My 40D is Two Weeks Old and I'm a Little Disappointed

I'd agree over-hyped in the sense that it should never be the one reason for an upgrade. I think we've yet to see how much good these systems can do. The jury's out. I don't have a self-cleaning camera (30D and 5D) but my daughter does (XTi) and I'll be curious to see how often she needs to clean. I do more outdoor photography than she does, though, so my experience will be different.

Tony

Tony Long Photos on PBase

00silvergt wrote in post #4016831
Okay, the first week or so you will have all sorts of stuff there. Even if these were built in a class 1000 clean room or better, it still has go out and get dirty when it is put in a pallet for its long cruise to the the distributor. This is usually done by some parcel service or may a big retailer's own trucks. So there's 3 places it can easily get dirty. Then the fourth place, it goes on some store's shelf. Those of us who work(ed) retail knows that the shelves get "visual" cleaning and maybe not often enough. Of course, when these are brand new, lubrication for the mechanical parts may leak out of the lubed joints and into the baffle. A click from the mirror, the lub traces spatter on to the opened sensor. Dust from any place outside of the factory in Japan can add the dust. This dust gets attracted to the lubrication and now you got welded dust and no rocket blower will blow that out. You need to do some wet cleaning. When I swab it usually takes 8-12 swipes to get a very good clean sensor. Would it stay that way? No, of course not. It will get dirty again. But to prolong a clean sensor or to minimize cleaning try these suggestions:

1. Always have the camera off when swapping lenses.
2. Swap lenses in doors or where there is minimal wind. Air/Wind carries pollen and dust.
3.when mounting the lens have the body facing down.

00silvergt & Tony,

Thank you and all the others for your replies. I have been thinking of the same things you mentioned. First off, when I got my 70-200 f/2.8L IS monster, I couldn't believe how it arrived; in shipping one end of the box factory box was half open in the shipping container, certainly from bouncing around in shipping. Fortunately for me, the lens was incredibly well-packed from the factory.

When my 40D arrived via Next-day shipping from New York, one corner of the factory box was dinged, but everything was in fine shape. I do remember thinking to myself, "why don't they shrink-wrap these boxes after final inspection before they leave the factory?"

Perhaps my 40D was opened in New York? Perhaps it just got dusty through its journey here? I'll never know for sure, but I can say that back in '05, I bought my 350D kit at a local retailer and it was about two years before the dust became an issue. Hmmm.., maybe there is more to this story?

I do hope that other new 40D owners will chime in on this. Come to think of it, both of my buddies, the ones that own the 5D and the 1D Mark III got them from New York.

In any event, I do feel that this 40D will be a stunning image producer, even if I have to work in post to heal some dust spots. I will make the time to get Canon to clean my camera if I can't clean it myself. I'm going to try one more time to wet clean it, but before I do, I'm going to first scope the sensor make some notes, take some f22 blue sky and white paper pictures, then go shoot 1000 or so pictures out at the beach or the lake and the come back and do the same. To keep things fair, I won't change lenses, I'll keep the 70-200 f/2.8L IS (non-dust pump) on the camera and see if I can determine anything further.

I can see how having a Sensor Scope could drive one crazy trying to have a perfectly clean sensor, so I don't want to go down that route. On the other hand, after Canon cleaned my 350D in Tokyo, it was blob-free out to f/32, so whatever they did was right.

By the way, the folks at Delkin told me that Canon USA uses their cleaning gear, including their scope in-house in L.A. I'm wondering if that's true.

Thanks again to all, any more useful input would be appreciated.

Best regards,

Michael

Michael,

Good luck on the quest! We are in it together!

FYI, I have a three-tiered approach to sensor cleaning. First, the Rocket. Next, I bought an interesting little device from visibledust.com that shows some promise, but I'm not sure of how good it is. Finally, Eclipse fluid is fine (but I'd say beware of the hype, maybe distilled water is just as good) and a good, lint-free swab. It doesn't hurt to invest in the best. If I'm convinced that more money will buy better quality, then guess what? I save my nickels and dimes.

