Quote from Highsider9 :

Wow, thanks guys. These were shot with a Sigma 10-20mm (which I borrowed from a friend) on my Nikon D50.

Added (Nikon version) 10-20mm to my wishlist.

I've decided to try and reduce my lens collection to 2 lenses.. a 10-20mm and an 18-200mm. Since going digital, the threat of airborn dust has exploded. The only way I can think of to reduce the risk of contaminating the sensor is by reducing the frequency with which I swap lenses "in the field".

At the moment, I have a 24-50mm, a 55mm micro-Nikkor, a 105mm and a 500mm reflex-Nikkor. That's a lot of lens-swapping.

Quote from SamH :

Added (Nikon version) 10-20mm to my wishlist.

I've decided to try and reduce my lens collection to 2 lenses.. a 10-20mm and an 18-200mm. Since going digital, the threat of airborn dust has exploded. The only way I can think of to reduce the risk of contaminating the sensor is by reducing the frequency with which I swap lenses "in the field".

At the moment, I have a 24-50mm, a 55mm micro-Nikkor, a 105mm and a 500mm reflex-Nikkor. That's a lot of lens-swapping.

lens swapping is not really that big problem - just learn to do it properly - it takes me just a few seconds and the camera/lens stay uncovered for only like 1-2 secs. On rallies, i change lens all the time, ive never seen anyone change lens so often on a rally - and you have lots of dust there...

Aye.. I've become pretty efficient at it. It was a rude awakening when I moved to digital, though. Even though dust was a consideration with film, just getting random particles into the mirror space, my digital's electrostatic appeal for dust took me by surprise. Seems like when I take the lens off, dust from miles around wants to get personal with my camera's sensor.

The biggest issue for me, apart from dust, is the range of the lenses that I have. Even though an 18-200 lens is something of a jack-of-all-trades, with the ED glass and aspherical elements inside it's still capable of delivering images at least as crisp as the ancient lenses I have now.

Does your camera have a dust removal function, Sam?

Yup! It's called a Q-tip

Sadly none of the Nikon pro cameras have ever had a cleaning system AFAIK. Definitely not my old D1x

This little brush is about the best thing i've found for getting dust off your sensor. A blast of canned air will charge the bristles and a few swipes from one side to the other and you're done.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/ ... 657_HDF_Sensor_Brush.html


They sell this thing as an add-on to their ridiculously overpriced electric toothbrush gizmo, which costs upwards of $100 and does the same thing as canned air. In fact, before they started selling the "Arctic Butterfly" tool, the instructions were to use canned air.

Anyway, a great investment if you have a d-slr, especially if it doesn't have a vibrating sensor.

Interesting, although I think I'd be more comfortable using a very fine brush on the sensor (or the glass over the sensor anyway) than a... sticky thing. To each his own though.

I was thinking the same.. fine if what you're removing is a speck of dust, but if it happens to be a sharp little metal shaving off the edge of a lens mount, applying 4 tons/sq inch of pressure in the process of removing it.. well, it wouldn't be good news

Eh, it's the officially recommended procedure from Pentax. I'm sure they've spent a lot of time testing it.

I'm sure it'd be fine.. it's just counter-intuitive, applying pressure to unidentified particles, directly onto the sensor's IR filter. Scary! I might get a dust-free sensor, but I bet it'd have sweat splodges!

Ha ha! You all have fun cleaning your sensors. I'll sit here happily shooting and shooting my superzoom while you clean, hehehe.

Ain't had to clean my K20D yet. Hooray for self-shaking sensor crap!

Yeah the 40d does a pretty good job shaking stuff off too, it's the 20d I need to worry about.

Said it again and saying it again, the sensor dust cleaning units are just gimmicks. Disabled mine on the day I purchased the D700 last year and so far no problems after lens swaps on the field.

Of course Finland is not Iraq but then again if I was doing professional photography in dusty enviroments I'd just get two bodies with wide and tele lenses permanently attached.

Cleaned the sensor on my Canon 30D once with no problems .

I'm continuing to work through my old negatives, trying to spot half-decent shots through the translucent negative sleeve! LOL!

lol sam, as for dust why not get one of those air blasters like this http://www.giottos.com/Rocket-air.htm

as for the subject of lenses i need to get myself a 70-300mm and posible a nice quick prime which i would have found very useful trying to take some shots of karts on a floodlit circuit. feable attempts with kit lens attached

edit: and yes they are very noisy, was using ISO1600 for obvious reasons and forgot to turn the high iso noise reduction back on after some failed continous shooting

Quote from james12s :

as for the subject of lenses i need to get myself a 70-300mm

I can't remember which camera you've got.. if it's a Nikon, let me strongly recommend NOT getting that Nikon 70-300 G. It's dirt cheap for a very good reason.. it's absolutely attrocious.

na i went canon, i got a 450d

Got my Pentax ZX-5n and ZX-7 AF film cameras in the mail today. Should be fun to play around with.

I'll try to post some scans when I get them.

New crap ahoy!

First a band promo shoot I did earlier this month. This is an un-processed preview so be gentle - "I'll fix it in the mix"!



Sorry for the watermark. Shot on an overcast evening. Details on Flickr if someone's interested.

And I was very bored last night so it was self-portrait time again.

Quote from spankmeyer :

Said it again and saying it again, the sensor dust cleaning units are just gimmicks.

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. The sensor on my 20d (which has no vibrating sensor) needs manual cleaning at least once a week, given that I change lenses quite often. The sensor on my 40d barely ever shows dust, even pointed at a blue sky at f/22. I can't speak for other brands but the Canon self-cleaning sensor has saved me a good deal of time.

I do, for the record, open up the 40d and clean out the dust that has been shaken off once in a while, but not nearly as much as I have to brush off the 20d sensor.

Unless of course you're talking about all the over-priced cleaning kits available these days, in which case yes, many are totally unnecessary.

Quote from titanLS :

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. The sensor on my 20d (which has no vibrating sensor) needs manual cleaning at least once a week, given that I change lenses quite often. The sensor on my 40d barely ever shows dust, even pointed at a blue sky at f/22. I can't speak for other brands but the Canon self-cleaning sensor has saved me a good deal of time.

I respectfully request you to post a video of your lens swap technique/living quarters/working enviroment if your sensor is clogged with dust so often.

Granted, I don't take pictures of brick walls or blue skies at f22.

like the 2nd one, very different, and depending how you look at it slightly humerous