Canon C80 coming soon

[kye]

3 hours ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

That, and also to set the aperture down to like f/16 or f/22 and shoot something - or even to put a pinhole lens on and shoot something.  If you ever want to know how many pieces of dust have landed on your sensor, a pinhole lens is the quickest way to see them all.  🙂

I did think of that, but took it out of my reply because I was thinking that anything on the sensor would be in-focus regardless of what the lens was doing.  Maybe I'm wrong though, not sure..

[eatstoomuchjam]

3 hours ago, kye said:

I did think of that, but took it out of my reply because I was thinking that anything on the sensor would be in-focus regardless of what the lens was doing.  Maybe I'm wrong though, not sure..

You'd think so, but no!  If you're using like an f/1.2 lens, you can have surprisingly big dust spots on your sensor and never be any the wiser.  The more stopped down, the more they appear.  From what I remember, and I might be wrong about this, it's bascally the same effect as using a large diffuse light source vs a small point source - put your hand next to a white card near the large diffuse source and you'll get a blurry, indistinct shadow.  Do the same with a small point source and you'll get a well-defined crisp shadow.  It's the same on a smaller scale with sensor dust.

[eatstoomuchjam]

The camera is here.  As far as I can see, there is a single decent-sized piece of dust on one of the internal ND filters and that's it.  I cannot see any other marks on the camera's sensor assembly.  The speck is big enough that I could imagine it being a little bit visible on a big blue sky, but in a way that'd be not hard to clone out.  I'm also going to have to experiment with shaking the camera a little bit and/or blasting a rocket blower into the vent holes/fans.  It's hard to imagine how that little sucker got in there.  Worst case, if I decided to send it to CPS, I have to assume it'd be a pretty cheap repair.

Overall, I'll gladly trade that for the $1,500 price reduction vs new.  😅

[kye]

On 5/7/2026 at 1:26 PM, eatstoomuchjam said:

The camera is here.  As far as I can see, there is a single decent-sized piece of dust on one of the internal ND filters and that's it.  I cannot see any other marks on the camera's sensor assembly.  The speck is big enough that I could imagine it being a little bit visible on a big blue sky, but in a way that'd be not hard to clone out.  I'm also going to have to experiment with shaking the camera a little bit and/or blasting a rocket blower into the vent holes/fans.  It's hard to imagine how that little sucker got in there.  Worst case, if I decided to send it to CPS, I have to assume it'd be a pretty cheap repair.

Overall, I'll gladly trade that for the $1,500 price reduction vs new.  😅

Nice.  Good idea about giving it a solid clean out with rocket blower etc.  Mine tends to leak air quite a bit from the one-way valve, but if you put a thumb over it then it turbo boosts the air to give a much more solid blast.  It'd be good to know if there's dust all through it, and if you end up dislodging a bunch, at least you can include that in any cleaning service you arrange.

I have also found that fan brushes for painting are really nice for dislodging the dust that is just attached enough to not move from air alone, but they tend to be gentle enough that they're not picking up dust and then pressing it onto the surface as you move it around.  I don't know how far I'd go if something was on my sensor - I'm mostly blowing dust off my lenses or off the outside of the gear after a trip.
Speaking of brushes, the makeup section in most shops will often have very soft brushes with a short handle that fit really well into the case/container you're keeping your lenses.

In terms of how it got there, I've noticed a minority of people seem to be perfectly happy taking their time and doing other things while the camera has no lens or body-cap attached.  Personally when I'm changing lenses I do it in a sheltered area, taking the rear lens cap off the next lens, then swapping the lenses as quickly as possible (while still being calm and controlled) and then putting the cap onto the previous lens.  If I'm at home and feeling fastidious I blow the rear element of the next lens (and rear lens cap) before fitting it, then blow the rear of the previous one before putting the rear cap on, in an effort to not let dust hitchhike its way into the camera.

[eatstoomuchjam]

2 hours ago, kye said:

I have also found that fan brushes for painting are really nice for dislodging the dust that is just attached enough to not move from air alone, but they tend to be gentle enough that they're not picking up dust and then pressing it onto the surface as you move it around.  I don't know how far I'd go if something was on my sensor - I'm mostly blowing dust off my lenses or off the outside of the gear after a trip.

I should clarify - the dust is under the outside layer of protective glass in front of the sensor/ND assembly.  It's on one of the internal ND filters.  Without some disassembly, it can't be reached with a brush.  I'm more hoping that one of the air intakes for the camera's fan has some path that goes there and that blasting in air from the rocket blower will dislodge it.  😄

2 hours ago, kye said:

I've noticed a minority of people seem to be perfectly happy taking their time and doing other things while the camera has no lens or body-cap attached.  Personally when I'm changing lenses I do it in a sheltered area, taking the rear lens cap off the next lens, then swapping the lenses as quickly as possible (while still being calm and controlled) and then putting the cap onto the previous lens.

I am somewhere between those people and fastidious.  While on set, it's not usually a reasonable investment of time to move to a sheltered area to swap lenses.  I don't walk around doing other things while the lens is off, but it often takes 15-60 seconds.  Usually the rocket blower is plenty to handle any dust that sneaks in, no biggie.

But the fact that it's under the external protective glass is why I can't figure out how someone got it in there.  Worst case, I need to decide whether to send it to CPS for what should be a pretty easy fix for them - or I just sent it back to MPB within the returns window.