This is not unique to the 30D or Canon.
We'll see a lot of 30D dust complaints on this forum over the next few months because the 30D is the most popular new Canon DSLR at the moment and a lot of people will either be getting their first DSLR or will be upgrading from other models.
I can't explain why the 30D/20D would have more dust issues than other models, but when the 20D came out, we were treated to an awful lot of threads/posts on here where people said: "My 20D has dust - but I never had dust while I was using my: 10D/300D/D30/D60/Nikon/fill-in-the-blank."
I'm not sure if the 20D really does tend to get more dust than these others or if people just happened to notice it more or if they just happened to enounter dusty conditions or changed lenses more or if it was just conincidental and we just see so much on this board that random chance and the anecdotal experiences of new 20D users made it seem that way.
Any of those things are possible. Perhaps the frontmost filter in the 20D has a coating that happens to be more static-prone - who knows???
But in any case, for those of you who are getting a first DSLR or who are getting a 20D or 30D and now find you have dust, please don't worry or get too wound up about it.
It can be cleaned easily enough, and you can do it yourself. The camera can also be cleaned by Canon if you feel you need to go that way.
On the one hand, I think it serves Canon right if you all take your cameras to Canon every time you want them cleaned. This will drive the point home to Canon that we need to be authorized to use methods other than the ineffective bulb blower method outlined in the owner's manual.
But from a practical point of view, I could never live with my 20D if I felt I needed to take or send it in to Canon every time it needed a cleaning.
I clean mine an average of once per week. It depends on conditions and what kind of shooting I will be doing.
I shoot tons of macro and that requires apertures of f/13 or greater most of the time. Thus, I see dust that might not bother other folks at all. I also live in a dry dusty climate and we've got six cats and I'm the one in charge of the cat box - can you spell D U S T???
So anyhow, I've gotten pretty darn used to cleaning my sensor.
It's not hard at all. It's not as scary as you think, and it's not a QC or design fault of the 20D (presumably 30D is the same). It's just dust stuck to the sensor filter by static electricity for the most part. It won't budge if you blow it with a bulb. Sorry.
It may move if you use a brush as suggested by Petteri.
It may require "wet cleaning" as in Copperhill.
I personally use cotton swabs (Yes, plain old Q-Tips) and my condensed breath as well as blowing with a blower about 95% of the time. It works like a charm, is virtually free (maybe 1/2 cent per swab), and has never caused me any problems. I've done this at least a hundred times.
When I feel that the DI water provided by my condensed breath isn't getting things (I need a non-polar solvent) I've been using fresh, clean Everclear lately. That's very pure Ethanol, my friends, and you can get it at your local liquor store.
Alcohol is necessary if you have some kinds of contamination on your sensor filter (such as oils) which require a non-polar solvent. For the more usual dust and crud, you're actually better off with a polar solvent, and that's where your condensed breath is ideal. It's distilled water with a bit of dissolved CO2 to add some carbonic acid. That gives it some ionic content to allow it to dissipate static even better. It's great.
Anyhow, if you feel like it, go ahead and flood Canon with dusty bodies. Maybe they'll publish an improved guide to cleaning the sensors in order to protect themselves from needing to do all of these cleanings.
On the other hand, if you don't have the time to send or take your camera in to Canon constantly, look up Copperhill, Petteri, and the others and get comfortable with cleaning it yourself.
And if even those methods are too expensive or time consuming, you may well eventually get to the point where I'm at and find yourself using a cotton swab and other commonly available methods.
Of course, if you do anything except use a bulb blower (not touching the sensor filter!), you are violating Canon's rules. Read the manual that came with the camera. They tell you how to clean with a bulb blower.
Get one, try it, and always use that method first. If it works, then great. Stick with that as your first line of defense. It's always good to use a bulb blower first even if you are going to do something else next. It'll get the big chunks of grit off, hopefully.
Then, for times when the bulb blower fails to get the job done, you can carefully use one of these other "touching the sensor" methods.
By the way, I take no responsibility for any damage you might do to your camera by using any cleaning method. I'm just relating my experiences here. If you do anything but what Canon recommends, you do it entirely at your own risk - and that's the problem because Canon only recommends the bulb blower.
Good luck everyone!
--
Jim H.
