Is there a downside to EOS R Auto Cleaning sensor at power off?

[tedmh]

I turn my EOS R on and off a lot to save power. I also don't change lenses very often. I'd like to understand the sensor cleaning feature better. 

Is there a risk of overusing the sensor cleaning feature? 

Will it wear out or damage sensor with excessive use?

Would it be better for the camera to use the manual sensor cleaning setting as needed instead of the auto setting?

[kvbarkley · Accepted solution]

We of course are not Canon Engineers, so we can only guess.

1. I doubt there is a risk of damaging the cleaning feature, and if you did, you would just lose out on the cleaning. (For non-camera cameras that use this as part of in-body IS it might cause more problems.)

2. No all it does is ultrasonically shake the sensor to get dust off, it should not damage the sensor or connections.

3. This is totally up to you, that is why Canon gave you the option.

[BurnUnit]

Since you're not changing lenses frequently, I assume that the EOS R has the option to turn off automatic sensor cleaning. When you do change a lens you might want to manually do a sensor cleaning the next couple of times that you power-up the camera.

I don't think there's a chance of putting much extra wear on the camera leaving it set to automatic cleaning though. I've always left my 60D set to auto cleaning and have never given it a second thought. Like you, I don't make frequent lens changes and I've never felt the need to physically clean the sensor (or have it cleaned) since I bought the camera originally.

[Waddizzle]

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@BurnUnit wrote:

Since you're not changing lenses frequently, I assume that the EOS R has the option to turn off automatic sensor cleaning. When you do change a lens you might want to manually do a sensor cleaning the next couple of times that you power-up the camera.

I don't think there's a chance of putting much extra wear on the camera leaving it set to automatic cleaning though. I've always left my 60D set to auto cleaning and have never given it a second thought. Like you, I don't make frequent lens changes and I've never felt the need to physically clean the sensor (or have it cleaned) since I bought the camera originally.

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While not changing lenses often does help to keep your sensor cleaner compared to frequent changes, the type of lens you are using make a difference.

If your lens has internal focusing and zooming, then there is not much of issue with dust and stuff getting inside of the lens or on the image sensor.  However, any lens that changes its' length to focus or zoom must "breathe" a little to change its' length. 

So, if your favorite lens changes its' length to zoom or focus, then you may want to leave automatically cleaning on, like BurnUnit.