Dust on the Sensor

I had read on this post that someone had said they used a Rocket Blower
(Compressed Air) to clean the dust off the Sensor, is this ok to do
would the sensor become damaged ?? what about using one of those blue
rubber things and just do it without the force of compressed air
Thanks

"robert w fischer" wrote:
I had read on this post that someone had said they used a Rocket Blower
(Compressed Air) to clean the dust off the Sensor, is this ok to do
would the sensor become damaged ?? what about using one of those blue
rubber things and just do it without the force of compressed air

The rocket blowers are rubber bulbs that you squeeze to produce an air
stream. They're not compressed air. I think "Rocket Blower" is a trademark
for ones that have "fins" so they can stand up, the camera stores here have
a variety of versions, most without the fins.

My opinion is that careful use of a bulb-type blower has to be the safest
way to clean a sensor. (Although it doesn't remove stuck-on stuff, oil,
smears, and the like.)

Being a wimp, I use a rocket blower and take the camera to Canon
occasionally to have them clean the sensor. (Which is easy for me, since
they do it while you wait at a local office near where I live.)

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

Just how regular a problem is this sensor dust?

JB





"David J. Littleboy" wrote in message
...

"robert w fischer" wrote:
I had read on this post that someone had said they used a Rocket Blower
(Compressed Air) to clean the dust off the Sensor, is this ok to do
would the sensor become damaged ?? what about using one of those blue
rubber things and just do it without the force of compressed air

The rocket blowers are rubber bulbs that you squeeze to produce an air
stream. They're not compressed air. I think "Rocket Blower" is a trademark
for ones that have "fins" so they can stand up, the camera stores here
have a variety of versions, most without the fins.

My opinion is that careful use of a bulb-type blower has to be the safest
way to clean a sensor. (Although it doesn't remove stuck-on stuff, oil,
smears, and the like.)

Being a wimp, I use a rocket blower and take the camera to Canon
occasionally to have them clean the sensor. (Which is easy for me, since
they do it while you wait at a local office near where I live.)

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

"Jackson Bryan" wrote:

Just how regular a problem is this sensor dust?

DSLR sensors attract dust and require occasional cleaning. A quick blow with
a hand blower has always gotten things clean enough here. I've taken my 5D
to Canon once in a year and a half, more on general principles than that
there were any dust problems.

Sensor dust is most visible in blue sky areas. If you shoot at f/16 to f/22,
you'll see the dust. But since you really don't want to shoot at f/16 with
an APS-C or smaller sensor, it's not that nasty. It's pretty easy to fix
dust spots in Photoshop, and some raw converters (e.g. Lightroom) have
features for doing that right in the converter.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

On Jun 27, 4:01 am, (robert w fischer) wrote:
I had read on this post that someone had said they used a Rocket Blower
(Compressed Air) to clean the dust off the Sensor, is this ok to do
would the sensor become damaged ?? what about using one of those blue
rubber things and just do it without the force of compressed air
Thanks

For information, the sensor is normally covered by other things such
as an anti-alias filter and a colour filter array. When you clean dust
off it, even with something that makes contact with the surface that
the dust is on, you are not touching the sensor itself.

--
Barry Pearson
http://www.barrypearson.co.uk/photography/