And now, for a break from the usual beat …

I finally bit the bullet and did what I should have done a LONG time ago: clean the sensor on my well-traveled Canon 30d.  The dust spot that broke the camel’s back was realizing how spotty and downright dirty looking all my Bali photos came out looking.

I had used a dust blower on the sensor previously with limited success, but this time I went for the full “wet clean” popularized as the “Copper Hill” method (but more clearly and concisely explained by the-digital-picture).

Here are the before and after pictures.

I’m very happy with these results, and kicking myself for not doing it earlier and avoiding a lot of Lightroom spot removal tool work.

A few tips:

• be sure to use the blower both before and after the wet cleaning
• the Photographic Solutions Digital Survival Kit with Type 2 Sensor Swabs is a super convenient, all-in-one cleaning kit.  Well worth the $20.  After the initial investment, you can keep the customized plastic sensor swabs and just reload them with pec pads that you trim yourself.
• when taking your test shots, you will likely have a long shutter time given the small aperture.  Intentionally adding some movement blurs the wall details (or whatever you happen to be focused on) and highlights the dust spots even more.  So does cranking up the contrast in post processing.