How did I get so much dust on my sensor?

[John King]

Arthur, I have found that the DoF quoted at e.g. DOFMaster web site to be highly allegorical, or words to that effect!

They might have had some relevance in film days, but I find that they are all but meaningless with my digital cameras. Using hyperfocal distance as stated just leads to most of the image being OoF IME. I seem to recall an article at either The Online Photographer, or maybe Luminous Landscapes that explained why these tables are no longer very useful. I agree with that.

I only occasionally move my lenses off f/5.6, but different lenses have different diffraction effects. My f/2 50 macro is all but diffraction immune until about f/16, whereas my 14-54 is often noticeably affected at f/8, but sometimes not.

While I have got OVF cameras that give (roughly) 100% FoV at 1.0x magnification, I am a convert to the EVF in my E-M1. Having an EVF means that the shutter is always open, except when actually taking a shot. These cameras also have fully electronic shutters and electronic first curtain shutters. It is vaguely suggested that the E-M1 MkII will have a fully electronic shutter with full sensor readout. Olympus do have a patent for such a global shutter.

[John King]

Further to the above, the E-M1 (etc) also have a fully mechanical shutter - just for the sake of clarity. The mechanical shutter is the default system.

[R1Joel]

Cleaning kit arrived today. I started out practicing on my old Pentax K10D. Found out it worked surprisingly well and easy. I used two wands and got it 90% clean. So I decided to move onto the new camera. This was before cleaning:




First wand:




Got alot off but still a fair bit there, just made it harder to see.

This was after the second pass. Removed it all but two specs. One decent sized on the top right and one tiny spec on the lower left. The lower left didn't concern me as it was tiny and in the lower portion of the picture, but the top right spec did.



So I went for third pass. This removed the top right spec. The bottom tiny spec remained but that didn't bother me. This is a photo of the sky as I realised that paper wasn't the best method because the paper itself started to get little drops of dirt on it.



I am happy to be back in action. I used both sides of each wand so 6 passes in all. Very easy to use and great instructions. I am glad I bought a kit and did it myself rather than taking it to a shop and getting them to do it (which would have cost me more than the kit.) Thanks everyone for the help. Much appreciated.

[ameerat42]

Cngs. I should do something like that too

[Cage]

I remember doing my Nikon D600 with much dread and trepidation, and was surprised with how easy it was and how good the result was.

I'm still amazed with the amount of crud you got on the sensor in such a short time.

[R1Joel]

I will be even more careful this time. Even though it was an pretty straight forward process I would prefer not to do it again anytime soon. Hopefully it stays clean for alot longer.

[R1Joel]

Here we go again... Took a couple of photos today and thought I noticed another spot of dirt on the sensor. So I went to the sky again and sure enough there a three new spots. I cleaned it two days ago and it was perfect. I used it once yesterday without changing lenses and today there is dirt on it again. What am I doing wrong? How is this happening? Two close to the centre and one in the top right hand side.

[Cage]

Is it definitely on the sensor and not on the front lens element.

I know when I had the D600 if I saw a spot I immediately thought sensor, but usually it was dust on the lens.

If not, there may be accumulated dust in the camera body, and from what you've said it is a mystery as to how it got there.

[mpb]

Not doing anything wrong, just a fact of life, but...
Remember that you have only cleaned you sensor (probably). If there was that much dust on it the chances are that there was dust everywhere inside your camera that you would not have seen.
Each time you take a shot, the mirror flap up out of the way then back into place. This would create a lot of turbulence inside you camera moving the dust off other part and onto the sensor.

[JoPho]

I tried cleaning the sensor myself...I watched 3 videos on You tube first. Thought how hard can this be! Spent $50 for 4 swabs

...what a mess I made.
The swabs were really wet and left puddles all around the edges of the sensor that dried to patches.

Took it to a professional who told me it was the dirtiest sensor they had ever seen.
I sat embarrassed while I listened to him tsking and tutting the horrors of dried up splodges of cleaning liquid mixed with dust.
Just saying.... one of us has managed to totally stuff up doing it themselves.

[arthurking83]

..... Spent $50 for 4 swabs

...what a mess I made.
The swabs were really wet and left puddles all around the edges of the sensor that dried to patches.

......

Were the swabs the do it yourself type(ie. copperhill type, that you wrap on a paddle and drop some fluid onto the tip) ... or were they a prepackaged ready to use device that you simply unwrap and apply?

If the latter, then obviously avoid them in the future.
If the former, then you obviously applied too much fluid. The do it yourself swab type only needs a couple of drops on the very end of the swab. (literally only two drops!) the fluid then spreads evenly across the tip of the swab and is wet enough so that it cleans and doesn't drown the sensor.

