How do I know if my sensor is clean?

[padders]

Hi I recently bought a Nikon D5100 second hand, I've read some stuff about dust getting in the camera. I haven't really noticed any dust patches on my photos but is there a way to check?

 

[sep9001]

Take a picture of a white piece of paper at f22, then zoom in and check for black blobs.

You will have to set the camera and lens to manual focus.

 

[andrewc]

Yes, take picture of something plain - wall, paper, cloudy sky at a narrow aperture such as f/22. Slow shutter speed doesn't matter as you can move the camera about to blur things further. You don't need to focus on anything either. Dust on the sensor will show up as small marks.

 

[padders]

thanks will give it a go now

 

[hyeongsoong]

if you haven't noticed them then I won't bother. dust and change lens are hands on hands. if you do find some dust on the sensor at F22 do you clean it any way?

 

[HoppyUK]

if you haven't noticed them then I won't bother. dust and change lens are hands on hands. if you do find some dust on the sensor at F22 do you clean it any way?

Yes, it's easy to get paranoid but a bit of dust from time to time is inevitable and is rarely visible except in large plain areas like skies at high f/numbers.

Best not to shoot at f/22 anyway as sharpness will be poor (due to diffraction). Better not to go higher than f/11.

 

[woof woof]

What I normally do is shoot a white door with the camera set to manual focus at infininty.

I start with the lens set to minimum aperture and take a series of pictures gradually opening the aperture.

If there's s dust bunny at f22 but nothing at f16 (or some other aperture that I know I wont be shooting beyond) I may not bother cleaning the camera, but f I'm in a OCD mood I'll clean it.

I normally do this before going out for the day. The theory being that I'll be starting from a known state and spending 5 to 10 minutes testing and cleaning is better than spending more time cloning bunnies out of 500 shots.

 

[marky.b]

After taking the shot pen it in editing prog and do auto levels
That will realy
show how bad sensor is or isn't

 

[FlyingShrapnel]

After taking the shot pen it in editing prog and do auto levels
That will realy
show how bad sensor is or isn't

if you have light room, put clarity up to 100, about 20 dust bunnies showed up after i did that when messing about with PP settings :bonk: