Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Some time ago I purchased the Visible Dust spinning brush for FF sensor and their lit sensor loupe lens. I shot some landscape photos about 2 weeks ago and saw some spots in the photos in the sky. Last night I decided to clean my cameras for an event shoot today and realized it had been over 2 yrs since I cleaned my sensors (3 Canon bodies: 7D; 5D MKII, 5D). When looking at my sensors I saw that I had almost nothing on all of them! My 7D was the worst which is the funniest because I change the lenses on that one the least. I honestly can't believe how clean they were and now they are perfect again.

How have your experiences been?

Maybe it's a testament to the built in sensor cleaning systems.

Never ever had to clean a sensor...then again I use Olympus!

I have never cleaned a sensor before... I think I saw some spots on my D300 once but otherwise it has never been an issue.

Had my 7D sensor cleaned by Canon in Mississauga earlier this year. It really wasn't too bad considering the dumb stuff I've done - trying to remove debris from the internal bay with a cheap blower that would always leave one of the brush hairs behind.... repeatedly for example. Plus I'm a fairly frequent lens changer in just about any conditions.

What bugs me the most is the debris on the focusing screen. Usually I have to remove it and use an air blower to get rid of the stuff.

I've got to take all of my cameras in soon for a cleaning. I used try and do it at least every 6 months but I have been tardy as of late and have not done it in almost a year and a half Most of the time it is just a temporary tune up but i actually have a few annoying spots right now that have been driving me nuts lately.

The 7D might be the dirtiest because of the lens line-up used on it. If you used a 17-55 which is a known dust sucker rather than weather sealed lenses you may experience more sensor dirt.