Sensor cleaning question

[arthurking83]

A bit off topic. Before I leave home I put the lens on that I think I will use most for the outing, In a sterile place.

.....

Dave! You're kind'a wasting your time and efforts really .. here's why.

Changing lenses in itself is not really how or why the sensor collects dust onto itself.
The dust particles it collects are smaller than the small floaties loitering within the camera's mirror box assembly.
The dust specks are usually of a finer/smaller size than the stuff that settles in the mirror box area.
The dust that collects onto the sensor does so due to electrostatic attraction, that is, as the sensor is on, or operating, it has a charge around it that attracts dust specks.
The dust specks are smaller and more easily attracted to the sensor, whereas the larger particles usually fall onto whatever surface they can.

For the vast majority of its time, the sensor is actually well protected from the ingress of dust, even when changing lenses.
That is, you can easily change lenses in a dusty environment and not get dust on your sensor at all!
The fact that is well hidden and isolated behind a shutter is quite an important point to understand about this.
That is, if the shutter is not going to protect the sensor against massive dust particles, how is it expected to provide a light tight seal for correct exposure?
(photons are much smaller than dust specks!!)

What invariably happens is that dust does get into the camera body, and you can do all you like and take all the necessary precautions to minimise this, but the fact is that most dust gets into the camera chamber via the lens .. especially zoom lenses.
Very few, if any, are completely sealed from the miniscule particles of dust.

I haven't actually tried this myself, but I'm pretty sure that the Nikon 105VR lens is weather sealed to a degree. Maybe not entirely, but close to it, as it has a rubber sealing ring on the mount.
But the only real way to know for certain how dust gets onto a sensor is to do a long term trial using an unsealed vs a sealed lens test.

of course it's always better to be cautious when changing lenses, but don't be overzealous about it!
The chances are that it's the common every day usage of the camera that will attract dust to the sensor .... it's inevitable for a partially sealed camera design.

[William]

A bit off topic. Before I leave home I put the lens on that I think I will use most for the outing, In a sterile place.

here is what I do. I take the cap off the lens that is going on the camera but I always blow around the cap before removing it.
I then place the lens upright on a clean surface, then I blow around the camera body and lens before un-attatching, I then put the unattached lens upright on the clean surface and then put the clean cap on the other lens I always use the same back cap when swapping lenses and not one from the bottom of my bag. Make sense

Should be pretty right doing it that way Dave , In the mornings , I always swap between 3 lenses , I have the back of my Hatchback set like a work bench for Lens swapping , I dont worry about giving it all a puff, Just swap them quickly , Make sure you turn the Camera off before you change lenses

[Duane Pipe]

Thanks for the reply Arthure and Bill.

Another scenario... I worked as a sandblaster for a few months before a promotion, It was a cabinet type with gloves.
After a while the gloves would get holes in them and the air passing over my bear fingers would create static and Man I would get some big zaps, so what would be the affect of blowing air over the sensor! I doubt that the volume of air from what we use would create static like that

[William]

When I saw , Worked as a Sandblaster, I thought , No you would'nt , We used to use little ones called Mighty mites for small jobs , Dunno about cleaning a sensor though, Rather use a Tooth brush and Bon-Ami , Hey!! dont try that I'm only joking , In answer to you Re: Static . I'd think you would be safe Dave

[Papou]

I have purchased a couple of artists brushes from the loacal art gallery aprox the size of the sensor of my K10D(havent touched the 5D11 as yet) and what i normaly do is blow a fair whack of comp air over the brush as its said to cause static elec of the hair particles which help pick up some dust off the sensor as i brush across it first.
I then swab across the sensor with homemade swabs(plastic) with lint free material and iso propalene and so far had no issues removing dust from the K10D.
Mindya i did make one hellova mess with the Pentax isTds sensor when i cleaned it with older fluid that was left stand for some time and it DID leave oil streaks across the sensor till i got to it with fresh fluid.
Bit of a sweat job that was too
Like previousely said , so long as you use a tadof common sence its hard to damage that sensor and they are quite hardy from most reports ive read to date.

[Duane Pipe]

That sounds like a good idea using a charged brush

- - - Updated - - -

Thank for the reply's Arthur and Bill. I have treated the 7d better than myself but there is still a 4mm long tissue type fiber inside one of my lenses.