Sensor Cleaning

It's almost six month since I bought my DSLR and it has been accumulating dust on its sensor. The dusts are not noticeable when I shoot wide open or at low f-stop number. I notice it only when I shoot macro with f16 or f22. It's quite annoying to see small dots on every macro picture that I took. 

I asked quotation for cleaning the sensor from both camera service center and camera repair shop, and they told me the cost is around 30 SGD. I read from the forum that sometimes repair shops only use blower to remove the dust (which is not good, sticky dusts won't disappear) or they do use sensor swab but perhaps the results are not good since there may be still some dusts left on the sensor. So I decide to do it myself. There are few options to clean the sensor: Arctic Butterfly, sensor brush, lenspen for sensor, sensor loupe, sensor swab with eclipse, visible dust swab, and many more. Arctic butterfly will cost me about 170 SGD, sensor loupe about 140 SGD, sensor swab with eclipse about 90 SGD, and visible dust swab about 30 SGD. Arctic butterfly is not within my budget, so I decided either to buy sensor swab or visible dust. In the end I bought visible dust. It came with 4 one-time use-only swabs and small bottle of cleaning liquid. Sensor swab came with 12 swabs and one big bottle of eclipse cleaning liquid (the liquid itself will cost me about 20 SGD). I was quite nervous to do this cleaning myself, since there is risk that I may scratch the sensor and render my DSLR useless.

First I turned off the aircons and fan to make sure no circulating air that may carry dusts. I saw on the internet, that bathroom is a good place since the number of dusts is lesser there than any other room. But I didn't follow that suggestion. I changed a new battery for my DSLR, turned it on, and chose "Sensor Cleaning" menu, then the mirror's opened up, I could see the sensor inside. I took one swab and put a few drops of cleaning liquid on it, cleaned the sensor from one side to the other side with left side of the swab, and back with the right side of the swab. I turned of my DSLR to let the mirror closed, tried to shoot at f22 with flash, and the big dust was gone, but I could still see few dusts, so I started again the process and hoped that there wouldn't be any dust anymore.

Before sensor cleaning :

After sensor cleaning :

Tada.... Sadly there's still small dust left on the top right corner. I have already used two swabs, I guess it's enough, I'll save the last two swabs for next month. I think I will need a sensor loupe since it will be easier to check the leftover dust without a need to put on lens and shooting at f22. I was happy enough not scratching my sensor (or perhaps I did scratch it), let's wait :)

SMC Pentax A 50mm f2.8 Macro

This is one of the best manual macro lenses in Pentax lineup, it would be better if you could get the 100mm version (but the price will be twice as much, at least). This lens has auto aperture, so we can set the aperture from camera body. The good thing of setting it from camera body is the built in (or pttl) flash can adjust its power according to aperture being used automatically. This is very useful in macro shooting since you won't get overblown images. Unfortunately it has 1:2 magnification only, not 1:1, but still this lens is tack sharp and the color is really nice.

Some shots taken using this lens :

With Raynox DCR150 combined :

    

Nightshoot using fast lens

There are two type of pics taken at night: long exposure or normal exposure. The former is done with a help of tripod and the latter is done with a help of fast lens or flash. Here are some photos taken using fast lens at night. Mostly taken at ISO 400-800, 1/100-1/150s, and f1.2.

Those were taken during mid-autumn festival.

Those were taken at Little India before Deepavali.

Macro extension tube with aperture coupling

This extension tube has aperture coupling, so when you stop down the lens, the viewfinder is still bright. It's very convenience to use.

I tried to combine the two shortest extension tube (the vivitar brand) with 2x Macro focusing tele converter.

These are the shots taken using extension tubes only.

Raynox DCR-250

I borrowed this from a friend. It is different from extension tube where you put the tube between camera body and lens. We use Raynox DCR-250 in similar manner to filter, so we put it in front of the lens. It comes with a clip on adapter, so we can mount it on any lens with filter size between 52mm and 67mm. If you want to use it on lens with filter size less then 52mm, you can use a step up ring.

I tried to put the Raynox DCR-250 on my Sigma 70-300mm f4-5.6 APO DG. When I use the lens at 300mm and 1:2 macro, the distance between the lens and object is around 50cm, but with Raynox DCR-250 mounted, the distance becomes 5-6 cm only.

Here are some shots taken using the combo.

Vivitar 2x Macro Focusing Tele Converter

Finally, I have time to try the macro focusing tele converter. It can convert your 50mm prime lens into 100mm with macro capability that goes into 1:1. This one is in PK mount, there is another variant which comes in PKA mount.

I went to botanical garden and shot some insects using this converter and SMC Pentax M 50mm f1.7.  Some shots taken using this combo :