Changing Lens ?

[HAVOC]

Any advice on the changing of lenses to avoid getting dust in the camera ? I've been warned to be careful but not actually given any real advice on doing it ! And how often do you clean your censors ? Cheers for any help.

 

[Cory Cooper]

The best way to change lenses is to do it in a not dusty environment. I know that can be hard, so I do the following:

1. Get out of/shield camera from any wind
2. Do indoors vs outdoors if possible
3. Always point the camera towards the ground
4. Have the lens caps ready
5. If in a remote location, you can use your vehicle

As far as sensor cleaning, I use an air blower and use it only when I see "dust bunnies". I have only sent it to Nikon once for a real cleaning.

C

 

[Chris101]

Change your lens FAST. Ron Resnick gives a great procedure for this in his ebook. Essentially it involves first putting the rear lens cap in your pocket, and holding the new lens at such an angle that it goes right on, and you don't need to search for the alignment index. See Ron's book for the details.

 

[yahtzee]

Change your lens FAST. Ron Resnick gives a great procedure for this in his ebook. Essentially it involves first putting the rear lens cap in your pocket, and holding the new lens at such an angle that it goes right on, and you don't need to search for the alignment index. See Ron's book for the details.

exactly how i do it....no issues as of yet.

 

[twig]

dust happens, if you don't think you have encountered any, then you are not stopping down enough and doing enough critical checking to see it.
Get used to cleaning your sensor, it is pretty easy with a plastic knife and some pec pads and some good alcohol.

 

[DiverX]

Same way Cory said but

1. SHUT CAMERA OFF!!

Then the rest! :wink:

 

[AFS]

First, set up a sterile clean-room with airlocks, decontamination chambers, and pressurized suits. Place the camera in the special decontamination changing holder, activate the mechanism that inserts it into the changing chamber, and using your glove box, activate the controls that will change the lenses to the one you want from isolated storage.
Just turn off, have all your caps prepared, out of the wind, indoors, least dusty place you can find. Loosen the rear cap on the new lens but don't remove it. cap the front of the existing lens, press the release button and rotate the lens, don't remove it yet, hold it in place. Remove the rear cap on the new lens, remove the old lens, drop the cap on the rear of the old one, attach new one immediately, then secure the rear cap on the old lens.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Same way Cory said but

1. SHUT CAMERA OFF!!

Then the rest! :wink:

Was a given...

 

[Chris101]

1. SHUT CAMERA OFF!!

Why? A ccd (or cmos) never develops a sufficient charge (several hundred volts are required) to attract dust particles. The natural attraction of the oxygen atom (in water) for the silicon atom (in glass) is about the strongest force involved.

 

[dbirdsong]

1. SHUT CAMERA OFF!!

Why? A ccd (or cmos) never develops a sufficient charge (several hundred volts are required) to attract dust particles. The natural attraction of the oxygen atom (in water) for the silicon atom (in glass) is about the strongest force involved.

I had a chance to have dinner a couple months ago with a guy from Nikon that told me it really doesn't matter if you turn the camera off or not.
All I know is no matter what I do when changing lens' outside I always end up with dust on the sensor.

 

[AFS]

Well, its still best to shut the camera off, to deactivate all the equipment. If you remove a VR lens while the camera is on and especially with VR running it can make a really scary sound and you need to remount it and let the VR turn off and the camera turn off to reset it.

 

[fks]

hi chris-

to add to what harrison said, nikon says to turn the camera off when attaching or detaching lenses. it's a good idea since some of the contacts are probably live.

i'll admit that i've accidentally removed a lens and removed a CF card with the camera on, but i try my best to have the camera off when doing either.

ricky

1. SHUT CAMERA OFF!!

Why? A ccd (or cmos) never develops a sufficient charge (several hundred volts are required) to attract dust particles. The natural attraction of the oxygen atom (in water) for the silicon atom (in glass) is about the strongest force involved.

 

[Chris101]

Harrison - I'm morbid. Right after reading your post, I got out my D100, activated the 24-120's VR with my ear to the camera: "(click) whrrrrrrrrr..." and after a couple seconds the lens went quiet. Then I did it again, but in mid whrrr, I quickly pushed the release button and twisted off the lens. The whrrr stopped, but that was all. Then when I put it back on, the normal sounds came from it every time I activated the VR.

Ricky, I have changed cards and lenses with the camera turned on many times. Because when I'm shooting I usually don't have time to think about any of that stuff, I just need to get a new card in or lens on - pronto!

I've never had a problem. This question probably requires a poll. I suspect that unlike many electro-mechanical things, Nikon cameras are fault tolerant about this. And I'm a real stickler about lettiing hard drives spin down before moving them.

 

[dan_m]

Put the rear lens cap in your pocket?!

Turn one of your pockets inside out and look at the junk that falls out. What an efficient way to get crud into the back end of a lens and into the camera on its next installation. Just my 2 cents worth.
Dan M.

 

[Chris101]

I question that step too Dan. I think it keeps you from dropping it while doing the lens flipping thing. I've never dropped a lens, but when I'm holding a camera in one hand, and two lenses in the other, it gets pretty precarious. I guess I could hold the cap in my teeth, but then I'd slobber on it. Sometimes (with small lenses) I wedge it between my pinky and ring finger on the camera hand.

Hey, you know what - I just thought of this. When Ron does it, I'll bet he hangs the camera from his neck, so he can devote a whole hand to each lens.

 

[Igor]

No matter how you take all the above precautions you'll get dust on your sensor anyway.
Just learn the cleaning technique and you'll be OK

Besides there's always a clone tool in PS