Monday, October 22, 2007

Dust On the DSLR Sensor

Sugar maple leaf, red and fallen, in a patch of sun

I had a little camera excitement the other day. I took some fall foliage pictures, and it became painfully obvious that I had dust on my camera's sensor cover. I have a Nikon digital SLR, (mostly because I've used SLR's happily for 40 years, and couldn't figure out how to operate a point-and-shoot camera), and I change between a macro and a telephoto lens often. You are supposed to change lenses in a dust-free environment, but I don't have one of those, so dust in the camera was inevitable.

As it happens, I was able to blow the large chunk of dust away with a Nikon-recommended blower-bulb, so most of my Web-reading has been for future reference. I didn't have to decide what sort of expensive or inexpensive equipment I need to buy, but now I know what's out there, and what other people do. Here is my collection of sensor-cleaning links.

3 comments:

Rick Lee said...

Most pros use Sensor Swabs along with the Eclipse solution... both made by the "Photographic Solutions" company. I also keep a "Spec Grabber" around for those times when I just have one or two bad spots. To see all your dust, aim your camera at a blank wall (preferably out of focus) and take a photo at f22. It's amazing what you'll see. It's quite difficult to get it really, really clean. The swabs are expensive and it often takes 3 or 4 per cleaning, but I only it do it every 2 or 3 months.

Rebecca Clayton said...

Thanks, Rick! I was hoping for your advice!

Crazy Cat Lady said...

Thanks for the links! I just happened upon your blog and am glad to find advice on how to clean my camera. I have a HUGE dust spot (more like a dust blob) on my DSLR and I tried gently swiping the mirror, but that didn't work. I'll definitely look into the sites you provided. Thanks again, fellow WV'ian!