Hope this helps a bit,

tony

Tony Long Photos on PBase

Well I have had my 40D for about a month, taken nr 6k shots, just took a picture of the sky at f22 unless I am not taking the right type of photo, f22 at sky I over exposed it to, to make it brighter, lighter and upped it in PP, and resized it. the mark I do see is moving around as well, it is in a different position on another photo, so that is good as at first thought it was a smear

on my 30D i used to get some real nasty big blobs, that i just blew away, never hand cleaned sensor except with a blower, never cleaned my 40D yet, and I change my lens a lot, though I try and take care, even did a moto X event last Sunday, and took nr 500 shots, Maybe I just lucky, maybe I am just testing it wrong

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MaDProFF wrote in post #4017135
the mark I do see is moving around as well, it is in a different position on another photo, so that is good as at first thought it was a smear

I wonder what it is??

krepta wrote in post #4017138
I wonder what it is??

don't know and TBH don't really care, it is certainly cleaner than my 30D was ever, and even that did not really bother me too much, I just blew it away.

As for OP, I can see his logic in thinking, but I would like to think Canon ran every camera though a series of tests, before putting out to market, and one of those tests would be the shutter testing and firing off shutter so many times,, and last would be some form of in side body cleaning before it is packaged up.

M24 wrote in post #4016323
Ed,

I also forgot to mention that a semi-pro buddy of mine got a 5D last month and had roughly the same amount of dirt on his sensor within the first few weeks. He too was disappointed.

To answer the OPs question, yes I do think a lot of the dust etc comes from initial use of the camera especially if it's on a high fps shooting

I had my 20 for about a year before I sold it and it had no ( not one) obviuus bit of dust on it and it was never cleaned. I was however very careful about changing lenses and never , not once, used the motordrive.

When I got my 5D for the first time, It looked fine throug the VF and I decided to give the motordrive a go, hey , what's that , loads of dust all of a sudden over the VF (yes, the VF). So I checked te sensor, hmm dust tere too, best use a rocket blower eh? puff puff pufff, aaaagh - cr*p everywhere! Over the VF and te sensor. My conclusion was definitely that the motordrive and workingsd need 'breaking in' to clear initial dust , bits and pieces from the workings, but also that the rocket blower just moves all theat muck about and deposits more on the sensor if it's loose. NB I suggest only using a blower afetr the camera has been off for a while and holding it upside down so the dust falls OUT not IN - so yes a god clean in the early stages is probably a must esp if you've used mototrdrive

I sent that first 5D back and got a 30D ( I just wasn't ready for it at te time) Later when I got a 5D again, imade sure not to use the motordrive ( I never actually 'need' motordrive - being a single shooter at heart) and never once used te rocket blower,and had so little dust that even after a whoe year only had one obvious mark that needed cloning out. Canon cleaned it for free one day before the warrenty ran out

Really sorry to hear about your problems with the 40D. But just to add to the fact that it may not be a "normal" experience, I've taken nearly 6,000 shots so far and only once had dust on the sensor after I put on a lens (which must have introduced some dust). After turning on and off the camera, which cleans the sensor, the bit of dust disappeared and I haven't seen a sign of a single spec of dust since then. Hope yours fares better from now on in.

MaDProFF wrote in post #4017135
Well I have had my 40D for about a month, taken nr 6k shots, just took a picture of the sky at f22 unless I am not taking the right type of photo, f22 at sky I over exposed it to, to make it brighter, lighter and upped it in PP, and resized it. the mark I do see is moving around as well, it is in a different position on another photo, so that is good as at first thought it was a smear

on my 30D i used to get some real nasty big blobs, that i just blew away, never hand cleaned sensor except with a blower, never cleaned my 40D yet, and I change my lens a lot, though I try and take care, even did a moto X event last Sunday, and took nr 500 shots, Maybe I just lucky, maybe I am just testing it wrong

The worm shaped blob at roughly 5 O'clock in your pic is what I saw in abundance in my 40D AFTER its first cleaning per all instructions from the pros.

I've done some more research and did a little work with my 40D this evening. I think I've figured out the main problem. Let me ruminate on it a bit more and I'll post an update tomorrow after I can get some f22 sky to verify what I'm thinking.

Very best,

Michael

did u check what the sensor looked at when u pulled it out of the box for the first time? make sure that its clean BEFORE you start shooting. then evaluate how dirty it gets after a couple weeks. i dunno why but the two canon' DSLR's i bought brand new, were DIRTY from the factory. I cleaned them (copperhill method) and then started using it. i usually check every month now and i can usually get most of the major dust off by a blower.. no more "tough" spots thereafter.

00silvergt wrote in post #4016831
1. Always have the camera off when swapping lenses.