By the sound of it tho, it's most likely that you used a prepackaged swab type of some brand.
Was there a possibility that you may have pressed too hard onto the sensor whilst swiping too?
You don't really use any pressure on the swab at all. The alcohol type solvent is supposed to do all the work.

Anyhow, curious as to which brand of swab too .. just for folks to know what to avoid(if it really was oversaturated with fluid).

OH! .. and don't be disheartened either ... you learn from experience.

[Cage]

With much trepidation I did my Nikon D600 and it removed a couple of oil spots and left the sensor pristine.

I used Sensor Swab Plus, a pre-moistened swab, and wouldn't hesitate to use one again. Maybe all brands aren't equal.

[JoPho]

Glad to read your results were good Cage.

Were the swabs the do it yourself type(ie. copperhill type, that you wrap on a paddle and drop some fluid onto the tip) ... or were they a prepackaged ready to use device that you simply unwrap and apply?

By the sound of it tho, it's most likely that you used a prepackaged swab type of some brand.
Was there a possibility that you may have pressed too hard onto the sensor whilst swiping too?
You don't really use any pressure on the swab at all. The alcohol type solvent is supposed to do all the work.

Anyhow, curious as to which brand of swab too .. just for folks to know what to avoid(if it really was oversaturated with fluid).

OH! .. and don't be disheartened either ... you learn from experience.

They were prepacked in individual foils and quite wet. I just followed the instructions on the packet.
I can't remember exactly how hard I pushed, I think it was just a gentle swipe.

In hindsight I see I should have dried them off a bit first.
Here's a photo of the packet. I think there were actually 5 or 6 swabs for $49.
Maybe it was just one bad one?

[Mark L]

Just saying.... one of us has managed to totally stuff up doing it themselves.

I could have been another one of them but love my camera that has a sensor clean thingy every time it's turned on. Wonderful invention. Had the camera for 5 years and never needed to clean the sensor.

[arthurking83]

..... Had the camera for 5 years and never needed to clean the sensor.

It's important to note that never needed too is not the same thing as the sensor is dirty and maybe could do with a clean.

They can be mutually exclusive concepts even tho they are related.

That is, it's rare for a sensor not to become dirty in some way .. internal sensor cleaning features don't really do a perfect job of cleaning. They really just try to keep the sensor clean, and don't really clean it as such.
So the sensor may be dirty(in all likelyhood it's almost certain to be) .. but Mark touched on an important aspect .. is it dirty enough to the point where it's affecting images!!!

Someone that's regularly shooting at wide aperture settings won't see the effects of dust in the same way as someone that's always shooting stopped down.
Someone that shoots predominantly detailed images with few or no solid single colour/tone areas will not the see the same level of dust spots as when they shoot large areas of featureless monochrome scenes.

Thnx for the added info Jo. Strange that the swab had so much wetness too it. I've never actually used any prepackaged wipes/swabs before(only the copperhill wet system).
I thought of getting some for when I'm on the road and need to clean the camera(makes PP a lot less arduous).
But I have two other alternatives to a wet clean for impromptu situations:

1. a sensor brush. Got that with the copperhill kit for the obvious purpose of having a less fussy way to clean any obvious dust particles. It's basically a paint brush, but with super fine and soft bristles, and is packaged in a sealed tube to keep it clean. It comes with some special paper that you use to rub the bristles with to statically charge them so that they pick up the annoyances on the sensor. Over 10 years I've used it a fair amount and it's been good.
2. (BUT!!) a more recent purchase I made(a couple of years ago now) is the 'rubber stamp' it's a silicon rubber pad thingy .. and the idea is that dust sticks to sticky surfaces like baby's excretia. The theory is that the stickier stuff usually wins, so if you lightly pad a stickier substance onto a less sticky surface, the dust will transfer from less sticky(sensor) to more sticky(silicon rubbery pad thingy) .. and it works.
I got a cheapie off ebay($20 for two of them, as opposed to the ripoff $50 for one, via some (arguably) reputable sources.
These things are usually called 'gel sticks'. I did a short writeup of the one I got. Did have some issue initially, but it's come good now.
No wet stuff, just place it lightly on the sensor and it's usually 99.99% effective 99.99% of the time.
I've had to revert back to the wet clean for some particularly stuck particles .. but this is to be expected too.
In the past 10 or 20 cleans of the D800 sensor over the past couple of years I've only used the wet clean system once. gel stick is my preferred method now.