September 4, 2009 – Getting my cameras cleaned

1/50

f2.2

ISO 400

50mm

RAW

Ugh. Hopefully you'll never have to do this, but if you have a DSLR then chances are pretty good you will.

I had to get both of my cameras cleaned today because of dust buildup on the image sensors. Whenever I would take a photo at an aperture like f11 or smaller, I could see dark spots in my photos from the dust collecting on the sensor.

If you have a point and shoot, then you can skip today's tip because it will never happen to you. The inside of your camera is always sealed, whereas with a DSLR the benefit of having interchangeable lenses means you are always opening up your camera's guts and exposing it to the elements.

I am fortunate enough to have a fantastic pro camera shop (Photo Barn) close by, and one of the services they offer is cleaning. While Jim was working on my first camera, I took this shot with my old Canon D60. He is in the midst of using a specially sized cotton swab to wipe the dust off of my sensor.

If you find yourself in my position of seeing spots on your photos where there shouldn't be ones (especially if they are appearing in shots like landscapes where there should only be clear blue skies), I would suggest calling around to your local camera shops to see if any offer a cleaning service. If they don't, find a place that sells the special cleaning supplies and then read your camera's manual on how to do it yourself. If your manual doesn't explain it, then this website may help.

As for this shot, I used my 50mm f1.8 lens so I could shoot at a wide aperture and not use a flash. The combination of f2.2 and ISO 400 allowed me to get a 1/50 shutter speed, which was fast enough to hand-hold without a blurry photo.