I read that this makes absolutely no difference - maybe on Luminouis-landscape or Rob Gilbraith..???

M24,
I own 3 DSLR's and my 40D gets as dirty and as fast as my 5D, my 10D was much cleaner but photos are much less sharp out of camera. I guess that might be because the old 10D used thick glass in front of the sensor compared to the 5D and 40D. When I run the auto clean mode (on my 40D it also runs each time I turn it on and off) I don't see any difference. I have cleaned it many times with a rocket blower and the results so far are good and superior to the auto sensor clean method. I do change my lenses a lot but like you said there is times I have gotten grease from the camera or lens on my 5D sensor. It was so bad on my 5D that even with cleaning many times it would not go away with the Copperhill method, that is why I had to send it to Canon and it came back like new
Oh and welcome to the forum

Of the four bodies I have gotten, one came spotless, the 400. The 350 had a few specks, the 5D had a few but the 40D has a bunch. They are like yours. The blower did nothing and the first cleaning left big smears and multiple cleanings were needed. However, I always clean multiple times never trying to scrub everything off the first time. Of the 4, the 400 has been the most dust free in long term use. I have only had the 40D for a week so it’s too early to tell. The 5D requires cleaning often but it’s used on a factory floor and I am not shy about changing lenses. I just figure cleaning a sensor is like brushing your teeth. Not the most enjoyable activity, but something you have to do.

M24 wrote in post #4016965
00silvergt & Tony,

Thank you and all the others for your replies. I have been thinking of the same things you mentioned. First off, when I got my 70-200 f/2.8L IS monster, I couldn't believe how it arrived; in shipping one end of the box factory box was half open in the shipping container, certainly from bouncing around in shipping. Fortunately for me, the lens was incredibly well-packed from the factory.

When my 40D arrived via Next-day shipping from New York, one corner of the factory box was dinged, but everything was in fine shape. I do remember thinking to myself, "why don't they shrink-wrap these boxes after final inspection before they leave the factory?"

Perhaps my 40D was opened in New York? Perhaps it just got dusty through its journey here? I'll never know for sure, but I can say that back in '05, I bought my 350D kit at a local retailer and it was about two years before the dust became an issue. Hmmm.., maybe there is more to this story?

I do hope that other new 40D owners will chime in on this. Come to think of it, both of my buddies, the ones that own the 5D and the 1D Mark III got them from New York.

In any event, I do feel that this 40D will be a stunning image producer, even if I have to work in post to heal some dust spots. I will make the time to get Canon to clean my camera if I can't clean it myself. I'm going to try one more time to wet clean it, but before I do, I'm going to first scope the sensor make some notes, take some f22 blue sky and white paper pictures, then go shoot 1000 or so pictures out at the beach or the lake and the come back and do the same. To keep things fair, I won't change lenses, I'll keep the 70-200 f/2.8L IS (non-dust pump) on the camera and see if I can determine anything further.

I can see how having a Sensor Scope could drive one crazy trying to have a perfectly clean sensor, so I don't want to go down that route. On the other hand, after Canon cleaned my 350D in Tokyo, it was blob-free out to f/32, so whatever they did was right.

By the way, the folks at Delkin told me that Canon USA uses their cleaning gear, including their scope in-house in L.A. I'm wondering if that's true.

Thanks again to all, any more useful input would be appreciated.

Best regards,

Michael

You're welcome. I doubt the bit about Canon LA. I sent my 350D over there because there was hair sandwich between the sensor and the low pass filter, I told them that I used my Delkin Sensor scope to find and the first time it went out they missed it all together. Second time, I had to send them pictures I took of the sensor and pictures in which the hair was visible at f/8. BTW, The folks who made the Arctic Butterfly has created a scope very similar to the Delkin as well.

I Simonius wrote in post #4017466
I read that this makes absolutely no difference - maybe on Luminouis-landscape or Rob Gilbraith..???

Well, in theory, it will turn off the power to the sensor thus discharging the electrostatic charge around the sensor. Albeit, it takes some time to fully discharge, maybe some folks are doing it too soon? I don't have the link, but it is one of Canon's recommendation on how to minimize dirt to the sensor.

I've always thought that any internal self cleaning sensor function was mostly marketing hype and nothing I've seen or heard to date has changed my mind. It seems it's becoming more and more about bells and whistles these days.