Is the sensor dirty?
Please don’t panic. Remember your camera is probably cleaner than most other peoples!
Please note that this test may make you unhappy! It may well be that you have a dusty sensor but it has made no difference to your shooting and now you find out you obsessively try to clean the sensor.
I find I cannot actually see the dust on the sensor and this is why a photograph is necessary. Dust tends to show up as small dark round patches in photographs. The smaller the aperture you shoot at the more they become obvious. Also they tend only to show up on light backgrounds. This means some people may not see them at all whilst others will. For example landscape photographers usually have the sky in the top part of the frame where dust will show up if in this area of the sensor.
1. Stick on a telephoto lens. Select f22 aperture. Select the maximum telephoto if a zoom lens. Focus to infinity.
2. Point the camera at a white wall. If no white wall try a clean piece of paper.
3. Let the camera select an auto shutter speed. It does not matter if you have camera shake, 0.5 to 2 seconds is fine. The idea is to have a blank subject and have the camera exposure meter turn this medium grey.
4. Transfer the photo to your computer. View the photo at around 1600 x 1200. You should see any dust and marks easily.
Check the full article Sensor Cleaning Tips for DSLR Camera.
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:09 am
Thanks for this, I’m off to see how bad my sensor is. As soon as I find some unlined paper