Dust on SONY A100 CCD

[yellowballon]

Now, i'm not the world's greatest photo expert, but SONY's anti-dust system has failed spectaclarly for me. I always change my lenses face down, clean them regularly and do not do that many long exposures, and yet my CCD still has dust on it. Can anybody help? I clean it often, with a blower brush not to close with the CCD in view.

[David Kilpatrick]

That's why you have dust. Your blower brush blows whatever it has in it, around it, or in the camera, at the sensor. Any sticky particles (such as pollen) will get blasted at the sensor. It is advised not to use a blower for sensor cleaning. I have one single dust spot on my A100, annoying, only shows at f22, just prepped 500 new pictures from a week's shoot and no dust problem anywhere - locations included ochre quarries, beaches, dusty streets, etc.

I never clean my sensor - once only in a year's use, almost now - and never clean my lenses routinely. I leave well alone.

You also state you used a blower BRUSH - this is a sure way to get particles on the sensor, try viewing the brush under a 30X microscope and you will never use it again.

I suggest you try a Visible Dust Butterfly active static charged brush to remove dust, followed by wipes, and a resolution never to put a blower brush inside a digital SLR again.

David

[Gagauza]

That's why you have dust. Your blower brush blows whatever it has in it, around it, or in the camera, at the sensor. Any sticky particles (such as pollen) will get blasted at the sensor. It is advised not to use a blower for sensor cleaning. I have one single dust spot on my A100, annoying, only shows at f22, just prepped 500 new pictures from a week's shoot and no dust problem anywhere - locations included ochre quarries, beaches, dusty streets, etc.

I never clean my sensor - once only in a year's use, almost now - and never clean my lenses routinely. I leave well alone.

You also state you used a blower BRUSH - this is a sure way to get particles on the sensor, try viewing the brush under a 30X microscope and you will never use it again.

I suggest you try a Visible Dust Butterfly active static charged brush to remove dust, followed by wipes, and a resolution never to put a blower brush inside a digital SLR again.

David

We are allowed to touch the ccd sensor with the visible dust butterfly like in their demo?!

[David Kilpatrick]

Yes, but the Visible Dust brush has been spun to remove all particles and give it a static charge - not sufficient to cause damage to a sensor or other electronics, but just right to enable to brush to lift off the dust by attracting it. It is a very fine brush.

I've been using static-induced brushes for many years - the Kinetics Static Wisk brush probably as long as 20 years ago - and photo labs use them permanently mounted on benches, with two sets of hairs to run film between. I would not use these in a camera. The Butterfly has been developed just for this purpose.

The main problems with blower brushes are that new ones are made from rubber or synthetic rubber, and the rubber is prepared in a mould which is first dusted with a release powder (similar to talc). You will sometimes find this white powder on new rubber products. While the outside of the bulb is normally completely clean, the inside often still contains release powder, or tiny fragments of rubber. One of the worst web examples of wrecking a sensor by totally covering it in dust came from someone who had used a blower brush.

The Giottos Rocket blower is generally agreed to be free from factory powder or dust when new. Serious users go into their shower room, and run the shower cold, with the door closed, for a few minutes. This is supposed to remove the dust particles from the air. The camera is then opened as normal by removing the lens, held aiming downwards on a tripod, and the Giottos blower is used in a single short burst with time for the dust to gravitate on the airflow out of the camera.

David