Test on dust removal systems.

Pentax does not come off well

http://pixinfo.com/en/articles/ccd-dust-removal/

It's worse than that - seems to almost create it's own dust according to these tests

So far I have not had to do any sensor cleaning with my K10D. I can't imagine that they would have included this facility if it didn't work at all, so I suspect that the review sample was faulty.

G

I got a very prominent dust speck quite soon after I got the K10D.

The sensor shaker operated, but didn't shift it.

A fairly gentle blast from a rocket blower shifted it though, and amazingly, although I change lenses quite a lot, I haven't had any more (well no more obvious ones, anyway).

So so far, I'm not too impressed with the dust removal system, but I'm not planning any more rigorous tests than this one.

No dust so far. I run the sensor cleaning function every couple of days.

No dust at present even in extreme conditions of desert and savana.

Run dust removal every time I change the lens

Any particular reason not to set default to do it everytime you power on the camera?

I had a couple of specks, one of which initally wouldn't budge, but after a getting the camera to do a couple of self-clean cycles it vanished. As far as I am concerned the Pentax system works as advertised.

I too have reverted to shaking the sensor on start up. I didn't do it once after changing the lens and had loads of spots and hairs.

It didn't help that I'd forgot to switch off before changing the lens.

A blower removed some stubborn spots.

well I don't know if it's the shaking of the sensor or the new coatings they applied to it, but my K10D gets much less dusty than my DL2.

I have to agree 100% with the review. When I do see dust, the removal system is totally useless even after a dozen or more "cleaning" cycles.
I guess I could try setting things so that the camera shakes when turned on.

Still, the K10D seems to get less dust to begin with than my istD so that is good. And a quick blow gets it gone. I have not yet had to attempt another cleaning method. (I am a bit afraid of what that might do to the movable parts!)

Anyway, I am not really so disappointed in the K10D, but it was a lot of hype and added cost that could have gone to other R&D.

not really, the shake action is done using the same mechanism as the SR system uses so just getting it to shake hard on demand can't have cost more than a couple of hours of some code monkeys time. The only bit which can really have cost extra is the coating, which seems to work rather well as both you and I have noticed that the K10D gets less dusty than our *ists do.

My K10D is set to shake itself on start-up. I've never had to do anything else with it.

I suspect that if you don't shake dust off immediately, it may form a stronger bond with the sensor surface, and then require more to dislodge it than a quick shake of the sensor.

So I shall stick with the shake on start-up.

G

I agree, only reason I can see to turn off "shake on startup" is if you are in a situation where you want the camera to fire up as fast as physically possible. In that situation I'd be inclined to just leave the switch set to "on" and let the camera turn itself off on power save. It doesn't do the shake thing when recovering from this and comes on even faster.

I never did have a problem with dust spots (not so far anyway) so I leave the cleaning switched off.

My logic for this is that I don't shake electronics more than necessary. Even if the system is deigned to stand up to the wear and tear it seems logical that if you don't shake it it might last even longer.

Just a thought.