Why no dust shields for sensors?

[Keith Golon]

Anyone care to comment on why no manufacturer has ever made a removable/replaceable internal dust shield for sensors? By that I mean a user-removable glass plate that protects the sensor.

The advantage is the sensor would rarely be exposed to dust and dirt. The shield would be made of a hard-coated glass that is scratch resistant. And it would also keep any dust a certain x-distance from the sensor, thus lessening the impact on the image.

The only immediate disadvantage I see is there is another optical surface.

 

[richiebee]

Aside from image quality degradation, what would make it easier to replace the surface than cleaning it?

 

[Father Bouvier]

Anyone care to comment on why no manufacturer has ever made a removable/replaceable internal dust shield for sensors? By that I mean a user-removable glass plate that protects the sensor.

The advantage is the sensor would rarely be exposed to dust and dirt. The shield would be made of a hard-coated glass that is scratch resistant. And it would also keep any dust a certain x-distance from the sensor, thus lessening the impact on the image.

The only immediate disadvantage I see is there is another optical surface.

Where are you going to put it? The only room you can find is between the lens and the shutter. And taking into account a short flange or a mirror it might be tricky. And you would probably need a professional service to put or remove that filter. Well, you can use professional service to clean the sensor now too. And what happens to the dust, dirt that gets trapped between the sensor and the filter? There is a moving shutter that sucks and pushes air every time it's activated. So you are back to square one. And, of course, it will create optical problems. How serious is hard to say. There will be additional reflections, and lenses are usually designed for a particular sensor stack, so they might not work that well when another filter appears.

So it looks like an expensive solution, which doesn't really solve the problem. Then you need to ask yourself, whether there is a problem in the first place. I don't think so. People use the cameras for only a couple of years, some can't wait for the new model to come to upgrade. So there is not enough time for anything that a simple blower can remove to accumulate.

 

[Sonyshine]

The visible surface of the sensor, the bit that gets dust on and that you clean IS a glass shield, although it has other functions as well.

--
Stupidity is far more fascinating than intelligence. Intelligence has its limits...

 

[Mark_A]

Anyone care to comment on why no manufacturer has ever made a removable/replaceable internal dust shield for sensors? By that I mean a user-removable glass plate that protects the sensor.

The advantage is the sensor would rarely be exposed to dust and dirt. The shield would be made of a hard-coated glass that is scratch resistant. And it would also keep any dust a certain x-distance from the sensor, thus lessening the impact on the image.

The only immediate disadvantage I see is there is another optical surface.

They already have a protective layer in front of the sensor, it is called the anti-aliasing filter.

When you go to wet clean your sensor, you aren't actually wiping the sensor itself, you are wiping that filter.

Mark_A

Thread for Sunrise & Sunset pictures (part 3!)

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/60273364

 

[Andy010]

What you're suggesting could be called double glazing.

 

[Mike_PEAT]

Anyone care to comment on why no manufacturer has ever made a removable/replaceable internal dust shield for sensors? By that I mean a user-removable glass plate that protects the sensor.

It's not user removable/replaceable by the owner, but it doesn't have to be. EVERY Olympus interchangeable lens camera and dSLR since the first FourThirds camera, the E-1 back in 2003, has such a thing called the SSWF (SuperSonic Wave Filter) which is a separate filter in front of the sensor sandwich that vibrates when you turn on the camera, shaking the dust off:

You can see it in action at the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67zQ7lYyl38

I have NEVER needed to clean the sensor on any Olympus (or Panasonic) FourThirds or Micro FourThirds camera I have ever owned, including ones from more than 10 years ago!

On the other hand the Canon camera I'm forced to use at work, which also has a form of sensor cleaning (although it does it when you turn OFF the camera), I have to clean every few months because its sensor "cleaning" isn't effective!

 

[Doug J]

A few years ago Dust-Aid introduced a plastic cover to keep sensors clean, it never took off.

http://dust-aid.com/dust-shield/

Amazon still sells them, Google returns some hits.


Cheers,
Doug

 

[Burnt to a Crisp]

Anyone even remotely familiar with the Millikan oil drop experiment must wonder how something similar has not been implemented to control dust deposition on a sensor--even more than a century later!

Truly, if there's one think camera makers cannot be accused of, it's innovation!

 

[Mark S Abeln]

Digital sensors have a glass cover plate protecting them. This glass plate changes the optical formula of the lens, and so it either must be taken into account by optical designers, or is kept very thin.

 

[alcelc]

To have a cover over the sensor, would just create something in front of the lens, hold the dust instead, and be remove to get rid the those dust to have a clean sensor surface for shooting.

Using an ultrasonic Wave filter, which shakes when power on/off every time not allowing dust stays on the surface, be an easier and more effective approach. It is particularly useful when a floating sensor system (for the IBIS) be employed that making cleaning the sort of delicate sensor or removal of a dust cap from it before shooting more difficult.

