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| Lightroom CC 2017 Dust Spotting Function (click to enlarge) |
The first digital camera I owned which did an excellent job clearing sensor dust and keeping the sensor dust free was the Olympus E-M1. That is even more interesting as mirrorless cameras don't have mirrors, by definition, to cover the sensor. They don't have that extra layer of defense against dust as do digital SLRs. I used that camera for a few years and almost never had to clean the sensor. However Olympus has engineered their internal dust removal system, it works wonderfully.
Now, with a few years experience with my Fuji X-T1 and my X-T2, I am having the same experience as with the Olympus camera.
I have used the X-T1 since February 2014 and have only had to clean my sensor a few times. I have had the X-T2 since September 12th and I still have no need to clean its sensor. I had made over 10,000 images with the X-T1 and about 8700 with the X-T2. Again, I think this is remarkable considering I change lenses often while in the field and photograph under a wide variety of conditions.
When having to clean my Fuji sensors (or any sensor for that matter), I first use a Giottos Rocket Blower to remove loose dust particles. With the Nikon that was never sufficient, but with my Fuji cameras that is all I have needed and I have had no need for physical contact with the sensor. I ensure the camera is turned off, remove the lens or body cap while the camera lens opening is pointed down (gravity keeps anything from falling "up" into the opening). A few strategic presses of the blower and I remount the lens or body cap with the camera body still pointing down. That is it. With my Nikons, I had to proceed to other steps such as using the Arctic Butterfly or even a Sensor Swab to remove the dust. Touching the sensor with some sort of cleaning tool was always a bit scary.
The image above illustrates how I go about determining if there is dust in my images and on my sensor.
Thank you Fuji for designing a system that is very effective in keeping dust from the sensor which saves me a lot of time and aggravation.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
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Indeed so far I only cleaned my sensor once, and that was the week after I got it so who knows, it might have been on it from the start. Since them I have indeed been changing lenses a LOT between shots but always do so in a non windy environment with the body lens mount faced downward and the lens up after quickly removing the caps. so far so good, no dust spots at all and much of what I shoot has lots of sky in it where it would show up it's nasty self if it was there. I agree, so far this has been the least I've had dust issues of many bodies I've owned.
ReplyDeleteThe thought of using any sort of wet sensor cleaning fills me with horror and thankfully over the years I've never had to resort to it.
ReplyDeleteMy preferred method is to start with the blower and if this doesn't do the job I move onto the static electricity method.
To do this I have a lens pen (brush) which I keep stored in an air tight container exclusively for this job. To charge the brush I hold the lens pen inside the nossle of a running vacumn cleaner for about 15-20 seconds to build up a static charge. A quick brush of the sensor with the charged brush usually removes the most stubborn dust in the first application.
A few more seconds in the vacume cleaner to remove the accumulated dust and then back into the sealed container until needed again.