Verdict on 40D self-cleaning sensor

Now that the 40d has been out for seven months, have any of the early adopters developed an opinion on whether the sensor shaker does any good?

Seems to work very well for me. Had mine 6 months and only needed to "blow" a very sticky dust bunny out.

It works, I don't think it will eliminate cleanings, but it will extend the amount of time between them.

It certainly works.

It does NOT eliminate the dust problem altogether but it really does reduce it.

After about 5 months use I had only 2 small spots that showed up at f29 ( A couple of good puffs with a blower did the trick with those)
I don't change lenses very often but I have just over 4k shots taken and 3 lenses.

By contrast my old 30D with the same general usage would need a wet clean every couple of months or so.

Some people will say, "Don't bother with dust shaker, just use a blower" But a blower can actually INCREASE the dust on the sensor by throwing around any thats on surfaces in the camera or environment. (I have had this happen) A few more puffs will usually clear things up but I once had a very stuborn spec that appeared after a blowing and it needed a wet clean to fix.

just thinking, if the camera can shake off dust inside it, where do you think that dust goes?
does it just fall down to the base of the camera, float around or land behind the mirror, whats to say it wont fly back onto the sensor again?

Ralpho,
I personally haven't seen a difference in my 40D sensor being cleaner then my old 10D sensor (which did not have the auto clean). As I have to clean the sensor (blowing) about the same on both bodies (as I take a lot of f/16 or smaller aperture photos).

However compared to my 5D both my 10D and 40D sensor get much less dirtier The 5D I needed to wet clean often......

I was very skeptical of it but will say after 1200 images and many a lens swap I've got one very minor speck @ f/22 that came on it brand new out of the box. I've used the feature about 4 times since getting the camera and that one spot is all thats visible and you gotta look close to find it. Haven't use my Rocket Blower on it yet or ordered any Eclipse 2 fluid.

evandavies wrote in post #5432604
By contrast my old 30D with the same general usage would need a wet clean every couple of months.

kinda my same experience too but not as often.

My 40D dust sytem mimics the experiences I have had with the XTi. The system works pretty darn well for keeping most trash away. You will need an occasional cleaning or dust map, just not nearly as often as with older equipment. Well done Canon!

I seem to have a sopt on my sensor - witht he 20D by this much time I would have had to clean it 10X - so yes, it works.

Red Dot wrote in post #5432857
just thinking, if the camera can shake off dust inside it, where do you think that dust goes?

It falls onto an adhesive strip at the bottom of the mirror box. Thats another reason why a blow in there could make some airborne again.

Hmmm, just had a thought to use a small or low power vacuum cleaner with the nozzle held near the lens mount to pull any airborne particles away from the sensor while using a blower. I'll try it next time...

Yes, Tsmith, it wasn't every 2 months but there were times when it was that short between cleans.

It pretty conclusive that the dust shaker does what its supposed to...

i had it on my xti now on the 40d works pretty darn good. u still have to be careful when changing lenses and what not.

I saw dust after two days of using the 40D. The automatic cleaning didn't shake it off, but when invoking it manually a couple of times (when you do that, it will release the shutter as well, to give a little more "shake"), that took care of the problem.

I think the situation varies user to user! I had my 20D for 3 years, and only once had to resort to cleaning the sensor. So if I own my 40D for 3 years and never have to clean in that time, I guess I can speculate that it helped!

No need to clean my 40D after 6,000 exposures.