gradient opened this issue on Nov 25, 2004 ยท 27 posts
gradient posted Fri, 26 November 2004 at 2:48 PM
Attached Link: http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning
For what it'a worth...a quote from the attached link...some pics with spotting as well.... "The major D-SLR manufacturers are notorious for selling brand spanking new cameras, pre-loaded with dust. You must try to relax and calm down, though, because if you send it back and get a second one, the odds are overwhelming that it too will be just as dusty. OK, so let's go to the user manuals. The recommended procedures in the Nikon user's guide are actually humorous in how ineffective they are. After doing exactly what was specified, including the oh-so-elegant-and-ever-so-dainty "POOF" from a bulb blower, I still had spots in my images. So I waved the white flag and sent it back to Nikon for cleaning. When it returned, it had the exact same number of dust specks as before, 28, to be precise, but they were nice enough to have rearranged all 28 for me. Hearing from others who had the same results with Nikon, Canon, et. al., I realized that this would get me nowhere fast, so I set out to find a good working method of self-cleaning the sensor. I started with manual blowers, like the herculean-sounding "Rocket". As far as dust removal goes, the Rocket landed with a thud; it moved the loose particles around the chamber very well though (more on this in the next page). With frustration mounting day by day, I ratcheted it up a couple of notches and went for more power with canned air and then compressed air. All of these blowers stirred up the loose dust particles - some of the dust escaped the chamber, but MOST of it just moved around on the sensor. All of them were no match for the stuck specks. I tried several types of vacuums, including various computer-vacs and a 2.25 horsepower Shop-Vac (yes, I was a wee bit desperate at that point). They performed as poorly as the blowers. Not until later did I find out how risky it is using any of the high-powered blowers and vacuums (more on this in the next page). I was very lucky I didn't ruin my camera. Anyone who promises you fantastic results from either a vacuum or a blower, cannot possibly own and clean a D-SLR"In youth, we learn....with age, we understand.