A couple of years ago, on the morning of the southerners PU meet in St. Albans, I used this technique to make sure my *istD sensor was spotless.

Sat in my lounge, pointing the camera at the blue sky through the window, I took a snap, and there was dust. So I tried the rocket blower, took another snap, still dust, but it had moved a bit. Another go with the blower, no good, just shifting the dust about.

So onto the wet wipes, normally sorts it first time. This time? NO! Still just shifted the dust about, plenty of spots all over the sensor. So after several more wet wipes and test shots, I'm thinking "what on Earth's going on here?"

Then it dawns on me. I've defocused the lens. But inadvertently focused on the window instead. I've been busy taking photos of my dirty lounge window for the last half hour.

Didn't do that again!

Dan

Don't be, sensors are tougher than we're led to believe I reckon. See my comment on this thread.

As I say there, not something I'd recommend doing, but it did at least prove that the sensor is not some fragile, delicate thing never to be touched.

The arctic butterfly things do seem popular and effective though, if you didn't want to mess with the wet stuff.

Dan

I think it's definitely time we got a log burner at home!

Flash exposure looks fine, fire looks a little overexposed? To me anyway, just a bit too red. Might be how it looks through the glass though.

Dan

The dirt is actually on the glass cover of the sensor, so a little in front of the sensor itself. Wider apertures mean the light can 'go around' the dirt, a small aperture means the light is coming from more of a point source, so the dirt gives a more defined shadow.

Bit like the difference between a grey sky giving no shadows, and a bright sun giving harsh ones.

Does that make sense? I could draw a picture, but hope you don't need it.

Dan

Don't forget there's £30 cashback on that SRS price too.

Dan

Can't make the 10th, but 9th is still okay.

Dan

Where were you, in a cave?

I do really like these, even the ones with the 'faces', but the last one's my favourite too. Well done for creating something a bit different.

Dan

I don't want to commit to it, it's a busy time of year for me with workshops and stuff, but at the moment I'm free for this date.

Could I suggest alternative dates of Sunday 3rd or 24th May too? Just in case Sunday's are better for the majority? I'm free (at the moment) for those dates too.

Dan

I was doing some one-to-one tuition on saturday, and the lady had a Nikon D100. I asked her to zoom in on a pic on the LCD. Took us a minute or so to figure out you had to:

Press 'display' (to bring the image up)
Press 'Enter' (so that you were actually going to do something )
Hold down a button whilst turning the rear command dial to zoom in.

It just seemed a very convoluted way of doing it.

Pentax doesn't seem to do things in a convoluted way. You want to zoom in? Just turn the rear command dial. Want to change ISO? Just turn whichever command dial you've got it assigned to.

Better viewfinders too. The little Canon/Sony/Olympus ones are horrible. I like to tease the Canon users on my workshops by putting my 50mm 1.4 on my K10D, then letting them look through the viewfinder - after their kit lens through their tiny viewfinder, it's a revelation! You tend to get very favourable comments on the build quality of the K10D too, especially from those that use 300-450Ds.

But why did I pick Pentax in the first place? I had K mount lenses and didn't want to start from scratch again. Do I use any of those original lenses now? No! But at least I've had a few years to spread the cost of re-lensing.

Dan

Peter! Don't you trust me, a fellow Brentwoodonian?

Dan