gwilliams6

This is all overblown. I use my Sony bodies in professional situations and in dusty , sandy and windy places and get no more dust than I did with my pro Nikon and Canon DSLRs.

The key is knowing how to keep them clean. I use an air blower bulb before each job, holding the camera body facing downwards so anything falls out. When changing lenses, again I hold the camera body facing downwards and remove the lens and mount the lens,keeping the camera body facing downwards.

Also get in the habit of using the blower bulb on the rear element of your lenses and the rear lens caps, with the rear of the lens down. Folks dont realize you can transfer dust and dirt from your lens and rear lens caps onto the clean camera sensor.

With these simple techniques and habits I can go many months or a year before I actually have to clean my camera sensor at all.

And yes my Sony cameras do have a setting to close the shutter over the sensor when not in use, but I don't bother as the shutter is not an item you want to get damaged accidentally with any intrusion. The sensor actually has a glass layer over it and is protected. When you clean your sensor, you are cleaning the glass layer over the sensor.

FYI I presently shoot with my MILC Sony A1, A7RIV, A7SIII, after 40 years using pro SLRs and DSLRs from Nikon and Canon (both brands).

Cheers

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burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I went five years before my Lumix sensor gathered a visible speck of dust. Previously, I cleaned Canons and Nikons about once every six months.

In all cases, there was a lens or body cap on the camera at all times when not changing lenses. I’m careful to change lenses in still air, grounding myself and the camera gear beforehand, to dissipate static.

Maybe that’s partly because I record lots of video and do lots of copy stand and macro work, in both cases using electronic shutter mode. There’s no air movement from a mirror and shutter to generate metal shavings, foam mirror dampening bits, and lubricant droplets, etc.

Barbonbrown

Olympus have a sensor vibration cleaning which has been very effective in keeping the sensors of all my various M4/3 cameras dust free over 10 years of using them in all sorts of conditions, though like any sensible user I try to change lenses infrequently in the field, then point the camera down, and do it quickly in a sheltered spot.
Once saw one Canon user wandering about on a dry Pakistani hillside with no lens or lens cap on, couldn't help but tell her the danger of dust in the works, and got a very frosty reception!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Unfortunately, many folks don't like the embarrassment of being called out by a stranger. But she may have changed her errant ways when you left... or at least after noticing all the black specks in her expensive travel images.

Learning photography is a life-long process. The finer points of technique take experience, reflection, feedback, and refinement. Some people just don't care. Others let their egos get in the way, while a few go, "Hmmm, okay, why is that, again, and what can I do about it?"

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

It depends on how good the sensor cleaning system is. Two cameras, 15 years, zero sensor cleanings. I think it is more dependent on cleaning system rather than mirrorless versus DSLR.

gwilliams6

gwilliams6

And yes the Sony cameras I have do have that sensor cleaning mode that vibrates dust off the sensor. That helps too.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Gerald, these are standard professional techniques. I keep a blower bulb in my bag and change lenses the same way. I also keep a kit of Sensor Swabs and Aeroclipse fluid with me, for stubborn spots, but have never needed it in the field since switching from dSLRs. (Wet cleaning gets sticky or oily stuff off.)

In the school portrait business I worked for, we used hundreds of Canons and some Nikons (dSLRs). We almost never removed the zooms used for portraits, EXCEPT to clean the sensors and rear lens elements. We found that after 20,000 to 30,000 exposures in some bodies, we had foam bits from mirror dampening strips, plus metal shavings from moving parts, plus lubricants from shutters and mirrors, deposited on the sensor and the rear element.

The lab folks would start calling territory reps in October with, "Photographer #9 has a dirty sensor" messages. Once we charged them for retouching sensor spots, they learned to get them cleaned!

That was in the mid-2000s, so I'm reasonably sure materials have improved in dSLRs since then. Nikon learned its lesson with the D600, which was notorious for spewing oil droplets onto the sensor.

jonyrot

Thanks everyone for the replies. I have always been concerned about the sensor being exposed. From the comments here, it seems to be small issue (if any at all).

JhnMhn

Have had a Canon R since they were first available. Have a Canon R5 since spring. Zero spots/dust/gunk on sensors. This includes using both of them extensively on a 19 day backcountry canoe portaging trip at Isle Royale NP during pollen season that resulted in sticky specks that required sensor cleaning in the field with previous DSLRs. Lenses changed often and quickly as landscapes were interrupted by wildlife encounters. I have made images I am very pleased with using cameras as far back as Canon’s F1, but no change in cameras has ever been as useful and enjoyable as going to these mirrorless Canons. That’s not to infer other brand mirrorless bodies are inferior, my only experience with mirrorless is with Canon.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

So I take it that sensors are Not damaged with an intrusion that would uniquely hurt a shutter.
Is that what you are saying?

mundy-F2 Loc: Chicago suburban area

Isle Royale is very nice. Did you capture any moose pictures? I spent 10 days there hiking the island in the early 1980's.
Mundy

Ched49 Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.

I've noticed most mirrorless cameras the shutter stays open even though the camera is turned off. Maybe that has something to do with it. Most if not all DSLR's the shutter closes when it's turned off.

JhnMhn

Isle Royale is one of our most treasured places…have been there nearly 100 times since the 1980s.
This trip was exceptional as it was a celebration of our 50th anniversary, the weather was nearly perfect, and we photographed moose, eagles, loons, mergansers with their chicks, insects, flowers, Rock Harbor light house in fog, and lots of landscapes.

mundy-F2 Loc: Chicago suburban area

We (2 friends from work) entered on the west end and walked the legenth of the island to the lodge. A very nice backpacking vacation.
Mundy