--
Albert

 

[Burnt to a Crisp]

Same with Nikon. Sensor "cleaning" is utterly ineffectual!

 

[Van Nostrand]

Anyone care to comment on why no manufacturer has ever made a removable/replaceable internal dust shield for sensors? By that I mean a user-removable glass plate that protects the sensor.

The advantage is the sensor would rarely be exposed to dust and dirt. The shield would be made of a hard-coated glass that is scratch resistant. And it would also keep any dust a certain x-distance from the sensor, thus lessening the impact on the image.

The only immediate disadvantage I see is there is another optical surface.

I believe sensors already have a layer of glass on them that has an anti-reflective coating If you have floating piece of glass between the lens and sensor, you are adding 2 extra surfaces that can be compromised with dust, scratches etc. Said glass would need to be optically treated at least on one side , probably outside,

 

[RedFox88]

Anyone care to comment on why no manufacturer has ever made a removable/replaceable internal dust shield for sensors? By that I mean a user-removable glass plate that protects the sensor.

It's not user removable/replaceable by the owner, but it doesn't have to be. EVERY Olympus

Canon dslrs have them too, dude

interchangeable lens camera and dSLR since the first FourThirds camera, the E-1 back in 2003, has such a thing called the SSWF (SuperSonic Wave Filter) which is a separate filter in front of the sensor sandwich that vibrates when you turn on the camera, shaking the dust off:

You can see it in action at the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67zQ7lYyl38

I have NEVER needed to clean the sensor on any Olympus (or Panasonic) FourThirds or Micro FourThirds camera I have ever owned, including ones from more than 10 years ago!

On the other hand the Canon camera I'm forced to use at work, which also has a form of sensor cleaning (although it does it when you turn OFF the camera), I have to clean every few months because its sensor "cleaning" isn't effective!

 

[T3]

Anyone care to comment on why no manufacturer has ever made a removable/replaceable internal dust shield for sensors? By that I mean a user-removable glass plate that protects the sensor.

The advantage is the sensor would rarely be exposed to dust and dirt. The shield would be made of a hard-coated glass that is scratch resistant. And it would also keep any dust a certain x-distance from the sensor, thus lessening the impact on the image.

The only immediate disadvantage I see is there is another optical surface.

It's already there. It's just not "removable/replaceable". And that's probably for the better, because I see a lot of potential problems with people constantly removing and re-installing these shields. I can just see someone trying to re-install the shield, and they accidentally have the corner of the shield scrape the sensor and it puts a scratch in the sensor.

 

[Father Bouvier]

it does shake off small dust particles, but can't eliminate larger spots.

 

[Mike_PEAT]

Canon dslrs have them too, dude

It's obvious you stopped reading as soon as I wrote "Olympus"...you totally missed the part where I said that Canon has them too, but their version is useless! You can read what I wrote below:

On the other hand the Canon camera I'm forced to use at work, which also has a form of sensor cleaning (although it does it when you turn OFF the camera), I have to clean every few months because its sensor "cleaning" isn't effective!

 

[Mike_PEAT]

it does shake off small dust particles, but can't eliminate larger spots.

Yes other ILCs and dSLRs do have cleaning systems, but how come if they do have them do we hear from users of those products over and over again asking about how to clean the sensor with swabs, whereas in the Oly forum it's rare that you see such a post (unless they get something sticky like pollen stuck on the filter)?

 

[Pontoneer]

Anyone care to comment on why no manufacturer has ever made a removable/replaceable internal dust shield for sensors? By that I mean a user-removable glass plate that protects the sensor.

The advantage is the sensor would rarely be exposed to dust and dirt. The shield would be made of a hard-coated glass that is scratch resistant. And it would also keep any dust a certain x-distance from the sensor, thus lessening the impact on the image.

The only immediate disadvantage I see is there is another optical surface.

In DSLRs , the mirror covers the sensor during lens changes etc , and only flips out of the way during exposure .

 

[absquatulate]

Anyone care to comment on why no manufacturer has ever made a removable/replaceable internal dust shield for sensors? By that I mean a user-removable glass plate that protects the sensor.

The advantage is the sensor would rarely be exposed to dust and dirt. The shield would be made of a hard-coated glass that is scratch resistant. And it would also keep any dust a certain x-distance from the sensor, thus lessening the impact on the image.

The only immediate disadvantage I see is there is another optical surface.

All Sigma DSLR's and the SDQ/H have a removable dust shield, not only that but it doubles as the IR filter as well. The benefit of that is that you can convert your camera to a full spectrum IR shooter just by removing the filter. The SD series of DSLR's are excellent for black and white IR shooting.