Dirty Digital?

Richard47230 · May 18, 2002

I am about to move from 'traditional' to digital and buy either a DIX or D100. Not yet decided.

I have read that the sensors on digital SLR's are prone to pick up dust which results in images with black marks.

How realsitic is the problem, if at all?

How large are the marks and can they be easily corrected in Photshop?

Comments appreciated.

Reagrds

Richard

Pernel S Thyseldew · May 18, 2002

Search this forum for "DUST" and you will find out more than you want to know about cleaning you CCD!

I seem to remember from the dark dim past that "dust" was the bane of the wet darkroom as well!

Pernel

alfred_schiele · May 18, 2002

Hi!

Richard47230 said:
I am about to move from 'traditional' to digital and buy either a
DIX or D100. Not yet decided.

So you know some "analogue" spots, dust and particles on film well

Richard47230 said:
I have read that the sensors on digital SLR's are prone to pick up
dust which results in images with black marks.

It seems to be more or less this way. I am also hesitating to buy a digital SLR when I think of the dust problem... But what about a consumer digital? They never have dust problems because they have no interchangeable lenses...

Richard47230 said:
How realsitic is the problem, if at all?

I would like to konw either. I believe the time will come soon when the first clean has to be done. As from other "cleaning" actions I know that sometimes it is better to do nothing than anything... so I add a sigh here to your question...

Richard47230 said:
How large are the marks and can they be easily corrected in Photshop?

What can not be corrected in PS

I would really dislike to remove the same spots over and over...

Richard47230 said:
Comments appreciated.

And have a search on "DUST" but I doubt you will be more wise than I was after doing this... But if you are, let me know (-:

Regards, A. Schiele

Joachim Gerstl · May 18, 2002

Hi Richard,

I shot about 6000 pictures with my D1 which I bought in January. I have 3 extremly small spots that are only visible if I shoot birds against blue sky. The can be easy stamped out in PS. Don´t carry your camera around with no lens attached and don´t change lenses during a sandstorm. It is that simple!

Joachim
http://www.joachimgerstl.com

Richard said:
I am about to move from 'traditional' to digital and buy either a
DIX or D100. Not yet decided.

I have read that the sensors on digital SLR's are prone to pick up
dust which results in images with black marks.

How realsitic is the problem, if at all?

How large are the marks and can they be easily corrected in Photshop?

Comments appreciated.

Reagrds

Richard

--
joachim

alfred_schiele · May 18, 2002

Hi!

You seem to be one of the lucky D1x users with less dust problems... I remeber having read here that some had a lot of trouble with a brand new D1x camera out of the box they never used, just bought...

What is you philosophy with your few spots? Just do nothing (which sounds best to me)? Or what else?

regards, A.Schiele

JoachimGerstl said:
I shot about 6000 pictures with my D1 which I bought in January. I
have 3 extremly small spots that are only visible if I shoot birds
against blue sky. The can be easy stamped out in PS. Don´t carry
your camera around with no lens attached and don´t change lenses
during a sandstorm. It is that simple!

Joachim
http://www.joachimgerstl.com

Richard said:

I am about to move from 'traditional' to digital and buy either a
DIX or D100. Not yet decided.

I have read that the sensors on digital SLR's are prone to pick up
dust which results in images with black marks.

How realsitic is the problem, if at all?

How large are the marks and can they be easily corrected in Photshop?

Comments appreciated.

Reagrds

Richard

Click to expand...

--
joachim

Dan Desjardins · May 18, 2002

Dust on the CCD seems to bring out the Chicken Little in a lot of people who think they are entitled to absolute perfection when they buy new technology.

Yes it can be annoying - just like it was on my negatives in my darkroom. Just like my darkroom - I have tools that help me take care of the problem. There is really no difference - and no reason to scare people because "OH MY GOSH - A FLECK OF DUST ON MY CCD!"

Right here in this forum I've heard both the sublime and the rediculous. There's a guy who says he'll never change his lens to avoid dust.

There's someone who said they will never buy Nikon until they "solve the dust problem."
Is it a problem - yes.

Is it a major problem - far from it. It's something you simply must account and occasionally adjust for. That's it. It doesn't compromise the technology. It doesn't negate the art. It's not a factor in deciding to go with Nikon or not.

