Re: Water Spots?
- From: Mark Bohrer <lurchl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: leica@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 02 Oct 2005 10:29:12 -0700
David:
Try this.
Cleaning sensors on digital SLR cameras
TOOLS FOR REMOVING SENSOR DIRT:
>> Giottos Rocket Air Blaster is a large blower bulb providing an
airstream with enough force to clean a sensor, unlike wimpy small blowers.
Available at Adorama for $9.95.
<http://www.adorama.com/GTRAB.html>www.adorama.com/GTRAB.html
A big blower bulb may not remove stubborn sensor dirt. Photograph an
evenly-lit blank white wall with a stopped-down lens as a test. If you
still see dirt specks, go to the next step.
>> American Recorder Technologies' CO-2 complete kit with pack (CO-SOFTD,
<http://www.americanrecorder.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=10>www.americanrecorder.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=10)
blows a high velocity stream of residue-free gas across your sensor to
remove particulate junk. The kit costs $44.
Were you were photographing that mountain bike race in the dusty, windy
Sierras at 10,000 feet? Still see spots after blowing-gas cleaning and the
white wall test? It's time for more radical methods.
>> Photographic Solutions' Eclipse Optic Lens Cleaning Solution (ECDCS,
$7.50 at B&H Photo) and sensor swabs (SS2BOXDCS, box of 12, sized for
Pentax *ist DS, Canon EOS D30-20D and Digital Rebel, and Nikon D1-D70
sensors, $42.95 at B&H Photo) will clean the most stubborn stuff off your
sensor. There are different sized swabs to match your camera's sensor.
<http://www.bhphotovideo.com/>www.bhphotovideo.com
HOW TO CLEAN
Don't laugh, there are some ways to make cleaning work better. Mount the
camera on a tripod and angle it slightly down. Place it in sensor cleaning
mode, then remove the lens.
Use a small camel's hair brush to GENTLY brush out the bottom of the mirror
box. Then angle the blower bulb back and forth over the sensor to remove
the least stubborn stuff. It may help to wear a headlamp to see what you're
doing.
Put the lens back on and switch the camera off and on to restore it to
normal mode. Photograph a featureless white wall with the lens stopped down
and view the resulting image on your computer to check for remaining dirt.
Dirt specks will make a slightly bigger shadow on your sensor if they're
lit by a point source like a lens' small aperture opening.
If there are still specks in your test, use the CO-2 cleaner for a stronger
gas stream. Do the white wall test again.
If you STILL have dirt, lay the camera down faceup on a reasonably clean
surface, put it in cleaning mode and use a couple drops of Eclipse solution
on a sensor swab to clean. Then use the CO-2 cleaner to remove any dirt
that fell in and test again. That should do it.
If the thing's still dirty, send it to the camera manufacturer for
cleaning. But that's almost never necessary.
At 07:46 AM 10/2/2005, you wrote:
Good Mornin' All!
For a reasonably busy list, it's been pretty quite the last couple of
days... everyone taking fall holidays?
Anyway, I have an odd question...
I'm getting spots on my LeiCanon shots and I'd like to know what causes
them...
If you go to http://www3.telus.net/telyt and click on "Featured Photo",
you'll see the problem.
Above the Heron's head, just to the left of his eye, and half way between
the top of his head and the top of the photo, you'll see a small, round,
translucent gray spot. Where the feathers end, underneath his bill, and
down just a bit, you'll see another. There are a couple of weaker ones...
the first half way between his neck and the left side of the shot, about
40% of the way up from the bottom, and another in the dark band above it,
and a bit to the right. Lastly, there is a weak one toward the upper left
corner.
To me, they look like water spots on a negative... but these are digital
shots - so we're short one negative!
I'm told that dirt on the sensor will leave white specks, as the dust
blocks the light from the pixels. So these aren't dirt.
They are in all my shots, I'm sure, but only show in the even, light
areas. Worse, the position of the spots seems to change, between photos!
They're not a problem to eliminate with the Healing tool in PS, but I
wonder... What are they? Am I the only one to have them? And... what
do I do about them?
Any help/thoughts greatly appreciated.
Cheers!
--
David Young,
Logan Lake, BC
CANADA.
Personal Web-site at: http://www3.telus.net/~telyt
Leica Reflex Forum web-page: http://www3.telus.net/~telyt/lrflex.htm
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Mark Bohrer
Precision Copywriting
Technical copy in plain language
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