DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register) 
 

DPChallenge Forums >> General Discussion >> Sensor "cleaning"
Pages:  
Showing posts 1 - 25 of 33, (reverse)
AuthorThread
 11/12/2005 02:17:58 AM · #1
I had noticed that my sensor had a few dirty spots so I decided to clean it. I have done this succesfully before on my 300D so I wasn't worried. Turns out this "cleaning" has made it worse and I don't know what else to do. This is what the sensor looked like before cleaning Before, here is after several tries with the same aperture After f/32 and here it is at f/51 After f/51. As you can see, it's pretty bad. I've only had this camera for just over 2 months and I'm freaking out!

June
 11/12/2005 02:20:14 AM · #2
What did you clean it with? Is that dust?
 11/12/2005 02:20:37 AM · #3
What are you cleaning with?
 11/12/2005 02:21:25 AM · #4
I'm cleaning it with Eclipse and I HOPE that's just dust.
 11/12/2005 02:23:32 AM · #5
Perhaps use some canned air? Anyone back this?
 11/12/2005 02:28:36 AM · #6
Doesn't look like sensor dust to me. Lens aperture should have no effect on the sharpness of sensor dust spots, which are integrated into the image AFTER light passes through the lens. More likely this is dust ON the lens, and the more you stop it down the more it shows up.

To detect sensor dust, photograph your white wall completely OOF; focus on infinity and shoot away wide open. Nothing in the lens will show this way, and you'll see what's actually sensor dust.

R.

Edit to add; it could be paint flecks INSIDE the lens, on one of the inner elements, and that's bad... How old is the lens?

Message edited by author 2005-11-12 02:29:30.
 11/12/2005 02:31:04 AM · #7
Originally posted by bear_music:
Doesn't look like sensor dust to me. Lens aperture should have no effect on the sharpness of sensor dust spots, which are integrated into the image AFTER light passes through the lens. More likely this is dust ON the lens, and the more you stop it down the more it shows up.

To detect sensor dust, photograph your white wall completely OOF; focus on infinity and shoot away wide open. Nothing in the lens will show this way, and you'll see what's actually sensor dust.

R.


I've had problems with sensor junk before and the smaller the aperture the more it shows. I used to think like you before I had they first meltdown last year when I decided it was I'd clean my sensor with some electronic cleaning alcohol substance that had lots of water on it. I never noticed the water stains until I shot something at at f30 and it was VERY bad. Luckly I could fix that with Eclipse and now THAT sensor is fine.

June
 11/12/2005 02:31:36 AM · #8
The lens is about a year old
 11/12/2005 02:33:48 AM · #9
Apeture has everything to do with how large the dust spots appear and yes you have deposited a ton of dust on your sensor. Do not use canned air as it can expel frost and permenantely damage your sensor and void your waranty. The only thing I ever use to clean my sensor is //www.visibledust.com/. If you choose to use anything else do so a your own risk. You can also try the blower they sell on the site. 90% of the time that removes most of the dust. If you have any questions drop me an email and do not I repeat do not spray your sensor with canned air.
 11/12/2005 02:38:08 AM · #10
Originally posted by tmhalling:
Apeture has everything to do with how large the dust spots appear and yes you have deposited a ton of dust on your sensor. Do not use canned air as it can expel frost and permenantely damage your sensor and void your waranty. The only thing I ever use to clean my sensor is //www.visibledust.com/. If you choose to use anything else do so a your own risk. You can also try the blower they sell on the site. 90% of the time that removes most of the dust. If you have any questions drop me an email and do not I repeat do not spray your sensor with canned air.


Really? I'm relatively new to dSLR, so I'm no expert, but how is it possible for aperture to affect sensor-dust sharpness when the light has already passed through the lens and the dust is ON the sensor? Makes no sense to me. Certainly, in my case every time I see sensor dust it is OOF blobs... But I've never tested this at extremely small apertures either.

R.

Edit to add: I'm not arguing, mind you; I'm very curious.

Message edited by author 2005-11-12 02:39:08.
 11/12/2005 02:40:55 AM · #11
Here it is with another lens Canon 100-400.

Rob, I didn't understand it either but it does work like that. Very odd, I know. I know that I won't ever be shooting at f51 but I know how dirty the sensor it and it bugs me.

June
 11/12/2005 02:45:47 AM · #12
Oh-KAY... I stand corrected. Maybe Kirbic or someone like him will have an explanation for how this can be... I use a special brush to clean my sensor, works fine so far, knock on wood...

R.
 11/12/2005 02:47:17 AM · #13
Originally posted by bear_music:
Doesn't look like sensor dust to me. Lens aperture should have no effect on the sharpness of sensor dust spots, which are integrated into the image AFTER light passes through the lens. More likely this is dust ON the lens, and the more you stop it down the more it shows up.

To detect sensor dust, photograph your white wall completely OOF; focus on infinity and shoot away wide open. Nothing in the lens will show this way, and you'll see what's actually sensor dust.

R.

Edit to add; it could be paint flecks INSIDE the lens, on one of the inner elements, and that's bad... How old is the lens?