Should Nikon address the problem - yes. Anything that helps the photographer is good - but I don't think it should be their #1 concern.

Des

David SL · May 18, 2002

Dan Desjardins said:
Dust on the CCD seems to bring out the Chicken Little in a lot of
people who think they are entitled to absolute perfection when they
buy new technology.
Yes it can be annoying - just like it was on my negatives in my
darkroom. Just like my darkroom - I have tools that help me take
care of the problem. There is really no difference - and no reason
to scare people because "OH MY GOSH - A FLECK OF DUST ON MY CCD!"
Right here in this forum I've heard both the sublime and the
rediculous. There's a guy who says he'll never change his lens to
avoid dust.
There's someone who said they will never buy Nikon until they
"solve the dust problem."
Is it a problem - yes.
Is it a major problem - far from it. It's something you simply
must account and occasionally adjust for. That's it. It doesn't
compromise the technology. It doesn't negate the art. It's not a
factor in deciding to go with Nikon or not.
Should Nikon address the problem - yes. Anything that helps the
photographer is good - but I don't think it should be their #1
concern.

Des

--

Michael Salzlechner · May 18, 2002

Dan

it depends on what you shoot.

if you are a macro shooter that often shoots at F16 or F22 you will hate the dust problem. Sure you can fix the spots when they are lets say in a blue sky but not if they cover detail.

This is one thing i love about the D30. The dust is much less of a problem.

--
Michael Salzlechner
StarZen Digital Imaging
http://www.starzen.com/imaging

Richard47230 · May 19, 2002

Just a brief note to thank you all for your comments and views. It is much appreciated.

RICHARD

johno61299 · May 19, 2002

You could try the new Sigma DSLR with the Foveon chip. It has glass between the lens mount and the chip to keep dust out. Much lower spec. than the D100 of course, but at least they are addressing the "dust problem" if it concerns you. One thing if you buy a DSlR and want to clean the chip yourself: first make sure you have the camera insured for accidental damage and second, follow the manufacturers destructions--I mean instructions--exactly.

Richard said:
Just a brief note to thank you all for your comments and views. It
is much appreciated.

RICHARD

--
John.

alfred_schiele · May 19, 2002

Hi!

Member said:
This is one thing i love about the D30. The dust is much less of a
problem.

It is a zero problem with cheaper P&S cameras...

Are the benefits of D-SLR worth the dust? Changing the oppotunity of changing lenses with getting specled images? I am just unshure here but I don't like techology that seems to add new problems and additional work...

Regards, A. Schiele.

Joachim Gerstl · May 20, 2002

Yes, I do nothing. I think this is better than cleaning the CCD-sensor to death. If there will be dozens of spots in the future I will send my camera to Nikon for cleaning.

regards
Joachim
http://www.joachimgerstl.com

alfred_schiele said:
You seem to be one of the lucky D1x users with less dust
problems... I remeber having read here that some had a lot of
trouble with a brand new D1x camera out of the box they never used,
just bought...

What is you philosophy with your few spots? Just do nothing (which
sounds best to me)? Or what else?

regards, A.Schiele

JoachimGerstl said:

I shot about 6000 pictures with my D1 which I bought in January. I
have 3 extremly small spots that are only visible if I shoot birds
against blue sky. The can be easy stamped out in PS. Don´t carry
your camera around with no lens attached and don´t change lenses
during a sandstorm. It is that simple!

Joachim
http://www.joachimgerstl.com

Richard said:

I am about to move from 'traditional' to digital and buy either a
DIX or D100. Not yet decided.

I have read that the sensors on digital SLR's are prone to pick up
dust which results in images with black marks.

How realsitic is the problem, if at all?

How large are the marks and can they be easily corrected in Photshop?

Comments appreciated.

Reagrds

Richard

Click to expand...

--
joachim

Click to expand...

--
joachim

Michael Salzlechner · May 20, 2002

Alfred

I am using a D30 and change lenses often. The D30 luckily doesnt have as much of a problem as the other ones because of the distance the filter sits in front of the CMOS and also probably because the CMOS uses less electricity to operate and probably generates less static to attract dust.

