I just discovered something..........

480sparky · Jun 22, 2012

A sensor scope works just peachy keen on lenses, too! Really makes it easy to see dust & small smudges!

pgriz · Jun 23, 2012

What? Wow, fantastic!

Oh, what's a sensor scope?

480sparky · Jun 23, 2012

pgriz said:
What? Wow, fantastic!

Oh, what's a sensor scope?

A special magnifying optical device used to inspect camera sensors.

pgriz · Jun 23, 2012

So... what does this thing look like? And is this part of your working kit? Can't exactly see an electrician needing one of these as part of the normal work flow... But then, you're a photographer as well, so all bets are off on the "normal" part.

TCampbell · Jun 23, 2012

You can see a video of a sensor scope being used here. I don't have a Delkin brand (even though this is their video.) Any nice large magnifier will work... but a sensor scope rests on the lens flange and you can focus it to give a nice sharp clear view of the sensor (really the filters in front of the sensor.) The scope usually has a light in it. Mine has an opening in the side so that I can reach a swap through while leaving the scope on the camera -- so I can more clearly see what I'm trying to clean.

But with that said... I have yet to require a liquid cleaner on the sensor. Usually a few puffs of air will remove whatever dust didn't "shake" off via the piezoelectric self-cleaning cycle.

Garbz · Jun 23, 2012

480sparky said:
A sensor scope works just peachy keen on lenses, too! Really makes it easy to see dust & small smudges!

You're about to discover something else:

Look at this photo:

Horrendous isn't it? You can see every last spec on the lens show up in this photo right? ... No actually we can't.

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Scroll down to see the actual photo.

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And the winner is:

Taken on my phone some 30 seconds after I took the above image:

Woopse a piece of blutac stuck to the front element, who missed that in the last clean :lmao:

Although I will admit the blutac does start becoming visible as an ever so slight shadow at around f/5.6 and at f/11 is looks like a spot of sensor dust.