Dust on the sensor vs time?

Hi, The answer to that is as soon as you take of the protecting cap on the camera to attach your first lens. I think the better question would be when do you feel that the sensor needs to be cleaned and again there is really no 100% answer as it also depends on where you change the lenses, outdoors on a windy day or in the studio, it's a fact of life you cannot prevent dust attaching itself to an electrical circuit however you can help to prevent happening quickly by following a few simple and sensible rules.
Russ
 
whenever i change lenses i keep the body pointed down, against my body or just away from the wind and i have changed lenses outdoors quite a few times. had my camera for 10 months now and havent noticed anything, so just wondering if thats like the normal "life span" between sensor cleans or its not been enough time for the unfortunate to happen
 
FlyingShrapnel said:
had my camera for 10 months now and havent noticed anything,
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There will be some for sure, it will show against a bright sky with small apertures.
If you hardly use the camera for such scenes it won't be noticeable.
 
I think I'm right in saying that much/most of the debris that ends up on your sensor is actually internally generated oil and tiny bits of material that come off the cameras internal parts rather than debris that finds its way in from outside. If that's true, and I'm pretty sure that it is, you're going to catch dust bunnies even if you never change your lens.

Lots of people don't appear to notice when dust bunnies appear in their shots whereas others (like me...) spot every one and get a bit OCD over it. What is true is that shooting at smaller apertures can make dust bunnies more visible and so can some subjects.

Generally, I don't think that some manufacturers have tried hard enough to minimise the issue.
 
I don't tend to go much over f5.6 most of the time and only when taking a shot of the sky at f22 out of curiosity did I notice what a mess the sensor was in.

A quick clean sorted it out so I am now well armed for any future shots of the sky at tiny apertures...
 
My old 350D has needed cleaning a couple of times in six years, I'm careful when changing lenses, and I've not done it once to my 7D in three years, which says something for the cleaning system.

Basically just do it when it needs it, check by taking an OOF shot of a plain piece of paper then check the image for dust bunnies.
 
Never (as far as I know) over about 6 or 7 years - Had 2 Pentax cameras and 4 Nikons. Very carefull about lens changing procedure (keep the body facing downwards and expose the rear elements of the lens to the air for the minimum time possible.) Always make judicious use of a rocket blower on rear element of the lens and inside the camera on every lens change. Also make sure the camera's inbuilt dust removal protection is active.

In film days I used similar precautions.
 
ernesto said:
I don't tend to go much over f5.6 most of the time and only when taking a shot of the sky at f22 out of curiosity did I notice what a mess the sensor was in.

A quick clean sorted it out so I am now well armed for any future shots of the sky at tiny apertures...
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how did you clean your sensor? i took a few shots at f13 and realised i have a few bits of dust with a couple of them near the centre :(
 
Easiest way for me to see anything on the sensor is to shoot a little video of the sky.
It shows up everything.
 
My old 350D was usually cleaned every few months, my old 30D's sensor was caked in crap when the thing arrived from Canon so had an immediate clean and was generally cleaned once every few months along with the 350D. For some odd reason my 7D which I've had for a couple of years has never once needed a clean, it strangely just doesn't seem to get dust! My 5Dmk2 is coming up to being ready for it's first clean and I've had it for around a year. :)
 
FlyingShrapnel said:
how did you clean your sensor? i took a few shots at f13 and realised i have a few bits of dust with a couple of them near the centre :(
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I just got some APS-C sized swabs and cleaning fluid from a seller on eBay for £8 and cleaned it.
 
Do not be too concerned about a little dust on the sensor it will not do any damage and is very easy to clean off in PP if you have Lightroom or Photoshop and I assume other software.
You are more likely to do damage if you have sand or grit on the sensor and do a bodge sensor clean I would have thought.

Cleaning the sensor is easy if you take a little time to study how to do it correctly and invest in the right kit for the job or pay a shop to do it occasionally.

I change lenses all the time and often have dust on the sensor. In PP I inspect all images I am going to keep at 100% using a grid for reference and use the spot healing tool to remove them. Every now and then I will clean the sensor.
 
Lightroom, filter by aperture, f11 and above, then check for dust bunnies. Often there's only a few (both in number of photos amount of dust bunnies)

What Alan (woof woof) said is correct, most are from internal. I found my 5D2 often gets a spot on the top left. It comes and goes probably due to the sensor self cleaning.


They won't damage the sensor, cleaning is only necessary when you are tired of fixing them photo by photo during post processing.
 
arclight said:
Never (as far as I know) over about 6 or 7 years - Had 2 Pentax cameras and 4 Nikons. Very carefull about lens changing procedure (keep the body facing downwards and expose the rear elements of the lens to the air for the minimum time possible.) Always make judicious use of a rocket blower on rear element of the lens and inside the camera on every lens change. Also make sure the camera's inbuilt dust removal protection is active.

In film days I used similar precautions.
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Should not have posted that. Fate was tempted and responded. Noticed 2 dust bunnies last night. Saw a few specs on the focussing screen which were not there before. Blower alone would not shift then. Blower brush imported a load more onto the screen that needed an alcohol wipe to clean (100% successful).
Took a dust reference pic at minimum aperture and that showed the dust bunnies on the sensor. Fortunately the rocket blower got rid of them.
 
In short...
There's a pretty good likelihood that the first day you use your camera you will end up with dust on the sensor.
Dust on the sensor is a fact of life, no matter how careful you are when changing lenses or what environment you are in.
Expect it will happen, get used to it and learn how to clean your sensor.
 
So, best way to check for dust bunnies? Ta

Also, if found, is it ok to turn camera upside down and use rocket blower towards the mirror? Lock mirror up first?
 
Raincloud said:
So, best way to check for dust bunnies? Ta

Also, if found, is it ok to turn camera upside down and use rocket blower towards the mirror? Lock mirror up first?
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mentioned nearer the top :) I used F13 and dust has showed up already, though that was a photo of a mid day sun
4wd said:
There will be some for sure, it will show against a bright sky with small apertures.
If you hardly use the camera for such scenes it won't be noticeable.
Click to expand...
 
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