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March 20, 2010, a Saturday
near Why, Arizona, USA
— Did computer work, walked, and cleaned my 1Ds Mk III sensor
We decided to stay in today because I needed to do some computer work and J likes having a "day off" now and then. I had my normal breakfast then processed four images for the blog. I worked up a blog entry, then processed another images for the blog. I did some computer work.
I had lunch around 12:20 and continued doing computer work.
I started to clean my Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III sensor around 4:00 with just a bulb blower and a Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly. I check for dust by first taking an out of focus test shot of a uniform area while rotating the camera on the long exposure (usually a few seconds) to make sure that dust is the only thing that's recorded sharply. Then I look at the image in Capture One (C1) with an auto adjustment on the levels. The auto adjustment increases the contrast so that the shadows and highlights are clipped slightly, and it really makes the dust stand out on an otherwise uniform image. There was still dust on the sensor after a couple of passes with the Arctic Butterfly so I moved on to using Visible Dust Sensor Swabs and Sensor Clean. I use swabs sized for 1.5-1.6x sensors so I only need to purchase one size for my 1x (1Ds Mk III) and 1.3x (1D Mk III) sensors and just make multiple passes to clean the whole sensor. I had some stubborn pieces of dust that still weren't coming off. :( We left around 5:10 and ...
Walked around the boondocking area. We saw two male Gambel's quail, doves, possibly a female pyrrhuloxia, and several unidentified birds. It was nice to be out of the RV getting some exercise.
We returned at 5:50 and I went back to cleaning my Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III sensor using Visible Dust Sensor Swabs, Corner Swabs, and Sensor Clean. I wasn't making much progress, so J offered to let me try her Dust-Aid with special Canon Cleaner pads. I looked into it and read the instructions before taking a shower.
We had dinner around 7:10 of TGI Friday's Firecracker Chicken.
After I did the dishes, I went back to cleaning my Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III sensor and tried the Dust-Aid. It got some of the dust that the Visible Dust products weren't getting, but there was still dust left. I alternated between the Visible Dust products and Dust-Aid, and eventually got all but three spots of dust off the sensor and decided to call it quits. Then I looked into the current line of Visible Dust products to see if they had any new items that might work better. They have a new BriteVue Sensor Loupe 7X that gets good reviews. It's an illuminated loupe (magnifying glass) that is used to visually inspect the sensor for dust so that no test images have to be taken. I've dismissed such things in the past because the test-shot technique worked just fine and I didn't have to buy anything special to do it. However, after taking more than 50 test shots earlier today instead of the usual 10-15, I think the BriteVue Sensor Loupe 7X would really speed up the sensor cleaning process. Their Smear Away solution might be good for stubborn spots.
We watched the first half of the movie Duma on DVD because J usually falls asleep if she tries to watch a movie in one sitting.
I had lunch around 12:20 and continued doing computer work.
I started to clean my Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III sensor around 4:00 with just a bulb blower and a Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly. I check for dust by first taking an out of focus test shot of a uniform area while rotating the camera on the long exposure (usually a few seconds) to make sure that dust is the only thing that's recorded sharply. Then I look at the image in Capture One (C1) with an auto adjustment on the levels. The auto adjustment increases the contrast so that the shadows and highlights are clipped slightly, and it really makes the dust stand out on an otherwise uniform image. There was still dust on the sensor after a couple of passes with the Arctic Butterfly so I moved on to using Visible Dust Sensor Swabs and Sensor Clean. I use swabs sized for 1.5-1.6x sensors so I only need to purchase one size for my 1x (1Ds Mk III) and 1.3x (1D Mk III) sensors and just make multiple passes to clean the whole sensor. I had some stubborn pieces of dust that still weren't coming off. :( We left around 5:10 and ...
Walked around the boondocking area. We saw two male Gambel's quail, doves, possibly a female pyrrhuloxia, and several unidentified birds. It was nice to be out of the RV getting some exercise.
We returned at 5:50 and I went back to cleaning my Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III sensor using Visible Dust Sensor Swabs, Corner Swabs, and Sensor Clean. I wasn't making much progress, so J offered to let me try her Dust-Aid with special Canon Cleaner pads. I looked into it and read the instructions before taking a shower.
We had dinner around 7:10 of TGI Friday's Firecracker Chicken.
After I did the dishes, I went back to cleaning my Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III sensor and tried the Dust-Aid. It got some of the dust that the Visible Dust products weren't getting, but there was still dust left. I alternated between the Visible Dust products and Dust-Aid, and eventually got all but three spots of dust off the sensor and decided to call it quits. Then I looked into the current line of Visible Dust products to see if they had any new items that might work better. They have a new BriteVue Sensor Loupe 7X that gets good reviews. It's an illuminated loupe (magnifying glass) that is used to visually inspect the sensor for dust so that no test images have to be taken. I've dismissed such things in the past because the test-shot technique worked just fine and I didn't have to buy anything special to do it. However, after taking more than 50 test shots earlier today instead of the usual 10-15, I think the BriteVue Sensor Loupe 7X would really speed up the sensor cleaning process. Their Smear Away solution might be good for stubborn spots.
We watched the first half of the movie Duma on DVD because J usually falls asleep if she tries to watch a movie in one sitting.