Nothing like shooting HDR to show your dust is back.

I hadn't noticed any specific dust on the sensor, or even wanted to look given that I'm resigned to just dealing with whatever the D600 feeds me on this 3rd shutter. The camera is too darn good to complain about sensor cleaning.

That said, I haven't shot HDR's much in a months, so I took an opportunity on Sunday morning to shoot a couple and just got around to looking at them this morning. As I zipped through presets in HDR Efex Pro 2 I noticed something immediately as I scrolled past this one. I don't know if it's shutter related or just all the freaking pollen in the air. I suspect the latter for sure as there's a thin layer on my deck that has visible footprints in it, one day after washing it down. Whether or not the first is involved is not something I'm going to worry about. I won't bother wet cleaning until the pollen dies down as I suspect it'll just get back in there - probably as I'm cleaning (yes, it's that bad in NJ).

Just thought I'd share.

I am horrified to see the spots on my photos lately when I increase detail. I never had that many before. I am still mustering the courage to clean my sensor.....in a small room.....with the doors and windows closed......and no carpeting or drapes.......wearing a sterile Hazmat suit.......

BackdoorHippie said:

As I zipped through presets in HDR Efex Pro 2 I noticed something immediately as I scrolled past this one.

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Jake, if you don't mind, give us a look at "this one"!

Yeah, I meant to include the photo, but for some reason my Macbook makes me shut down my browser and restart it before it recognizes files created "Today" when the browser was originally opened "Yesterday". PITA.

FYI, this is just raw as it came out of HDR Efex Pro 2 when I saw it. No "real" work was done on the photo. Upper left corner devils, just like the last two times. Haven't had a chance to shoot a proper dust photo. I'll get to that later today when the dust settles. (rimshot) This is 596 shutter activations since getting it back from Nikon.

Spots on my photos drive me crazy and it seems I'm now hypervigilant in seeing them without even looking. I have 3 to 5 spots at the moment and my 12 pack of sensor cleaners arrived just a day ago so as soon as I see any additional spots appear.

Btw, I've come to the conclusion that V-Dust sensor cleaners are much much better for wet cleaning than the Sensor Swab brand from Photographic Solutions. The reason is the angular design and the ability of the V-Dust swab to move along your sensor without scraping against the sides and creating additional fibers. I don't know if a DX sensor is a jammed in as an FX sensor but in an FX sensor the sides of the swab will scrape if they're not angled.

I have them too.. But i haven't done a cleaning before & am a little too worried i think..
And not to state i don't really know how to do it safely.

It's really not very difficult at all. All you are doing is cleaning a slab of glass, the sensor and all the delicate parts are all protected. This brings up something I can't say I've ever heard - someone causing damage by cleaning their sensor. Given the amount of DSLR's out there and so many people self-cleaning, you would think we'd hear more about damaged cameras if it were easy to hurt something, don't you think?

Interesting, Dave. I don't remember the sides scraping when I first looked at it, but I'll keep a closer eye out this time.

My first D600 had the larger, darker spots on the sensor in the upper left when taking a pic of a light wall. This second body only had small, very light spots which haven't yet returned since cleaning it, but I haven't taken too many photos lately either.

Jake, I see some really small spots in the water on the lower right. I wonder if they are on the sensor or were in the photo somehow (possibly bird reflections that didn't make it into the photo?).

Couldn't rightly tell you. The water, while calm and highly reflective, was covered in a layer of tree pollen, scum and other nonsense. Not sparkling by any stretch. I suppose when I do a real dust photo we'll know. It needs a cleaning regardless.

Seems to be just that - dust. Here's a before and after with just the Rocket Blower, something I haven't used in about 2 weeks since the lens hasn't been removed from the camera. A couple persistent bits, but the good news is that there's absolutely no sign of oil or dust.

Dust reference after....




Dust reference before...

Well, I did it! I bought the Visibledust stuff and cleaned my sensor: Before and after. Air jet didn't work. It was pollen. I just need to work on the lens a bit now. The sensor was horrible.

Lscha said:

Well, I did it! I bought the Visibledust stuff and cleaned my sensor: Before and after. Air jet didn't work. It was pollen. I just need to work on the lens a bit now. The sensor was horrible.

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Yay!!! It's a little nerve racking the first time through but once you get the hang of it, it's not all that bad, huh?