[altopiet]

Thank God i've never used anything to touch my sensor.. But he says from experience, small scuffs cannot be seen with the naked eye.. !

What advice did he give about cleaning the sensor, and if you send it away for cleaning, how do they do it without touching the sensor? With the nearest pro cleaners about 250km away, and when all other means like rocket blower, etc. failed, I've used wet cleaning very successfully. I'm living in a very dusty environment, always taking care when changing lenses, cleaning and blowing dust off the replacement lens before changing, and not changing lenses when not needed, and I still get dust on my sensors once in a while...

[TropicalMonkey]

Well, 3M magic tape worked well on my K20D. Not sure if I dare to do that on K5!
I came across some discussions on that topic in this forum.

[JimJohnson]

The best advice I can give to back this up is to ALWAYS use your rear cap. Don't leave a lens just sitting around because you'll get dust on that rear element and unless you clean that lens before placing it on your camera, a lot of that dust will then transfer to your sensor and you'll be screwed.

I think most people wind up getting dust in the camera because it piggybacks in via a dirty lens than anything, since a lens swap is (usually) a quick enough affair you won't have tons of dust fly in during it.

+1 - dust on top of the front element, while not desirable, at worst slightly softens an image - nothing really noticeable. Rear element dust can make an image 'blotchy', and as Sagittia points out, you are now deliberately placing dust inside your camera body where it can do much worse to spoil your photographic experience.

I like to store my lenses front element down in my bag. In as clean an environment as possible (meaning yes I change lenses outdoors, but not in poor conditions), I remove a rear cap, inspect the rear element, use a blower* on the rear element if necessary, remove the lens from my camera, transfer the just removed rear cap to that lens, remove the replacement lens from my bag and turn the lens rear element down, put the now capped lens in my bag, then mount the replacement lens on my body. The whole process takes seconds, and the only time I have two lenses in my hands I have a hand dedicated to holding one lens.

The nice thing about rear lens caps is every K-mount rear lens cap fits every K-mount lens. Okay, old caps get mixed with new caps in the field. So what? You can swap them later if you are a purist about which cap goes on which lens.

* Giottos makes several size rocket blowers. I have the big one we typically see with the rocket-fin legs in my office. I have the smaller size without the fins in my gadget bag - more so, you can remove the red nozzle from the smaller blower and reverse it inside the rubber bulb so it fits better in the bag. I have attached a couple scraps of coffee filter material to filter the air coming into the bulb, and I always flush the bulb with a few good squeezes before using it on any part of my camera gear.

I have sensor cleaning brushes carefully stored in a sealed plastic bag. I'm guessing they will work based on other users comments. So far I've never needed anything more than the camera's own built-in functions and my Giottos blowers - and the above handling procedures.

[FragileBird]

Thanks everyone! I'll definately get the kit along with the smaller rocket blower. If these don't do the trick, I'll have to take it somewhere.

[Schraubstock]

The best advice I can give to back this up is to ALWAYS use your rear cap. Don't leave a lens just sitting around because you'll get dust on that rear element and unless you clean that lens before placing it on your camera, a lot of that dust will then transfer to your sensor and you'll be screwed.

I think most people wind up getting dust in the camera because it piggybacks in via a dirty lens than anything, since a lens swap is (usually) a quick enough affair you won't have tons of dust fly in during it.

Hi
One hundred percent correct. I would only add the following VERY important action to your advice.

Most rear caps when removed finish up in a pocket somewhere (mine always do) where they pick up fluff and dust which sticks to the plastic by virtue of its static properties. So when it is removed from there and you don't clean the inside that's when you get a load of dust transferred to the lens and with the next lens change you know where this dust will finish up.

Just inspect now any of your rear caps, you'll be surprised what you will see. There are lots of nooks and crannies where dust can hide. I give mine at least good lung full of a blow before putting it back onto the lens.

And there is one more thing. Never ever use a blower to blow the rear side of a zoom lens as this will blow dust inside. Once inside that's it. Use a soft lens brush.

Greetings
Greetings

[FragileBird]

Thanks everyone. Thankfully the rocket blower did the trick first try.

I'll be packing this little fella everywhere now just in case.