How To: dust bunnies lving inside your camera

• Published June 30th, 2011 by Ron Ragan
• 1 Comment

My wife is a clean-freak!  In our home, she is forever cleaning, vacuuming, straightening, washing windows, dusting and you name it — she hates dirt (which is amazing considering that she loves to be in the garden, covered in potting soil, tending her flowers and plants).

Me on the other hand, I live a disordered life with stacks of papers in every corner, an inch of dust on my desk, cobwebs in my mind. Yikes! I have got to get a grip on this problem!

Imagine my dismay when I discovered that I had tiny little dust bunnies living on my digital camera sensor.  Chances are you do to.

So, what are these tiny little critters and how do they come to nest on your camera sensor?

Most sealed cameras (the kind where you don't change lenses) don't suffer much from this problem.  However, if you own an SLR (single lens reflex) camera, every time you change your lens, you are potentially exposing your camera sensor to this nagging problem.

Look at the picture below.  Everywhere you see an arrow, there is a tiny little dark spot on the photo.  Those are "dust bunnies" (at least I call them that).  Normally, you cannot see them in the textured (cluttered) parts of an image (like where the flag is).  But, as a test you can do yourself, take a photo of sky or a blank wall (especially at a high f-stop like f11 or f22), and there they are, lurking like little ants.

So, how do you rid yourself of these dust bunnies?  Many newer SLR cameras have a built-in vibration tool that "shakes" the dust off the sensor every time you turn on the camera. Some cameras even have a built-in sensor mapping program that discovers the exact location of these spots and eliminates them (masks them) with software.

Also, you can purchase kits that allow you to "blow" them off your sensor with a puff of air (I have found these to be of questionable value).  You can also purchase kits that let you 'swab' dust-bunnies off your sensor with a clear liquid and tiny little cloth swabs on the end of a stick (definitely not for the feint-of-heart).

Since the camera sensors are statically charged, they tend to attract dust bunnies.  Whenever I change my lenses I always turn off my camera first.  Also, I tip my camera body down so it is not exposed to the air as much. I am not sure if any of this helps, but I do it anyway 'cause it makes me feel better.

 Until next time all you clean freaks . . . enjoy your dust bunnies.