Dust Spots (Show us your spots!!!)

The thread is dedicated to all the dust spots I have cleaned off my camera. With as many Lens changes I do I would have
to have my camera cleaned 3 times a year and most people are worried about cleaning. Being a PC tech with many hours of
fixing over 500 types of Laptops/Desktops/Servers/Printers/Monitors and about every type of peripheral know to man, I will
never send my camera out for cleaning and want you to know why!

http://derf.smugmug.com/photos/912209507_Vftcf-L.jpg

I spend countless hours on photography websites and can tell you most pros will send their equipment out for professional
cleanings and when they follow these instructions and find out how the camera looks before they ship it and after they
receive it back, they usually are VERY disappointed and sometimes get their camera back with more dirt and dust before
shipping it out!

The $35-$50 is nothing compared to the time that your camera is in repair and then if you figure tolls and gas depending on
where you are...OR shipping.... Not happy.

Some tech is NOT going to care for your camera as you will and it will not feel the love!



There are lots of different ways of cleaning the camera...and I do not like most. I will go from worst to best as far as I am
concerned. (all views are my personal opinion and I have done MANY cleanings on my XT with over 500,000 shutter clicks,
my Wifes camera with 1,000 clicks... and my 40D (AFRAID TO LOOK) but during airshow I was around 18K for 1 week!

Tape -(YES, some morons will put tape on their sensor and pull it off to clean)
Reason why you should not is you can pull off the plastic cover for your CMOS or CCD!

AIR CLEANER (OIL FREE) -They still use oil when compressing the air and people have
oil free air cans spray oil on the plastic and then you have oil INSIDE YOUR CAMERA!

Blower -(does not get all the dust off if it is really stuck good to the plastic CMOS/CCD
clear shield.

Pads - It is harder than Q-Tips and if you have sand in the camera it can scratch the plastic
cover for the CMOS/CCD easier than Q-Tips.

Q-Tips - Softest but can still scratch if sand and press hard enough.


HOW TO SEE YOUR LOVELY SPOTS (this is my way)
Take a picture at a high F-stop and over F-16 recomended in Aperture mode with lowest ISO (100 recommended),
underexpose by 1/3 of a stop, point it at a wall and make sure to blur it by moving the camera as much as possible with a
nice long exposure.

Look at the image
http://derf.smugmug.com/photos/912073373_idKUu-XL.jpg

Now put it in photoshop and Use levels (CTRL-L) to bring the High down and The low up... (The little arrows on the bottom
of the graph should look like this)
http://derf.smugmug.com/photos/912073648_hNKCm-O.jpg

It will now be easy to see ALL of them!
http://derf.smugmug.com/photos/912073643_tu9Mw-XL.jpg



How I Clean My Camera
http://derf.smugmug.com/photos/912209977_LcBh5-L.jpg


Take the Lens off and you will see the Mirror, blow above where the focus
Screen is and blow the mirror (DANGER, DO NOT TOUCH THE MIRROR WITH THE
BLOWER) None of this will affect image quality so if there is something on the
mirror you do not like...LEAVE IT ALONE!!! Not as scary as this sounds! REALLY!

(IT IS ALWAYS BEST TO USE THE BLOWER WITH THE SENSOR OR LENS OPENING
FACING DOWN SO THINGS FALL OUT WHEN BLOWN)

http://derf.smugmug.com/photos/912209741_8eFXr-XL.jpg

Blow around the metal ring that the lens attaches too (there will be metal shavings
from the metal on the lens and the camera rubbing when lens's is attached,removed)

***MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR BEST BATTERY FULLY CHARGED IN THE CAMERA***
AV Mode for old cameras and in the menu turn the manual cleaning mode on (Mirror will flip up)
(BE CAREFUL NOT TO POWER TOWN CAMERA OR HIT BUTTONS)

It will now look like this
http://derf.smugmug.com/photos/912209329_CWPq6-XL.jpg

http://derf.smugmug.com/photos/912209521_2bEtF-XL.jpg

Holding the camera with the green colored CCD/CMOS faced toward the ground
blow out as much of the dust and dirt as possible then wipe (gently) with a Q-Tip
in rows from one side to the other as shown below
http://derf.smugmug.com/photos/912215020_pCdfa-XL.jpg

The Blow with the hand air blower again and retest
HOW TO SEE YOUR LOVELY SPOTS (this is my way)
Take a picture at a high F-stop and over F-16 recomended in Aperture mode with lowest ISO (100 recommended),
underexpose by 1/3 of a stop, point it at a wall and make sure to blur it by moving the camera as much as possible with a
nice long exposure.


My 40D before cleaning
http://derf.smugmug.com/photos/912073643_tu9Mw-XL.jpg

Wifes XS
http://derf.smugmug.com/photos/912210352_CsAar-XL.jpg

NOW LETS SEE YOUR SPOTS (And your cleaning technique)

My camera came with a 5 year warrenty from BestBuy to get sent of to Canon every year once a year for cleaning. Is canon as crappy as what you describe above or are they actually ok?

It is hit an miss... it depends on the person who is doing your camera... But I can tell you this, Nobody at Canon will care 1/2 as much about your camera as you do.

I will say it again... I will NEVER let anyone clean MY camera. The do not love my camera

One More thing... DO NOT TRY TO GET EVERY DUST SPOT... It is almost impossible and not worth it
You clean your camera because it has massive dust, not a minor few spots. If you do not have to
clone out dust spots in photoshop, do not worry!

Here is after cleaning
http://derf.smugmug.com/photos/912290841_Net5D-XL.jpg[/img]

I recently purchased an sx10 and noticed what appears to be a dust spot. You only see it against the sky. As many of you know, you can't change the lens on this model so I tried cleaning the outer lens itself but the spot still appears. Not sure what it is. My only fix is with Photoshop. George.

http://www.gpalz.com/_IMG_1246spot.jpg

very nice spot you got there... any more that want to show off your spots?

f/14 with the sky equalized...
http://moose135.smugmug.com/photos/9...25_yVAL6-L.jpg

I think Fred sneezed on my sensor when I wasn't looking! :shock:

very nice!!!! :borat:

http://www.digitalcamerareview.com/defa ... ewsID=3008


Came across the above while looking for info on how ot clean a dust spot on a Canon sd960.


FYI, I am so pissed I got a dust spot on this P+S camera....

Thanks so much for the tutorial Fred.

Here is my before:

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/397/img5920t.jpg



And, after Fred's help:

http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/3...ectionpass.jpg


No retouching on the second one, just sharpened it up a bit.


Basically the same sun/sky. Big difference, thanks again for your help Fred!