How Much Dust?

drewdlephone · 10-09-2008, 12:41 PM

Just curious... I'm sure this is a noob question. I'm meticulous with my camera equipment... whenever I assemble my bag of goodies for a trip here or there, I pull everything apart and give it a once-over with some air to get rid of dust. This, however, becomes slightly impractical if you're on the go with more than one lens, and need to switch frequently, which would introduce dust anyways. I've been doing this a little more often now that I can play with my Takumar collection.

My question is thus: how much dust on the lenses is too much? And should I be particularly worried if it takes me fifteen seconds to get the first lens off and the second lens on. I'm almost worried about "exposing" the interior of the camera.

*Damn Brit* · 10-09-2008, 02:08 PM

A couple of rules for lens changing, turn off the camera, it reduces the chance of static attracting dust. Also always keep the camera body pointing down, this reduces the possibility of dust entering.
Personally I always keep my Rocket Blower with me and try to give a quick blow to lens and camera at every lens change (whenever time allows any way).
The way I change lenses is to loosen the back cap of the lens going on so that I can just lift it off, then the lens coming off can just sit in that back cap while I put the new lens on.
I'm sure everyone has their own methods but this one works for me.

bdery · 10-09-2008, 07:23 PM

I do as Brit does, except that in general, I find that the anti-dust feature takes care of most dust. When changing lenses inside, I do not worry, when doing it outside I run the anti-dust 1-2 times.

alohadave · 10-09-2008, 08:07 PM

I don't bother to turn the camera off most of the time when changing lenses. I typically switch lenses several times on any specific time spent shooting, and I've not had a problem with dust on the sensor.

If you think about it, the shutter is closed 99.99% of the time, so dust really isn't that big of a deal. I think I cleaned my sensor about 3 months ago.

Wheatfield · 10-10-2008, 08:09 AM

Originally Posted by drewdlephone

Just curious... I'm sure this is a noob question. I'm meticulous with my camera equipment... whenever I assemble my bag of goodies for a trip here or there, I pull everything apart and give it a once-over with some air to get rid of dust. This, however, becomes slightly impractical if you're on the go with more than one lens, and need to switch frequently, which would introduce dust anyways. I've been doing this a little more often now that I can play with my Takumar collection.

My question is thus: how much dust on the lenses is too much? And should I be particularly worried if it takes me fifteen seconds to get the first lens off and the second lens on. I'm almost worried about "exposing" the interior of the camera.

You can have an amazing amount of dust on a lens before it becomes a problem. I just don't worry about it.
Dust in the camera is more of a problem, but still not a big deal. If you are using a camera with dust reduction on start up it seems to keep the sensor quite clean, and if you get something stubborn on the sensor, it isn't difficult to blow it off.