Nightski

I finally decided to clean the sensor on my Rebel XTI today. I've read all the tutorials, I've watch several youtubes, I've been coached.

1.)I go through the steps, and I go outside and take a photo of the bright blue sky. The first photo comes out like #1

2.)My heart sinks. I open it up again and swab it. The second photo comes out like #2

3.) I can't hurt anything at this point, right? I open her up under an intensity light, and look in. There is a big hair. I don't know where that came from, but I get my giotto back out, and blow it again. Wa La...the hair comes out, I get test photo #3, and I am never, never, never doing that again!!

Test #1


Test #2


Test #3

tramsey Loc: Texas

At least it was big enough to easily see and you preserved until you had success. Congratulations :thumbup: :thumbup:

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Yayyy!
My office is far from any window.
I just stop the lens down, put piece of paper or my white balance filter over the lens and point it at a light source.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I had a hair in my XTi for about 6 months. Long before I knew anything about sensor cleaning, etc. When I finally figured out where it was, I nabbed it with teasers. Test 3 certainly shows a nice clean sensor.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Send it to the lab for a hair follicle and DNA test!



;-)

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

Okay so here is a story that should make you feel better.

Last April I received my Canon EOS 7D and couldn't have been happier. Forget the kid in the candy store I was King of the World! To top it off there was a fire recently that made some really pretty cloud formations. I had to get them and thought they would make great test shots. I knew exactly where to go so I packed my brand new baby in a camelback and set off.

Reaching the area I parked, grabbed my gear and started up the mountain. Whether I was lazy or in a daze doesn't matter, but since I only slipped on side of the camelback over one shoulder I am sure you know what happened next. I slipped, the bag shifted and down it went. From King of the World to that gut wrenching feeling of excrement under your boot. I was devastated. I knew it was broken and almost didn't want to know how bad.

With nothing else to do I climbed the rest of the way and took a look though the viewfinder. Everything was fine except for that annoying spot just a little up and right from center. Can you even imagine how I felt. The camera was less than an hour old and I had already damaged it. It gets worse.

Thinking I cracked the lens I looked at the front. Perfect. Really worried now I took it off and looked at the back. Perfect. Oh No, that means that I broke the mirror. Nope. Even worse I must have broke the prism... Sickening.

My photos were fine so I lived with that for a year then one day I near the Canon Service Center and stopped in. I told the guy the problem, not how it got there of course, and asked how much a prism would cost. A technician happened to be standing nearby and said it could be replaced, but should be done there. Then...by chance, he pulled the lens, tilted it a little, laughed and handed it back to me.

He could see dust on the mirror. Dust...

I lived with dust on the mirror for over a year. My photos were clear so why look and I almost bought a new prism. Dust! Yes you can laugh now.

Nightski

This is what I wanted to hear. Thank you! I was hoping somebody would tell me that after all the stress I went through. :shock:

Nightski

I'm not laughing, Steve, that must have been awful for you. It's my biggest fear to fall in the water while photoging. Today one foot went in the pond, but I caught myself. Scary!

Nightski

You're right, a little humor is needed just about now :D

Nightski

Yes, but GN, that sky is so pretty. :-D

Nightski

Thank you Tramsey...yes, lucky for me.

UtahBob Loc: Southern NJ

Photo #3 is at f8. I never saw sensor dust until I started stopping down to get more dof for multi-row panos. I thought you really have to get up to f16 to really start catching all the dust in a test photo. I find boosting the contrast on the photo shows just about everything. I guess you really have to take the test photo at the minimum opening you'd expect to shoot at? My only success has been with a wet method with the sensorscope that lets you see the sensor. Generally it takes me two swabs. What's the worst that could happen - I destroy the sensor and must get a newer, better, body :)

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

Not to stretch this, but I was hiking once (off trail) with my camera and fell. I sortta rolled on my side camera up. If you would have seen it you would have laughed! Sacrifice the body - Protect the camera! You have to love photographers!

ted45 Loc: Delaware

OK. I got a new Nikon D5200 and the first time I changed the lens I was outdoors and a bug got inside. Getting the sensor cleaned cost me $60 bucks at the local camera store.

Would someone put up some links to tutorials on how to do it properly? Clean the sensor that is!

Nightski

UtahBob, UtahBob, UtahBob .... you did not just say that! Okay fine, I'll go out and test at F32, but if there's dust, it's staying there.