Thread: D70 & Dust
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Old August 12th 05, 06:47 PM
DoN. Nichols
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In article ,
Little Green Eyed Dragon wrote:
I having an increasingly problematic time related to
dust on my sensor, I use the camera a lot probably on the
order of 10,000 images since its purchase and have had it
for about 1 year. I change the lens on occasion, in any event
I have the power adapter and started out using a blower to
remove the loose dust, but the problem continues and got worse.


Others have already touched on how to do the cleaning.

I find myself wondering why you are having such problems. First
off, do you take a lot of photos at small apertures? The dust only
affects the images taken at the smallest of apertures.

I had been using my D70 for about nine months before I ever even
tried to look for dust by selecting a very small aperture and shooting
an evenly-illuminated surface. Yes, I found dust that way, but it had
not shown up in my normal photography. (Obviously, if you are after the
maximum depth of field, you will see dust more often -- but I am more
likely to favor a higher shutter speed, so I work at more open
apertures, and the dust just plain does not show up with that.

I have had no problems using a blower to get rid of the dust.
First, I use the blower on the body with the shutter closed, to remove
as much dust as possible from the body cavity, so there will not be a
large stock of additional dust ready to jump into place. Only then do I
open the shutter to blow the dust off of the actual sensor.

I read advice about using the ear syringes available at the
drugstore, but I was rather frustrated by the minimal airflow (and
volume) available from these. Then, I was at a hamfest, and saw some
similar devices, but on steroids. They were surplus from some medical
supply place, apparently. Each is in a sterile blister pack, and is
marked:

================================================== ====================
DAVOL 3583

Ear and Ulcer Syringe

3 oz. with Slim Tip For Aspiration and Irrigation

Single Use
================================================== ====================

I only got two of these, but I wish that I had bought the whole
supply at the hamfest. (They were only $1.00 each.) Well ... perhaps
another time.

Now, I would also suggest that you check your lenses, and give
them a blowing off as well. I make sure that I re-cap whichever lens
was just removed from the camera as quickly as possible when swapping
lenses.

A nice trick, for the Nikon rear caps, is that you can join two
of them together to hold lenses back to back in the gadget bag. (Not so
useful with the longer lenses, but shorter ones make a much more
reasonable package in the camera bag if so joined and then stored on
end.

To join them, I first orient the two caps back to back, and
rotate them so the ribs interlock. I then take a small amount of MEK
(Methyl Ethyl Ketone -- an organic solvent) and drip very small amounts
into the seam formed by the junction of the two caps, rotating them to
allow access to places around the circumference, until the whole thing
has been touched by the MEK. Then hold them together for a few minutes,
allow the solvent to evaporate for another hour, and you have a rigidly
joined pair of lens back caps.

I would advise doing this where you have good ventilation --
perhaps even outdoors.

Best of luck,
DoN.
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