HOLY CRAP! The dust shaker actually works!

deltroid wrote in post #4093075
I've had my XTi since March this year, and I've never cleaned the sensor. I rarely use higher F-numbers, but I did about a week ago (f/32) on a blue sky...and nothing! I was expecting at least some dust to be seen, but it was flawless. And I also have changed lens on windy days in dusty places...I was rather surprised at the efficiency of the "dust-shaker". Very happy with it...

Could you post that picture?

I'll post the picture I was talking about tonight when I get home. I'm sorry I don't have it with me at the office. :-S

Does the XTi/40D manual say which way to orient the camera when using the sensor shaker? For best results, I'd imagine having the lens off, camera facing down, indoors (so dust "falls off"). What do you think?

bbbig wrote in post #4093344
Does the XTi/40D manual say which way to orient the camera when using the sensor shaker? For best results, I'd imagine having the lens off, camera facing down, indoors (so dust "falls off"). What do you think?

No, that is not the way to do it. The manual emphasizes that the camera must be held level and taking care to make certain that it is not tipped nose down or up during the cleaning. If you will refer to the various posts above that mention the sticky strip of dust-catching material, it becomes obvious why the camera must be held level.

bill boehme wrote in post #4093425
No, that is not the way to do it. The manual emphasizes that the camera must be held level and taking care to make certain that it is not tipped nose down or up during the cleaning. If you will refer to the various posts above that mention the sticky strip of dust-catching material, it becomes obvious why the camera must be held level.

Well in the 40D manual it does not EMPHASIZE, it says for BEST RESULTS place on a table ETC., and that appears to be generally talking about the using of the menu to clean, it cleans slightly longer. 2.5 secs opposed to about 1 sec with the on/off switch

I tend as I said before turn the camera on and off with lens facing down, and my sensors is pretty dam clean

MaDProFF wrote in post #4094077
I tend as I said before turn the camera on and off with lens facing down, and my sensors is pretty dam clean

If the dust doesn't land on the sticky strip in the bottom of the camera, then its still floating around in there somewhere.

DDan wrote in post #4094101
If the dust doesn't land on the sticky strip in the bottom of the camera, then its still floating around in there somewhere.

who cares, you shake the dust off every time you turn it on and off, so chances are you have shaken it off, just before you are shooting

Read my other posts, my 30D was filthy, though i never cleaned it except for a blower, my 30D has never been cleaner than my 40D is, so as far as I am concerned the 40D sensor cleaning works dam well, considering I use the 100-400L most of the time.

Yes I accept the fact if there was lubs etc. it would not clean off, but they should not be in the camera in the first place to have to clean off, Bad Canon for allowing them to be left in there

I bought my 40D the day I flew out to Africa for three weeks. On previous trips I've had to blast away at my 20D with the rocket blower most evenings. With the 40D I never saw the slightest sign of dust (and that was mainly using the 100-400, the supposed 'dust-trombone').

Nicholas R. wrote in post #4089630
Hate to tell you , but run auto-levels and you come up with at least 22 dust-bunnies. I posted it here:

http://www.pbase.com/c​opperhill/image/869220​80

Nicholas
www.copperhillimages.c​om

Interesting, but so what? Its very doubtful that you would notice this in the vast majority of images/prints.

versedmb,

In macro photography you will probably notice dust in 90% of the images, so a clean sensor is not a luxury, it's a necessity. Also, a very dusty sensor will be apparent in light backgrounds starting at f/10. If you tend to shoot everything wide open, you have the choice of never ever cleaning your sensor, and most PJ work is done that way. But what happens if you wake up one day and start to explore macro or landscape photography? Now you've got a crudded up sensor that will require a ton of work to get clean. So maybe routine maintenance is not such a bad thing, no?

