Need opinion, To clean sensor or not.

[Michael]

G'day folks

Fist topic I've posted here, and I need your professional opinion

I'm being flown up to rockhampton to photograph a wedding (my first wedding)

and im wondering weather or not i should clean my sensor before as there are a few little dust bunnys.



so what do you think? this is on a d70s about a month old with 3700 exposures under its belt and its been to motorcross and all sorts of places.
But im faely anal with cleaning so i think this is ok just I don't know if i should clean it as its a special job.

[stubbsy]

Michael

I've done just over 20,000 shots and have had dust bunnies as bad or worse than this and have yet to do a wet clean. To date all I've done is do a mirror lock up and give the whole shebang a godd few blasts with my Giotto Air Rocket (available to qualified members from you know who) and hey presteo - clean.

[Michael]

I was going to give it a bit of a brush with one of those nylon white brushes you see used instead of those $$$$ clear sky ones.

the brush has been clean about a trillion times (I hate being as pedantic as I am) and yeh im still tossing up wether or not to risk it.

is the sensor even considered dirty?

[PiroStitch]

I'd go for the blower option first rather than rubbing a brush over the sensor. Take a few more pics and see whether those spots are in the same place. If so, then it's dust

I'd clean it out before going on an important shoot like a wedding.

[Glen]

Use a blower, you are going to have to clean it sooner or later and it will save years of PP if those spots appear on the bridesmaids faces, etc. Start cleaning now in case you have a hiccup, plenty of time left to rectify it.

[leek]

To be honest... those do not look like dust bunnies to me... They look more like features of the paper...

To convince yourself and me, you might want to take a picture of a totally blue sky at f16 or higher and post it here...

Then you / we will be able to tell if you have a dust problem...

[Michael]

Thanks guys

your input has ben most helpful, since i dont have a rocket blower handy I just used some canned air which i made sure wasnt blowing out crap.

just did a test then and the bunnys are gone.

f22 and absolutly nothing is visible.

EDIT: They were definatly dust bunnys I tried it with skys paper walls and anything white or light coloured over all about 14 shots at varying apertures to see the effect of them all of the time there we in the same spot.

[stubbsy]

Michael, while it worked this time, canned air can be a bad thing since it can hit the ccd with the propellant and make things worth. Go out and but a Giotto for next time. They're available through birdy when you qualify as a member (30+ meaningfule posts + location in profile + post an image). You're a fair way there already.

[Michael]

I took all the propelent issues into account and left the can still for ages before I used it and did a few test sprays before hand.

But I do understand where you are coming from and I took a few precuations to makes sure nothing spewed on to the sensor.

I look forward to becoming a member of this forum which reminds me, I must upload an avatar.