Built-in DSLR Dust Removal Ineffective, Says PixInfo

Canon Dust Reduction Mechanism

Your handy air blower is still the most effective and readily available dust removing tool for your DSLR image sensor. Don’t fall for built-in dust removal “technologies” touted by marketing hype; they’re just hot air.

PixInfo.com recently ran a real-world test on four DSLRs that advertise dust removal or dust reduction techniques: Canon EOS-400D, Olympus E-300, Pentax K10D and the Sony Alpha-100.

The result was utterly disappointing. The best performer turned out to be the Olympus E-300, but even this came up only with an unsatisfying 50 percent dust removal. All the rest? Zip. Zero. Nada, as in, “Hey, did you advertise dust removal? There’s nothing here.”

So don’t throw away that good old air blower just yet. You will still be using that a lot. Then, when dust really becomes recalcitrant, use chemical cleaning (99% clean ethyl alcohol) or some other sensor cleaners now in the market. And read up on how to do that starting with this article here.

[Via: PixInfo.com]

Published by Chris Malinao

Chris teaches Lightroom as workflow software to photography students at the FPPF, Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation. He also teaches smartphone photography.