Is it worth it. Yes definately. A cleaning once in a while shouldnt keep you from using the tool you want and/or need.

--
Michael Salzlechner
StarZen Digital Imaging
http://www.starzen.com/imaging

KenEis · May 20, 2002

A budy of mine with a D1 said that dust is a problem with lenses stopped down to smaller then F16 and for even backgrounds like sky. Other then that he had little problems here in dusty Colorado.

Yes he did use compressed air filtered (not the canned air) to clean periodically and he did take care changing lenses. He was told that zoom lenses whose internal volume changed with focus or zoom action pumped the existing dust in the lens and camera so you could get dust on the CCD even if you didn't change lenses much.

Dan Desjardins said:
Dust on the CCD seems to bring out the Chicken Little in a lot of
people who think they are entitled to absolute perfection when they
buy new technology.
Yes it can be annoying - just like it was on my negatives in my
darkroom. Just like my darkroom - I have tools that help me take
care of the problem. There is really no difference - and no reason
to scare people because "OH MY GOSH - A FLECK OF DUST ON MY CCD!"
Right here in this forum I've heard both the sublime and the
rediculous. There's a guy who says he'll never change his lens to
avoid dust.
There's someone who said they will never buy Nikon until they
"solve the dust problem."
Is it a problem - yes.
Is it a major problem - far from it. It's something you simply
must account and occasionally adjust for. That's it. It doesn't
compromise the technology. It doesn't negate the art. It's not a
factor in deciding to go with Nikon or not.
Should Nikon address the problem - yes. Anything that helps the
photographer is good - but I don't think it should be their #1
concern.

Des

Mike Delaney · May 20, 2002

Richard,

I cleaned the sensor in my D1x last night, after a weekend of shooting, and lens swapping. With the custom cut swabs that fit the imager of the D series it takes all of about 2 minutes to clean. Nothing to it!
Mike D

alfred_schiele · May 21, 2002

Hi!

Member said:
I am using a D30 and change lenses often. The D30 luckily doesnt
have as much of a problem as the other ones because of the distance
the filter sits in front of the CMOS and also probably because the
CMOS uses less electricity to operate and probably generates less
static to attract dust.

I read about this several times here.
It is one important thing I like with D60.

Member said:
Is it worth it. Yes definately. A cleaning once in a while shouldnt
keep you from using the tool you want and/or need.

I am happily not in the situation that I can not wait until final D100 cameras are reviewed and released...

But I know from my G2 that Canon images print out pleasing without any PS tweaking all the time and I like this. I want to reduce work and increase quality when using digital.

What I have seen as beta preview from D100 makes me unhappy in this respect because it seems to need PS before printing all teh time as with my coolpix I had earlier...

Regards, A. Schiele.

Mark Dennis · May 21, 2002

Mike Delaney said:
Richard,
I cleaned the sensor in my D1x last night, after a weekend of
shooting, and lens swapping. With the custom cut swabs that fit
the imager of the D series it takes all of about 2 minutes to
clean. Nothing to it!
Mike D

Hi Mike,

Do you know if thse custom cut swabs are available in the UK? I haven't found any here yet, only the ones that fit the S1.

Thnaks

Mark

Mike Delaney · May 21, 2002

Mark,

I got mine from Roberts in Indy, for a long time I had to get the larger ones and cut them down, but the last time I checked they had the "new" D series size. You may want to contact them via the web at
http://www.robertsimaging.com
ask for Jody, he should be able to hook you up with the distributer. Good luck
Mike D

dustin bradford75116 · May 21, 2002

90% of the photos I take I do not notice or scan for the dust, but... stopped down to f/16 shooting outdoors against the sky and you will have to stamp them out. Very noticable sharp black marks. around f/8 more like a discolerd blob, only noticable against plain background.

Mark Dennis · May 21, 2002

Mike Delaney wrote:
"new" D series size. You may want to contact them via the web

Mike Delaney said:
at
http://www.robertsimaging.com
ask for Jody, he should be able to hook you up with the
distributer. Good luck
Mike D

Thanks Mike, That's really useful.

rtegards,

Mark Dennis

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