Look, it is a mystery to me still how some people claim to get 100% dust-free shots with the use of their in-camera shakers while other people using the same model camera have very limited results. This is not just about new cameras with lubricant spread around, it applies to cameras that have been wet cleaned and then continued to accumulate a lot of dust even with shakers like the 40D. Here is an independent, unbiased study that I had nothing to do with:
http://www.pixinfo.com​/en/articles/ccd-dust-removal/

There was a guy a few months ago who posted a shot on dpreview.com from an Olympus D-SLR and said it was taken at f/22 and had zero dust. Well, the same thing happened with that shot, auto-levels and, boom - 8 dust specks. But in my opinion, if that camera had never been cleaned by any dry or wet method, those results are still fantastic. So the Oly system is the only one proven to work.

If your shaker is working, great! But check back here after using it for 3, 4 or 5 months with frequent lens changes because there will probably be that unidentified, unexplainable "nebulous crud" that gets mighty stuck to the sensor besides ordinary dust particles. This stuff has the consistency of lubricant, so to think you're never ever going to have stuff like that on your sensor to deal with is a little silly IMHO.

Nicholas
www.copperhillimages.c​om

Nicholas R. wrote in post #4099972
versedmb,

In macro photography you will probably notice dust in 90% of the images, so a clean sensor is not a luxury, it's a necessity. Also, a very dusty sensor will be apparent in light backgrounds starting at f/10. If you tend to shoot everything wide open, you have the choice of never ever cleaning your sensor, and most PJ work is done that way. But what happens if you wake up one day and start to explore macro or landscape photography? Now you've got a crudded up sensor that will require a ton of work to get clean. So maybe routine maintenance is not such a bad thing, no?

Look, it is a mystery to me still how some people claim to get 100% dust-free shots with the use of their in-camera shakers while other people using the same model camera have very limited results. This is not just about new cameras with lubricant spread around, it applies to cameras that have been wet cleaned and then continued to accumulate a lot of dust even with shakers like the 40D. Here is an independent, unbiased study that I had nothing to do with:
http://www.pixinfo.com​/en/articles/ccd-dust-removal/

There was a guy a few months ago who posted a shot on dpreview.com from an Olympus D-SLR and said it was taken at f/22 and had zero dust. Well, the same thing happened with that shot, auto-levels and, boom - 8 dust specks. But in my opinion, if that camera had never been cleaned by any dry or wet method, those results are still fantastic. So the Oly system is the only one proven to work.

If your shaker is working, great! But check back here after using it for 3, 4 or 5 months with frequent lens changes because there will probably be that unidentified, unexplainable "nebulous crud" that gets mighty stuck to the sensor besides ordinary dust particles. This stuff has the consistency of lubricant, so to think you're never ever going to have stuff like that on your sensor to deal with is a little silly IMHO.

Nicholas
www.copperhillimages.c​om

Nicholas. I appreciate your input.

But I shoot alot of landscape and macros and I rarely see any dust in my images. If I do, I use my Rocket blower.

Here are a couple of shots I took over the weekend. I know that I have at least 4 dust spots on my sensor, but I can only see them in blue sky shots at f/20. Sometimes people really do worry/obsess too much....




f/8...

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versedmb,

Different strokes for different strokes, but I would have liked to seen a lot more DOF in your shots. The shot of the berries has the focus on one little spot of a handle, so I don't know what your intent was in that picture. And the boat shot looks quite a bit soft throughout, but you shot it at f/9, so you most likely wouldn't see sensor dust there.

But like I said, in my previous post, if your style of shooting doesn't bring the state of your sensor into play, then you don't have anything to worry about.

Nicholas
www.copperhillimages.c​om

Yeah, I was obsessing.

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DDan wrote in post #4100198
Yeah, I was obsessing.

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Can't really argue with that. That is some serious dust. What f stop is that? Were you recently shooting in the Saraha?!!

versedmb wrote in post #4100372
Can't really argue with that. That is some serious dust. What f stop is that? Were you recently shooting in the Saraha?!!

That is my 30D when it was about 2 weeks old. I had only taken about 300 shots if I remember correctly. That is an f22 shot with auto levels applied. IMO the bulk of the stuff is lubricant blobs. Neither the blower or a brush would budge the stuff. The larger darker spots smeared really badly when I used the wet swabs.