EDIT to add: apparently the above is totally wrong. I'm waiting for some techie to explain how dust ON the sensor can be affected by aperture...
 11/12/2005 03:06:56 AM · #14
Just a quick note for an emergency dust cleaning in the field:
3-M Post-it notes.
Cut (not tear, as it frays edges) the sticky portion off of a Post-It note. Gently "post-it" to the sensor and lift off gently. Repeat several times. The adhesive on a Post-It note leaves no residue, kinda' like the blue painter's tape 3-M has. Post-It notes can be found almost anywhere and will lift dust off the sensor.
(My own recipe derived from reading about using the blue painter's tape)
 11/12/2005 03:27:31 AM · #15
The place i got my camera cleaned
first use a bolwer (not compressed air)
it still dirty they use Sensor Brush
it still dirty they use Smear Away
it still dirty they use Chamber Cleaner

You can find the products here

Btw has anyone seen the Nikon D200?
 11/12/2005 03:28:00 AM · #16
Originally posted by bear_music:
Originally posted by tmhalling:
Apeture has everything to do with how large the dust spots appear and yes you have deposited a ton of dust on your sensor. Do not use canned air as it can expel frost and permenantely damage your sensor and void your waranty. The only thing I ever use to clean my sensor is //www.visibledust.com/. If you choose to use anything else do so a your own risk. You can also try the blower they sell on the site. 90% of the time that removes most of the dust. If you have any questions drop me an email and do not I repeat do not spray your sensor with canned air.


Really? I'm relatively new to dSLR, so I'm no expert, but how is it possible for aperture to affect sensor-dust sharpness when the light has already passed through the lens and the dust is ON the sensor? Makes no sense to me. Certainly, in my case every time I see sensor dust it is OOF blobs... But I've never tested this at extremely small apertures either.

R.

Edit to add: I'm not arguing, mind you; I'm very curious.


I agree DONT use canned air, apart from other problems it also contains traces of oil residue which will get on the sensor
 11/12/2005 03:44:14 AM · #17
Originally posted by bear_music:
EDIT to add: apparently the above is totally wrong. I'm waiting for some techie to explain how dust ON the sensor can be affected by aperture...


Started to write a long email to answer this, but instead:



In a nutshell: The dust on the low pass filter (sits tiny distance in front of sensor) creates a shadow at smaller apetures.

The other assumption people make about lenses is that the light falling on a single point on the sensor/film comes through only one small part of the lens, that isn't correct, it converges on the point on the sensor/film from the entire surface of the lens... But that's a whole other diagram, and I'm too lazy to draw another bad one.

Cheers, Me.

edit: Hmmm, just looked at my diagram... Assume that the right hand example actually has the light covering the same area of the sensor as the F/1.4 example.. I didn't save the layered copy and can't be bothered fixing the picture. :-).

Message edited by author 2005-11-12 03:51:29.
 11/12/2005 03:46:08 AM · #18
What type of swab/tissue/rag are you using June?

edit: I use the sensor swabs + eclipse from photographic solutions.. It's removed some truely nasty gunk from my sensor in the past...

Message edited by author 2005-11-12 03:47:40.
 11/12/2005 03:55:43 AM · #19
Originally posted by KiwiChris:
What type of swab/tissue/rag are you using June?

edit: I use the sensor swabs + eclipse from photographic solutions.. It's removed some truely nasty gunk from my sensor in the past...


I am using the tissues and swab that came with the Eclipse.
 11/12/2005 04:37:05 AM · #20
Originally posted by chiqui74:
I am using the tissues and swab that came with the Eclipse.


Pec*Pads?

11/12/2005 04:41:55 AM · #21
I guess I'm just lucky enough to have canon right around the corner from me so I just take it to them.
 11/12/2005 06:25:41 AM · #22
Originally posted by Uusilehto:
Originally posted by chiqui74:
I am using the tissues and swab that came with the Eclipse.


Pec*Pads?


Yes
 11/12/2005 06:48:31 AM · #23
You havn't got moisture in your methanol have you?

The pattern in the left hand side of the F/51 shot looks a little like the result of cleaning and leaving some fluid spots behind.

Possibly your eclipse is a little old? Once opened methanol has a fairly short shelf life as it's hydroscopic (adsorbs water). I keep mine in a couple of baggies with some silica gel after getting a similar (but not as bad) effect on my 20D..

Cheers, Me.
 11/12/2005 07:08:09 AM · #24
Ok, I got the moisture smears off, that was easy. The dirty spots are on the edges of the sensor which makes me thing that instead of actually cleaning, the pad is just displacing the dust to the edges. I wish I had a thin swab to just clean around the edges and see what happens. I took pics with actual stuff in it, rathar than jsut sky at f/51 and while you can still see dust spots on it, it is no where near like in the ones I posted here. That makes me thinkg that contrast, levels, etc, is making it worse than it really is. Just to be sure, I had Manic take a pic of his sensor at f/45 which is the smallest he can achieve and here is the result. As you can see, I am not alone. What I would like to ask you guys is to do the same test. Take a picture of the sky or something at the smallest f stop possible, then do auto levels, contrast and color and let's see the results. I get the feeling this is just the nature of the beast. My spots are hardly visible at f25.

June
 11/12/2005 07:23:41 AM · #25

f45 iso100 before cleaning


f45 iso100 after cleaning

Looks like you just need to be persistant and wipe several times...

EDIT: oh, and for comparison, here's f22 iso 100 before cleaning (the specs are nowhere near as visible):



Oh, and the big splotches are most likely from a dirty filter, rather than the sensor - gotta find that lenspen again... ;o)

Message edited by author 2005-11-12 07:29:22.
Pages:  
Current Server Time: 09/21/2025 08:29:44 AM

Please log in or register to post to the forums.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 09/21/2025 08:29:44 AM EDT.