Would you have your sensor for a low-light gig? Could use an extra bit of advice

I guess I kind of need some extra advice.

Got a night time gig for a lady hosting a party, gonna be event coverage candid style in low light. Since I've never done it and I don't have the supplies needed, a local camera shop can clean my sensor for $60. At that point, with a lens rental I'll barely be making any kind of profit.

I'll be giving my pictures right out of my card at the end of the night, so I won't get any chance to clean the images in post. Should I get it cleaned now? I don't ever have any dust spots show up in big apertures, not until I get to f/5-7.1 and so on and since it's a low light gig I won't ever go past 3.5.

THE Phreak wrote in post #14357893
since it's a low light gig I won't ever go past 3.5.

You'll never see the spots.

Cleaning the sensor is pointless if the dust spots aren't going to show up in the images. Why are you handing over the files at the end of the night without being able to edit them?

You might pick up an ear syringe at the local drug store & just blow the sensor off, but you're right, you shouldn't see any dust at f/3.5.
Some personal views on Sensor cleaning.

jra wrote in post #14359429
Cleaning the sensor is pointless if the dust spots aren't going to show up in the images. Why are you handing over the files at the end of the night without being able to edit them?

Just to have them online as soon as possible, I suppose.

Are you saying that you see noticeable dust at, say, f/5.6?

If so, that's pretty dusty, but what I'd suggest is doing the ear bulb blower approach (using the Sensor Clean function in your camera).

tonylong wrote in post #14361485
Are you saying that you see noticeable dust at, say, f/5.6?

If so, that's pretty dusty, but what I'd suggest is doing the ear bulb blower approach (using the Sensor Clean function in your camera).

Camera doesn't have a sensor cleaning function, it'll just raise the mirror but thats it.

THE Phreak wrote in post #14361562
Camera doesn't have a sensor cleaning function, it'll just raise the mirror but thats it.

Are you sure of that? I don't have the 1DC, but with my 30D and 5DC there is a menu "Sensor Cleaning" item.

Check the index of your camera manual for "sensor cleaning" and see, and let us know. Just doing a Mirror LockUp can be a problem if you are cleaning and the battery goes low!

I think he means that the camera doesn't have the feature that makes the sensor vibrate, shake and shimmy like my sister Kate.

tzalman wrote in post #14362560
I think he means that the camera doesn't have the feature that makes the sensor vibrate, shake and shimmy like my sister Kate.

Heh! It definitely doesn't have the "Auto Clean" feature, but it should have the Sensor Clean function, which is what you need with the bulb blower!

You won't see it with wide apertures in low light. Skip the clean, get one of these kits, with a brush thingy.

tonylong wrote in post #14362654
Heh! It definitely doesn't have the "Auto Clean" feature, but it should have the Sensor Clean function, which is what you need with the bulb blower!

Bulb blower eh? Gonna have to look that up..

tim wrote in post #14370630
You won't see it with wide apertures in low light. Skip the clean, get one of these kits, with a brush thingy.

this one?

THE Phreak wrote in post #14373500
Bulb blower eh? Gonna have to look that up..


this one?

The Giotto blowers are pretty much the "standard" -- you can also look up "rocket blower sensor clean":

http://search.comcast.​net …or+clean&top_Se​archSubmit=

Sorarse wrote in post #14375437
If the dust is on the sensor, I can't see that it makes any difference what aperture the lens is set to as to whether or not the dust will be visible. What will show it up is large expanses of fairly light, even colouring in the image. As this is not likely to happen in the shoot you describe, there won't be much point in getting your sensor cleaned.

Probably best you don't comment on things you don't fully understand.

The reason the aperture makes a difference is due to light direction hitting the sensor. If it's a narrow aperture it all comes from the centre, forming hard shadows of the dust. If it's a wide aperture light comes from multiple directions, meaning the shadows aren't as defined, and in practice you often can't see them.

You're correct that dust spots are far more visible on light backgrounds than dark. For example when I shoot people outside at F12 because I'm using a big strobe and the sky's in the background you can see dust easily, if I'm shooting with trees as a background you can't see dust.

Of course if it's big enough and falls over someones face you can spot it any time, but that's very rare and may never happen.