Dust bunnies at macro level

Macro shot of my hair.

Talk about dirty!  This morning while I was combing my hair, I picked out one strand of hair from my comb.  It was interesting looking because the tip of the hair was white (yeah, I have gray hair since I was 24) and the base of the hair was black!  This was a second time I saw one of these hair strands like that.  Am I getting younger???

In any case, it was interesting enough I had to take a shot of it to document the anomalous growth.  I decided to use the Nikkor 105mm lens.  I thought it could do 1:1 reproduction but for some reason I could not get really close to the hair so I added an extension tube.

What came out was a little surprising.  Yes, I got my shot to demonstrate the weird change in colour but I also got a ton of dust dunnies in the photo!  All those really dark spots in the photo are dust bunnies!  They do appear at f/32 on my 18-200mm lens but they are a lot more apparent at the macro level.  Holy molly, I initially thought they were black spots on the paper that the hair was taped on but no, those were on my sensor!  Ok, time to do another wet cleaning.

Why do I get so much dust inside my camera???

Copper Hill Sensor Swipe

The Henry's Exposure Show is now over.  I attended the show yesterday for about five hours.  It was good.  I walked out of the show with two Copper Hill Sensor Swipe kits for wet sensor cleaning, that I purchased for $2 each from Henry's clearance section (Henry's used to sell them for $25 each!!).

A Copper Hill Sensor Swipe kit comes with an 18mm swab and a PecPad sheet.  The PecPad sheet was wrapped around the swab ready for use out of the bag, and the 18mm width of the swab was perfect for the D7000 sensor as it covers pretty the entire height of the sensor.  I used my old sensor cleaning solution I bought from Aden Camera a while ago and applied a few drops onto the PedPad.  One swipe across the sensor almost did the job--my dust bunnies were well bonded to the surface.  I had to repeat the process one more time to get a perfectly clean sensor.  (The process involved swiping across the sensor with one side of the PecPad, and then go back (or go over in the same direction) with the other side of the PecPad.)

On the second attempt, because you are not supposed to be re-using the same side of the PecPad, I decided to unwrap the PecPad and reposition the swab at a different location on the PecPad.  It occurred to me then that the PecPad is held together with tape.  Uh, yeah, tape.  Well, that was stupid I thought.  Now, I can no longer use a whole section of the PecPad covered by the tape because of potential adhesive debris left on the PecPad.  What I could do though now, is to use the other side of the PecPad and cut the PecPad into disposable strips.

I will not follow the steps given on the instruction sheet that came with the kit.  Instead, on Copper Hill's website, there are these better instructions:  http://www.copperhillimages.com/index.php?pr=Tutorials2.  Basically, you cut the PecPad into strips.  After an application, throw the strips away.

http://www.copperhillimages.com/images/StripPrep.jpg

Dust bunnies

Oh my goodness!  The bunnies are back with a vengeance!  I don't remember when I last operated my camera with multiple lenses outdoors--it might have been during the hike up around the Forks of the Credit--but my sensor is full of dust bunnies.  I had no need to take my camera out but since I will be heading to Ottawa next weekend, I thought I'd bring my D7000 along and thought I'd check the sensor now.  I got the Tamron 17-50mm lens on, set the aperture to f/32, and shot away at my bright notebook screen.  Two test shots confirmed it--btw, the blur was intentional.  No fewer than 40 bunnies have made my sensor their home.  They are concentrated in the right side of the photo for some reason.  Well, it's time to clear the field of the invaders.



So, it took me six attempts to clean the sensor to remove most of the bunnies.  I started with a blower.  I knew it was not going to do much if anything.  I then proceeded with the Artic Butterfly.  Sure enough, it looks like these bunnies have burrowed themselves deep into the sensor.  I then tried the wet cleaning method.  My first attempt with a used swab left some bunnies behind.  My second attempt with the used swab made it worse.  I threw away the swab and got another one, new this time.  I applied the swab across the sensor and it looked like it was perfectly clean--except that when I did my test shot there were these funny artifacts and I thought there were residues of the cleaning solution on the sensor.  So I did two more wet cleaning only to realize the funny artifacts are flares from the lens.  The sensor is not 100% clean but good enough for normal shooting.

Having the tools at home is a heck lot faster and more convenient than sending the camera in to Nikon for cleaning.  Did I tell you their service centre in Mississauga does not open late on weeknights and is closed on weekends.