bunnies...dust bunnies

[Fruengalli]

2/3rds the way through our trip & the mystery bird/bat starts to show up in exactly the same spot in the frame...amazing eh? Lucky we were in Dunedin & the only camera store in town ("Jonathons" I think) said bring it in & we'll do it straight up. $30 & all is good. Lesson here is I've always turned the body off BEFORE changing lenses. Just prior to this I frantically changed lenses when the dolphins turned up & paid the price as the sensor is still charged & just sucks that dust in!! Bunnies are not cute.

[farmmax]

I think that was more of a dust elephant than a bunny

You were very lucky there was someone handy to clean it.

[ricktas]

clone tool or healing tool should both shoot that bunny dead.

[Mary Anne]

Agree with Rick on that one about the cloning or healing tool in PS, shooting macro at f/16 to 5x magnification that works for me

Very easy to remove many loose type dust bunnies yourself. Take the lens off put the camera on Sensor Clean> Clean Manually. Camera Body downwards use a Can of Air.
Its amazing what will drop off the Sensor on to a piece of white paper when given a couple of squirts of Air, if that does not work then I clean the Sensor myself.
When removing a lens in the outdoors I put the camera in a plastic bag and do it that way as I am a tad slower these days.

[arthurking83]

...... Lesson here is I've always turned the body off BEFORE changing lenses. .....

Makes no difference if the camera is on or off.
Except in the strange situation where you have liveview on whilst changing lenses, you can't physically get dust onto the sensor at any time whilst changing lenses.
The shutter is supposed to ensure that! The shutter is light tight, so even the most minutely microscopic dust particle cannot penetrate it's metallic structure.

Most dust particles enter into the interior of the mirror box at some point and sit there waiting for the opportunity to attach themselves to the sensor the next time the shutter is opened.
Almost any zoom lens, or fixed focal lens without good environmental sealing, will pump dust into the mirror box at all times.
My D70s is testament to that as it's had the 18-105VR fitted to it for the past 2 or 3 years without having come off .. other than to clean dust off the sensor.

....

Very easy to remove many loose type dust bunnies yourself. Take the lens off put the camera on Sensor Clean> Clean Manually. Camera Body downwards use a Can of Air.
......

While I've sworn by Can of Air for the past 8 or so years(not the actual brand Can-o-air) but most brands of air in a can .. because this dust issue has cropped up out in the field .. one thing to note with any canned air products is that it's important not to allow vigorous movement of the can immediately prior to use. You could potentially spray the propellant onto the sensor and haze it up!
This is something you definitely don't want out in the field.
The haze can be cleaned off easily enough tho, without any problem, but needs a wet clean .. once again thanks to my poor old D70s for sacrificing itself willingly to the cause of greater understanding.

For 99% of really annoying dust bunnies like this type, and even some of the obvious smaller dot type that still ruin an image, even tho it's easy to clone them out .. I use a sensor brush.
Got it with the Copperhill cleaning kit. Basically a very soft bristle brush that comes in a protective tube so as to not contaminate the bristles. I keep it in my bag as it takes up 'no room'.
I've used it to clean dust out in the open air many times over the years without problem. As long as there is no wind, it's perfectly safe to do a quick and limited sensor clean out in the open.
If it's windy, obviously you want to do it in a sheltered location.

Not too long ago tho, I purchased two sensor gel sticks.
These have been the best purchase for my cameras since I originally got the D70s all that time ago.
Makes sensor cleaning 50% easier, as well as quicker.

For the D70s and D300, the wet clean copperhill system was perfect .. never caused me any drama or problem.
But with the D800, the wet clean method wasn't working for me. On many occasions I could have done up to 20 or so cleans on the D800 just to get it acceptable(not quite clean tho!) and it was frustrating.
So I took the gamble and got a couple of those sensor gel sticks.
These are just sticky pads on a stick. You lightly dab the sensor with it, the stickiness of the gel picks up dust spots. You then touch the dusty-sticky part fo the gel stick onto some (supplied) sticky paper and it's cleaned off .. you then repeat until the sensor is clean.
The system is brilliant! You can get the very expensive brands from some 'established' sites run by photographers that want to (greatly)profit from these devices .. or you can find them on ebay.
Mine is an ebay non branded thing .. 2 for half the price of the so called name branded stuff.

Of course being a new system, I had to test it on the excruciatingly annoying D70s. This sensor attracts dust like nothing else .. even sitting still .. not being used.
Piece of cake
Then on the D300 .. again easy peasy.
Then .. on the hard to clean D800E. On my first try with it .. It freaked me out. literally. It left all this gooey looking sticky residue on the sensor that was easy to see. bluddy 'ell!
So I then cleaned it with the wet clean system. It came good no problem, but it also cleaned perfectly with only the one attempt(whereas before I'd never got it perfectly clean ever .. let along with less than about 10-20 swipes of the wet clean method).

So, even tho it was clean, I had to try it again on the D800 to see what was going on with the gel .. why it was leaving this partly hazing looking residue.
One touch on the sensor and again, the residue. I cleaned that one touch with the wet clean again. Back to the D300(even tho it was clean) and no residue. Back to the D800 again, and now only some residue.
I could see that it slowly left less of this residue after each dab.
It took a while but eventually it stopped leaving residue on the D800 after a few more dabs.
This was all more than a year ago now, and I haven't touched the copperhill stuff ever since.

So while the gel stick hasn't been the smoothest experience, it has eventually become the one to use!

Here's my gel stick experience thread:

I never take a can of air in my bag ... it gets shaken around too much for practical use. I only ever use it at home.
Even tho I have a gel stick in my bag, I've never used it ... old habits die hard, and the one time in the past year I had to a quick clean .. I automatically went for the sensor brush.

** One last point with these dust elephants .. you can knock them off in some instances.
Face the camera downwards and with the palm of your hand hit the side of the camera a few times. Remember tho this needs to be done with the camera off, as the dust particle is already on the sensor and there should be no charge on the sensor(to allow it to dislodge).
But again, as the camera is off, the shutter is closed and if you do manage to get this dust particle off, it will fall onto the inside of the shutter!
That means that you know there is one large particle of dust still inside the shutter mechanism in perpetuity. It could eventually come back at any time to annoy.
This shouldn't worry you tho .. as there are probably hundreds/thousands already on the inside of the shutter blades.

But changing lenses in the field will not get dust onto your sensor. The dust is inside your mirror box and somehow gets onto the sensor during the raucous happenings of an exposure.