Working at the photo store made me think that I really needed to get the sensor on my digital camera cleaned. Since I work there they would do it for free instead of charging the usual $50, so I got it done yesterday.
The way to check how dirty a sensor is is to open the aperature way up and take a shot of a blank light-colored wall. Then you take the picture and open it up in Photoshop. Open levels and hit auto levels. This will make any specks of dust on the sensor show up.
This was what mine looked like:
Now that it's been cleaned it looks like this:
The way to check how dirty a sensor is is to open the aperature way up and take a shot of a blank light-colored wall. Then you take the picture and open it up in Photoshop. Open levels and hit auto levels. This will make any specks of dust on the sensor show up.
This was what mine looked like:
Now that it's been cleaned it looks like this:
Comments
I've cleaned my D100 numerous times and had to buy the power adapter to do it (I can use the mirror lock up mode with a fresh battery on the D2xs thankfully!) But really, it's not all that hard to clean your sensor. I bought a kit from CopperHillImages.com and it gives you a specially sized rubber spatula thing that fits your particular sensor. You wrap it in a Pec Pad and tape that on, then you use some Eclipse cleaning solution and swab it. It works great. Yes, it's a little nerve wracking the first time, but it's really not very hard at all. You just need a low-dust room and some good lighting to see what you're doing.
Nice you can get it done for free at work though!