Digital dust....real or over done?

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Meleica

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I have been using a Canon XTi for the last 8 months...very happy with it. I have NOT checked for dust because I havent seen any visible evidence in my prints. While the XTi does have dust prevention measures, I just dont see why so many people have dust issues.... I change my fixed prime lenses frequently and carefully..... and no issues. Thoughts?

Dan
 
Meleica said:
I have been using a Canon XTi for the last 8 months...very happy with it. I have NOT checked for dust because I havent seen any visible evidence in my prints. While the XTi does have dust prevention measures, I just dont see why so many people have dust issues.... I change my fixed prime lenses frequently and carefully..... and no issues. Thoughts?

Dan
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You can generally only see sensor dust against a plain background (like sky) when stopped down to f8 or further. Wider than 5.6 you probably won't see it except in a telephoto shot. Doesn't mean it isn't there.
 
May I suggest that if you can't see it, then it *effectively* isn't there. I really don't worry about dust I can't see.

I have owned my Pentax DSLR for going on three years now. Pushing 20,000 shutter actuations. I have had little specks of guck on my sensor twice. Cleaned both times with a q-tip, being very gentle. I change lenses like a mad thing, and I shoot in all kinds of dusty and otherwise horrible conditions. I even pixel-peep my best shots to make sure they're not damaged at some small level that would show up if I printed large.

For me at least, the problem has been a bit overblown - I just don't seem to experience it.
 
Meleica said:
I have been using a Canon XTi for the last 8 months...very happy with it. I have NOT checked for dust because I havent seen any visible evidence in my prints. While the XTi does have dust prevention measures, I just dont see why so many people have dust issues.... I change my fixed prime lenses frequently and carefully..... and no issues. Thoughts?

Dan
Click to expand...

I think this issue is overblown, probably in an attempt to sell more (expensive) cleaning products. Notwithstanding which, I have bought them all. I, too, have no real problem with dust on my Nikon D200 nor on my Epson R-D1s. I did once have a large piece of lint on the sensor of my R-D1s. It really showed. I blew it off (I know you're not supposed to do that) and had no further problems. We camera nuts have enough to obsess about without having to worry about dirt on our sensors. At least it's pretty easy to clone out on digital files if you ever do get caught by it. It's not like a scratched negative which was hell.

/T
 
The problem is, you get dust when you're shooting complicated backgrounds wide open, so you don't see it so much; but then you go out on a bright day and get a nice landscape with a bit of sky in it and find half-a-dozen amoebas crawling around the sky. They are hard to fix because the sky is often so even-colored. To find out if you have dust, go out, point the camera at a piece of blue sky, expose as accurately as you can (stopped down), load it into Photoshop and hit Auto Levels. It'll show you every bit of dust in the camera...

JC
 
John Camp said:
The problem is, you get dust when you're shooting complicated backgrounds wide open, so you don't see it so much; but then you go out on a bright day and get a nice landscape with a bit of sky in it and find half-a-dozen amoebas crawling around the sky. They are hard to fix because the sky is often so even-colored. To find out if you have dust, go out, point the camera at a piece of blue sky, expose as accurately as you can (stopped down), load it into Photoshop and hit Auto Levels. It'll show you every bit of dust in the camera...

JC
Click to expand...


I have, and I don't. Except twice, which is why I tend to think the problem is a bit overblown - or I just don't attract dust. Now, I have found that I've got a couple of dead pixels - my sensor is starting to show its age. Easily fixed, but they're there and I can see them on 1:1 viewing. Not dust, although I know what to look for, having seen it twice in three years or so.

But again - if you can't find it - it effectively isn't there. Why worry about what you can't see?
 
One of our photographers turned in a photo that had maybe 100 dust spots on it. It ruined the photo. Dust on the sensor can be a real problem. Probably moreso for those who change lenses often and are shooting under all different conditions.
 
Have you ever had an issue with a squid on the sensor? Change a lens, and you are startled to find a squid resting on the sensor. They seem more attracted to CMOS type sensors.
 
Dust on the sensor is an issue but not one we should blow up to huge proportions.

DSLRs have a nice mirror and shutters to keep dust away. An DRF only has shutters. My Canon Eos 300D only once needed some light cleaning in the nearly 3 years I have it now. My R-D1 needs cleaning much more regularly; 3-4 times now in the 2 years I have it.

Then again, I shoot my R-D1 much more often than the Eos. I also change lenses much more regularly on the R-D1.

I don't buy into expensive cleaning tolls. I use a bulb hand blower to blow off the obvious dust and "grit". I then use a Q-tip and alcohol ketonatus to clean the sensor. Works miracles and costs me a fraction of more expensive cleaning products. I probably couldn't buy a small latte for the money I spent on my Q-tips and alcohol ketonatus. :)
 
India is a dusty country, and I consider dust the enemy of all photography. Time and again I have been foxed by the stuff, never mind how much I have blown away from the negative carrier of the enlarger. And, my god, do lenses collect it.

My digicam (supposedly sealed and therefore safe) now has a speck of dust on its sensor, so 4 MP has come down to around 2.5 MP. I shall soon have the DSLR which I got in exchange for my IIIc and a couple of lenses -- but it is an OLympus with dust shaking built in, and I shall have just one lens permanently mounted.

Advertisers do encourage paranoia, of course.
 
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