Stephen Burch's Birding & Dragonfly Website |
||
Home | Trip Reports | Gallery | UK index | Oxon pics | UK pics | Dragonflies | Other Nature | Links |
After about a year of use, I took the plunge and tried cleaning the sensor of my Canon EOS 350D. Maybe others will be interested in my experiences with this process, so here goes with a short account. The whole experience was a good deal easier than I had thought it might be. Since then, I have cleaned my other DSLR's (40D and 50D) using exactly the same technique, with success every time. Preparation/Gear
needed I ended up ordering some pre-prepared sensor swabs (just use out of the packet, after applying a couple of drops of the Eclipse fluid), sized exactly for my camera (you specify your camera model when ordering on-line), together with some Eclipse fluid and a low cost Hurricane blower from Digipad. For 5 swabs, all this cost less than £20, and the order arrived in a few days - no problems at all, despite their website! The downside of the pre-prepared swabs is their price - some £2 each - but I reckon its probably worth it, especially for beginners - even several are a lot less than the cost of getting the camera sensor cleaned professionally. The
Starting Point However, if
you reduce the aperture to the minimum (f32) and point at
the sky, all the dust spots are revealed in horrible
detail. Here is what I saw a few weeks ago - using Auto
Levels in Photoshop. Ugh! Note the brute
of a spot top centre, (the one which sometimes becomes
visible on "real" pics as mentioned above), but
all the other spots have never shown up. I am sure all
these spots, even out-of-focus, don't help the overall
image quality - they must reduce contrast if nothing else.
Getting ready for action The
following were the main tips I can pass on:
Initial
blowing
Wet swabbing
I still wasn't satisfied, so I broke out
another swab, and gave it another go. This time I was
happier with the result, but a bit worried by the first
image I got - it showed some worrying diagonal streaks:
I then took a few more sky shots, without
re-opening the camera, and found the diagonal streaks
must have been due to the cleaning fluid not been fully
dry (phew!). However, to my annoyance, another biggish
dust spot just spontaneously appeared centre left:
I guess this extra spot must be due to dust just floating around inside the camera, and it might go and/or another appear. Anyhow, having now used up 3 (1 for practice and 2 on the camera) of my 5 swabs, I decided to call it a day for the time being. Further
cleanings Note that I find the so called sensor clean function available on the EOS 50D to be of limited value - it still accumulates dust spots just like the 350D and needs cleaning from time to time. After using the swab on the sensor, I once tried wiping round the inside of the camera, in the immediate vicinity of the sensor. It may have helped to reduce the re-appearance of spots, but it is difficult to tell. Conclusion If you are not satisfied with the results of just blowing, then I can recommend the wet swabbing technique. It isn't too difficult to do, and the risk of permanently damaging the AA filter seems low. But completely removing all dust spots seems difficult/impossible. Swabbing the inside of the camera as well (with the same swab but after doing the sensor), to reduce the general dust levels in the camera, could be worthwhile. Having said all this, keeping the sensor completely dust free seems very difficult, and is probably not worth it either! Have you found this new page useful? Got any comments/further tips? Why not get in touch by e-mail? |
||||||||||
Home | Trip Reports | Oxon pics | UK pics | Damsels and Dragons | Other Nature | Links |