Attached Link: link to article

How to keep your D-SLR clean.

added link to that neverending tut & tips thread.. thanks! :]

Id like to see an article on how to obtain a DSLR in the first place...sigh. Great link though Kort!!! #:O)

Hahahah, everybody is a comdeian today. Thanks for the laugh Andreas. =]

A good read, as is his previous arcticle on using blowers. A few comments though.... 1) Be cautious as to the type of blower that you use. Many will actually blow more particles onto your sensor....some use a powder for the latex/rubber...these particles reside inside the blower as a remnant of the manufacturing process. Also remember that most dust particles that will cause problems on your sensor are so small they are almost invisible to the eye. I won't mention any blower brand names but one that seems to be very effective can be found in recent threads here on this subject. 2)Again, without mentioning brand names..there has been considerable research/debate over the "excessively high priced" brushes. There are alternatives...again, I have posted links to those in previous threads. 3)Nikon does allow mirror lock up for cleaning without AC. What is clear is that those who venture into the DSLR world will be faced with dust maintenance issues at some point in time....be warned! @Andreas: You don't need a DSLR...if I could take pictures half as good as yours I would be happy!

Thank you!!!

Thanks for the link. This part of the article evoked a memory ... - - If your camera is new but has dust problems, some may - - come from the camera itself. As you use it, particles - - can slough off of different components inside the mirror - - chamber. Over time, this particle shedding will wane, ... Some time ago (or long time ago depends on your POV and/or natal day) ... computers had tape drives instead of disk drives. We had the odd (almost perverse) problem that perfectly new reels of tape might be more prone to errors than tapes that had been used a few times. The condition was called "floating wear particles" -- and was caused by tiny flakes of the magnetic material released during the manufacturing process as the tapes were cut into the 0.5 inch width. BTW, those tapes were 2400 feet long by 0.5 inch wide -- that's almost 1/2 mile long. They were made by bonding the magnetic recording material to large Mylar tapes (about 2 feet wide, IIRC) and then slitting that into the 1/2 inch wide tapes. MGD

That is good news. Glad to hear I don't need AC power to lock the mirror. I still find that using a good vacuum with your hand over the opening to ge a good seal works most of the time. But eventually it does need manual cleaning. I figured out that the day I was shooting at a baseball game the dust was far too much....see the conditions here LOL all day like that.

If you do lock up the D70 mirror for cleaning, make sure you have a fully charged battery....it wouldn't be a pleasant thing to have it slam down on you while cleaning.

Oppps...too late on that...I have actually lifted the mirror up with a pen to try and get behind it.Those things arent as fragile as they make them out to be. Supposed to be able to take some beating.Just never touch the face of them though. But my camera works real good now that it was cleaned. I really tend to disagree with using a blower though. Think about it....anything forced air blowing on a delicate surface is surely to minutely embed foriegn particles into it. I think sucking with a vacuum makes more sense. Also I heard methyl hydrate can be used. One thing I want to know is what the best lens cleaner is.Sure I could just go to a camera store and buy it, but I would rather go like to a drugstore and buy bulk stuff if it is something like alcohol. Guess not spit and your sleeve though LOL.

Thanks for all the tip on camera cleaning. Just to show you I have been paying attention in class . I was on a trip last week and I saw a woman putting hand lotion all over her hands and face and then picking up her Cannon EOS A2 . I casually mention to her that was not a very good Idea. As I can see from here the lotions going all over the camera and the body of the lens.
She tells me her camera is not working well and all the images are fuzy and out of focus. I look at the camera and the view finder / eye piece has like 30 + dusty thumb prints on it and the lens was 2 times as bad. ( She has a camera bag shaped like a camera with a lens on it and when she pulls the camera out her thumb ends up on the eye piece most of the time ) I clean it up for her and make her promise to not touch them any more. One other thing I noticed was when she shoots a image one of her fingers ends up covering the sensor about 1/2 way. So I give a quick lesson in holding her camera a better way .

Message edited on: 10/08/2005 11:54

@tasquah > One other thing I noticed was when she shoots a image one > of her fingers ends up covering the sensor about 1/2 way. You mean ... the camera doesn't work like an X-ray machine? ... Well, that's not fair! ... Why don't the camera manufacturers tell us that? LOL MGD

@dBgrafix: I hope you weren't serious about prying the mirror up with a pen... D70 mirror lock-up is done through the camera menus.