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How do you guys do it?

miketerndrup
Enthusiast

I am freaking the hell out about being able to afford the mirrorless camera and adapter how do you guys save money for it?

25 REPLIES 25

 

Here you Go and I do clean it a lot I even had it professional clean a year ago 

Easter (9 of 11).jpg

That is a lot of spots on the sensor (well actually the LP filter that sits on the sensor) but a proper cleaning should take care of it.  My 1D Mark II saw a lot of outdoor usage with frequent lens changes and I had to clean it and the lens a lot.  I had a lot of spots after one trip to Colorado that made the beautiful blue CO skies from one hike look like a flak filled WWII bombing run 🙂

 

I definitely wouldn't replace the camera because of those spots, they should clean up perfectly.  I thought originally you were referring to defects in the sensor.  "Professional" cleaning can mean a lot of things, Canon may still offer cleaning for cameras for which they no longer replace parts and a call to Canon service will clarify it.  A lot of camera shops can't/won't do any better than the owner at cleaning.

 

I use L series glass with 1DX series bodies which are pretty well sealed but my cameras do get a once a year checkup and cleaning and when needed I will clean the sensor between visits to Canon.

 

Rodger

EOS 1DX M3, 1DX M2, 1DX, 5DS R, M6 Mark II, 1D M2, EOS 650 (film), many lenses, XF400 video

I try cleaning it twice now and did everything other people have told me to do


@miketerndrup wrote:

 

Here you Go and I do clean it a lot I even had it professional clean a year ago 

Easter (9 of 11).jpg


You should not have clean your sensor a lot.  Send your camera to Canon for a professional cleaning done right.

--------------------------------------------------------
"The right mouse button is your friend."

The problem is baseball start for me soon and I need it for baseball 

Mike,

 

If you need it in a hurry, then research cleaning it yourself and see if you feel competent to do so.  Adorama has a good writeup on their website that covers simple dry through more involved wet cleaning.

 

It is certainly possible to damage a camera through improper cleaning but it really isn't that difficult to clean a sensor and I have done it many times on all of my camera bodies, sometimes when you are traveling it is a necessity.  

 

Read up on the procedure and if you do it yourself, make sure you start with a known good fully charged battery.  Don't even think about trying to clean it using a camera with a plug in power adapter because a power glitch at the wrong point will result in damage to your camera.

 

Rodger

EOS 1DX M3, 1DX M2, 1DX, 5DS R, M6 Mark II, 1D M2, EOS 650 (film), many lenses, XF400 video

Thank You I will I guess I should close this topic before I get in trouble 


@miketerndrup wrote:

Thank You I will I guess I should close this topic before I get in trouble 


Hi Mike:

 

Thank you for clarifying what the base issue actually was.  The better the understanding of an issue the more effective the advice you will get.  The conversation has taken a completely different tack from that one post you made.

 

I agree with two statements: first that a lot of camera shops will not necessarily do a great job in cleaning a sensor and that, done carefully, you can clean your own sensor with the right equipment.  There are sensor cleaning kits for various-sized sensors (you need to get the right one).  They come with all that you  will need and if you carefully read the instructions beforehand and follow them, you should see a marked improvement.

 

Definitely having a sensor cleaned by Canon should not be impacted by the age of the camera.  I bought a 20 y.o. camera and had it cleaned by Canon - they took just a couple of days to return it to me with some other work done too - and the charge was reasonable.  The fact that there is so much dust and other particulares on your sensor suggests to me you should send it in for a sensor and internal cleaning, as there may be more dust in other nooks and crannies of the internals of the body that should be removed.

 

So, don't think of throwing the baby out with the bathwater by thinking that for something as normal and minor as a sensor and internal clean that you need to get a new camera. Smiley Happy

 

For future reference, a lot of the dust comes into a camera from three main sources:

 

1. The camera is opened when the lens is changed and dust gets into the body.  This can be avoided to a degree by:

a)  Not changing lenses in the open, or in dusty areas.
b) If you need to do so, turn the camera off - if the body is open and the sensor is powered, it acts like a dust magnet and pulls dust onto your sensor.   Make sure the body is pointing front down, to stop dust falling into the body. Have your other lens ready with the back cap off (and the back pointing down), take the first lens off, put the new one on and then cap the now unused lens.  Then power the camera back on again.

 

2. Use the EVF instead of the rear LCD to shoot images.  There are a couple of reasons for this.

a)  If you shoot with telephotos, holding the camera away from your body provides an extremely unstable platform and is likely to lead to loss of images via camera shake. You need three points of support for stability - that's why tripods have 3 legs. Smiley Wink Use the EVF with your arms tucked into your torso and the camera pressed to your face as you look through the EVF.  In terms of dust, when you use Live View and the LCD to focus and compose, the protection of the mirror and shutter are lost as the sensor is exposed while you are zooming in and out - see (3).

 

3. Lenses that extend a lot, and many zooms do this, act like bellows: sucking in air to allow the lens to extend but pulling in contaminants with them. When the lens is shortened again the dust particles get pushed into the camera body.  Getting weather protected lenses - i.e. L-series lenses will help with this as they have seals and gaskets to reduce the flow of air into the body.  Also, not rapidly extending and retracting the lens will slow down the air flow.  As in (2) having the shutter open and mirror up will simply provide a direct path for dust to go to the sensor.

 

It is definitely a good idea to use a blow drier to clean the inside of the body frequently. Again, point the body down and use a good blower (Rocket blowers are good) to blow dust out of the body - during this the shutter should be closed.

 


cheers, TREVOR

"The Amount of Misery expands to fill the space available"
"All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow", Leo Tolstoy;
"Skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by purchase" Percy W. Harris


@Waddizzle wrote:

You should not have clean your sensor a lot.  Send your camera to Canon for a professional cleaning done right.


This is by far the best post in the thread and the OP should take it as gospel. 


@John_SD wrote:

@Waddizzle wrote:

You should not have clean your sensor a lot.  Send your camera to Canon for a professional cleaning done right.


This is by far the best post in the thread and the OP should take it as gospel. 


Waddizzle's statement about not needing to clean the sensor was why I went to the effort of trying to exlplain the paths by which dust can get into the camera and to the sensor in particular and how to mitigate them. If the conditions I described are repeated he will just have to send it back for another clean sooner than later.

 

I agree that Canon are likely to provide the best result, but the OP seems to want to use his camera for baseball - frankly, I think it is worth missing a game to get the camera fully cleaned and do his images justice.


cheers, TREVOR

"The Amount of Misery expands to fill the space available"
"All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow", Leo Tolstoy;
"Skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by purchase" Percy W. Harris
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