Dang, how'd that sensor get so dirty?!

Last week's expedition into the fog did wonders for my D600's sensor - like "I wonder how the heck it got so freaking dirty?!" Lots of handheld bracket HDR stuff (none of which was worth anything) along with cool and foggy conditions and many lens changes meant that there was lots of stuff flying around inside there. I didn't notice until about 2/3 of the way through the edits of my photos, but while there was a couple minor dust spots in the beginning (I knew they were there) there was a mess on there by the end (which is why the HDR stuff wasn't worth a lick - too much cleanup).

So, I set about to cleaning her yesterday and after 3 swabs there was still stuff in there on the very edges. Man was I annoyed. It was a bad day, so I put her down and went shooting with the D800 instead (boy is that nice). I attacked it again today, and two swabs later she's crystal clean. God, I hate the idea that I burned through almost $15 worth of cloth on a stick, but I'm glad she's clean again.

And for the record, this was damp dust that stuck and not oil spots. It's been a good 4000 clicks since I got her back from Nikon before it needed a wet cleaning. No complaints here. Maybe I need to get a spare D600 when they start blowing 'em out? LOL

One word for you--well maybe two: Pec-Pad. I ordered mine on Amazon. It was fulfilled by Amazon with Outdoor Photo Gear as the seller. Each Pec-Pad is about the size of 2 Sensor Swab pieces of material so I cut one in half and applied each half to two used sensor swab wands (I kept some of the plastic wands after blowing through so many Sensor Swabs). I also kept the material from a used sensor swab so I'd know how to fold it to fit over the plastic wand. I wasn't able to remove all the oil spots, but they didn't come off completely even when I used the original Sensor Swabs. The pads worked very well, and I won't hesitate to continue using them. When I cut one in half, I immediately put the unused half of the material into a clean ziplock bag to prevent it from getting any dust on it.

The Pec-Pads arrived sealed in a plastic package which was resealable with a ziplock closure. I can't imagine even using up all these Pec-Pads on one sensor even in the years ahead!

By the way, if anyone tries this, be SURE to keep a little bit of material overhanging the edges of the plastic wand. The original Sensor Swabs were made that way to hang over the edges slightly, but you'd better keep an eye on how the material is fastened onto to the plastic wand so the low pass filter doesn't get scratched.

I plan to finally setup Focal this weekend and test the Dust program on my D600. I've had a few hundred clicks since it's been back.

FYI Jake, not sure if you saw this on the Focal software, it also will test to see what aperture your lens is sharpest. I'm interested to see if the "2 stops up" general rule applies to my lenses.