number of D200's coming back in for cleaning in a shorter period of time in comparison to other cameras. There was no reasonable explanation from them, but I did not really expect they would have one

I did try and clean the sensor with the kit I had, but I did not get much more sataisfaction than I found while trying to clean the D50.

But being able to swap the bodies during the cleaning cycles really takes the urgency out of the situation.

I am not opposed to trying the alternative cleaning products and processes, but the article you cited made one thing clear, and that may be the issue to watch for......the brushes have to be absolutely clean and free of any contamination, and short of the "clean room" that might be a tough one to guarantee.

I appreciate your ideas though, and maybe at some point the digital camera people will be able to devise a way to create either an anti-static barrier in the camera body itself, or even make it possible to remove the sensor and cover so that you can easily clean it without being concerned about the other internals of the camera.

[Guy Pambrun]

Hi John....
As annoying as it is it's not uncommon to see dust on a new out of the box camera. When you start using it and even if you don't change lenses dust will get in. Don't ask me how it just does. Now keep in mind that a speck to small to see will show itself and appear to look monstrous. If you think your sensor is clean try this trick. Take a picture of a very blue sky... no clouds allowed. Then open the picture up in a photo editor of your choice and convert the picture to " greyscale "... your in for a big surprise.


Regarding the clean brush issue. I concur it has to be squeaky clean and that's why I posted the link to a site that tells you how to make sure it is. My experience with my $100.00 brush was that " someone " other than myself had his mitts on it while it was in the store and it streaked my sensor the first time I used it. It left a noticeable smear on the sensor hence my need to find a site advising how to clean it. The author mentioned he had to wash his 4 times so I guess I got lucky doing it 3. I wasn't happy having to try and clean my unit and carefully read as much as I could on the subject. After doing so I went at it and in the end the process wasn't scary at all. If you're smart enough to use a camera I would venture a guess that the cleaning won't be a problem. Just take it slow and follow the instructions with what ever you use. btw, besides the brush and because of the streak it caused I ended up buying the fluid and applicator to make sure all was well. That worked like a charm. Since buying my cleaning stuff I have probably used it at least 6 times, maybe more. If I do the math that's over $300 including tax so it's paid for itself more than once.

One more note and it's more of a guess. I'm sure the pro shops don't want anyone to know how easy it is to do it yourself. It takes only minutes and has to be a big cash cow to them.

[John Little]

Hi G.

You brought up one thing that I had not thought of.....I have been checking the level of dust on the imager by taking a picture using the 55mm lens distance against a photographically correct gray scale 22"x34" scim sheet.

I like your idea better, and am going to run through some pictures I have of the sky scene and then convert it to Gray scale......thanks for the great tip.

I will follow your link and see if I can get my hands on these brushes. Your probably right, imager cleaning is a real cash cow for these stores, and it wouldn't be long before I would burn up the same amount of money sending the camera out.

[Guy Pambrun]

Just a suggestion John but you might want to consider taking a new shot of the sky as you just received your camera back from the shop not long ago. The nice thing about digital is it doesn't cost any money.

[John Little]

Hi Guy,

I did that yesterday, early before the clouds rolled in, and then converted it in the NX software.

I found only one small spot on the sensor, and I could only see it with the magnification set to 100%, so they did a really decent job on the cleaning.

I will also do the same thing on the D200 when it comes back.

Once again, an ecellent suggestion (beats the daylight out of fighting the gray card).

John

[Dean Heald]

To check for dust spots on my Canon 30D & 20D, I set the aperture to something very small, like f/32. Then I take a picture of my computer monitor with a blank white background (empty Word document). Don't worry about what lens you use or focus. I then transfer the picture to my computer and equalize the image in Photoshop. You will see all the dust spots. I then blow out the camera sensor area with a Rocket blower or similar device. Check again using the above procedure, and then use Sensor Swipes with Eclipse cleaning fluid. The Sensor Swipes come in specific widths for your particular camera. I only use the swipes & Eclipse when the dust spots are stubborn. Other times, I use an Arctic Butterfly or similar Visible Dust brush to do routine cleaning.

Dean

[KenJr]

Take the time and look at this site. It was sent to me by a friend who is a professional aviation phographer. I will be attempting the same cleaning this week.

http://www.copperhillimages.com/index.php?pr=tutorials