[Ex Finn.]

I'll post the same thing here I've done elsewhere regarding blowers for cleaning your sensor.

Giotto's Rocket Blower provides a great blast of air - but it's not necessarily CLEAN air. I've used it to clean big crud off my sensors in the past, only to find it added a lot of smaller, sticky particles which would not blow off and required a real contact cleaning method to remove them.

I still use a Rocket blower to clean around the lens base and camera body before removing a lens.
I use it to clean the back of a lens before putting it on the camera body.
I sometimes also use it to clean out the mirror box area of a camera body.
I use it to clean filters and the front of a lens.
But I do not ever use it to clean sensors unless I have no other choice.

I now use a finely filtered blower from Visible Dust called Zeeion.
Nowhere near the blast you get from a Rocket blower but it's enough to remove any loose particles from your sensor and it won't add more as it filters the air before it blows it.
It's not cheap, but it works better IMO.

As for why I got more more particles on my sensors after using a Rocket blower, I think some of them may have been residual mold release wax or other contaminants that flake off and get into the airstream when the blower is used vigorously. These particles then impact your sensor where they may stick and stay until wiped off with another method of cleaning. I prefer to avoid that.
When I'm at home I actually use a custom made compressor, dryer, filter, regulator and nozzle setup for cleaning that's easier to use. It provides a nice clean constant stream of air and you don't have to worry about the tip moving because you're not squeezing and distorting a rubber bulb that causes the nozzle to wiggle around.

I would like to see your setup also, since I am not a fan of canned air.

[vonBaloney]

I also have one of those firefly ionizing blowers (removes static charge), which is good for home but too bulky to carry around. I'll telling you -- get the "sticky thing" I linked to earlier -- always as last step will get any piece of dust off the sensor and leaves nothing behind itself...

[patrick9]

When using a rocket blower I always blow it into the air to rid it of the dust that can settle in it when not in use. Then I blow my sensor and interior of the camera.Be careful not to touch the sensor with the blower .I hold the camera lens opening down so that dislodged dust falls out and not around or back into the camera. I have never had the dust resettle on my sensor doing it this way. I also am careful at lens change.Keeping the camera face down when lens is removed and until lens is replaced, and out of the ,has helped in keeping the dust off the sensor.

[MarkJerling]

When using a rocket blower I always blow it into the air to rid it of the dust that can settle in it when not in use. Then I blow my sensor and interior of the camera.Be careful not to touch the sensor with the blower .I hold the camera lens opening down so that dislodged dust falls out and not around or back into the camera. I have never had the dust resettle on my sensor doing it this way. I also am careful at lens change.Keeping the camera face down when lens is removed and until lens is replaced, and out of the ,has helped in keeping the dust off the sensor.

Agree 100%.
Take care with your blower not to stick the nozzle into the mirror box and accidentally bumping against the mirror or other internal parts. Try to keep the nozzle no further in than the actual lens mount.

I have found that, sometimes, one go with the blower gets the dust most of the time, but sometimes, a stubborn bit of dust, maybe something sticky like pollen etc, may need multiple attempts. So far, I've not had any dust that has not come off with the blower or using the camera's dust clearing function. I have, to date, not needed to do any more 'invasive' sensor cleaning.

It's good to remember that dust largely adheres to surfaces because of electric charge. (Static) As noted by others above, there are options available where a special brush can be twirled around to stimulate a static charge thereby 'sucking' the dust off the camera surfaces. I've not tried this myself but if I build a desk "blower", I'd be keen to combine it with a static inducing wand to see if that would help.

[beebs]

Well, thank you all again for the info. I am home now, and just got a moment to take a serious look at the camera and lens under my old magnifying Dazor lamp. It appears that the larger of the two v-shaped specks is due to some dust on one of the INNER lenses inside the lens barrel.

It looks like there is a lens under the outside front one that is the diameter of the hole you see when you look in from the front. When I look at it under the magnifier, and turn the barrel from 18 to 135, I can see the speck INSIDE the lens itself, on the other piece of glass, moving away from the front lens. The back of the lens is clean, as I checked it just now.

Would this be something that would be a "warranty" issue?

I would never have thought about there being dust INSIDE the lens itself....I figured these were assembled in a "clean room".

[vonBaloney]

Well, thank you all again for the info. I am home now, and just got a moment to take a serious look at the camera and lens under my old magnifying Dazor lamp. It appears that the larger of the two v-shaped specks is due to some dust on one of the INNER lenses inside the lens barrel.

It looks like there is a lens under the outside front one that is the diameter of the hole you see when you look in from the front. When I look at it under the magnifier, and turn the barrel from 18 to 135, I can see the speck INSIDE the lens itself, on the other piece of glass, moving away from the front lens. The back of the lens is clean, as I checked it just now.

Would this be something that would be a "warranty" issue?

I would never have thought about there being dust INSIDE the lens itself....I figured these were assembled in a "clean room".

Dust inside a lens (a little bit) is normal, and it will accumulate dust over time, especially zoom lenses that are sucking in air all the time. In general, internal dust has absolutely no discernable effect on the image -- only when you get haze or fog over an entire lens element, or if you've got some big specks on the rear element of a wide-angle lens and you stop the aperture down to f/16 or more, you might get some blotches like you see in your photos. But sensor dust is FAR more likely to be cause.

[beebs]

Ah...I guess I jumped the gun there on stating that was what the problem was. OK...I will go and get a blaster bulb first thing. Thanks.