You've certainly had some problems here, and have managed to talk me out of asking Santa for a DSLR for this year. I guess I'm not sure how the mechanics in a DSLR works; I assumed there was a mirror that pops up, a pentaprism, shutter, and a sensor back by the film plane? It would seem that dust sealing from the sensor would be pretty good, but still not an easy problem to deal with. Time for invention here: A. Prevent Dust a. Better dust sealing (diminishing returns) b. A little fan or ultrasonic motor for laminar flow when the lens is removed. c. A bigger static charge somewhere else to suck the dust away. d. Nanomachine little flappers covering the sensor. e. A LASER tracking and zapper. (OK, maybe not practical) f. ??? B. Process Dust a. Software in the internal processing chip that detects stationary black spots, and interpolates around them. b. Learn to like it, and use it as creative expression. C. Clean Dust a. Variations on A that happen only occasionally. b. A removable dust trap, (like in the laundry?). More of a problem than a solution. c. Bio-engineered ants to eat the dust. Any other ideas here? I'm assuming that the major reasons for buying a DSLR over a sealed "prosumer" box (aside from overall better quality that comes with the price) are: 1. Ability to use interchangable lenses. 2. Direct optical viewfinder. 3. Less time lag(??)