I own a 5D and a 1DS MK III. I use to wet clean the 5D's sensor about once a week. I have yet to wet clean the 1DSIII sensor after 1 1/2 years of shooting. The images are still clean. I've twice used "manual clean" to get the mirror up, and then used only a rocket blower.

What do the rest of you think about the the self cleaning sensor? Does it seem to work for you?

I haven't cleaned any of my cameras with a dust buster. But Thom Hogan makes a good point here...

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp...essage=33529626

(Or somewhere near there.)

I live and work in a very dusty (but dry and I think that is important) environment. After 9 months of intensive shooting with my 5DII, regularly changing lenses outdoors, I have yet to see a single piece of dust stay on the sensor for more than one on off or lens changing cycle. That was certainly not true of my 5D, which required regular cleaning.

I had to clean my 20D sensor all the time. I got my 40D right after they came out, probably October of '07. Haven't touched the sensor even once. I do a lot of shooting locally, and we have more than our fair share of dust blowing around, so I'd say it's been remarkably effective.

The cleaning system on my D300 worked very well. Now that I'm using a D3x dust is a problem again. Not only do I have to use the rocket blower a lot more often, but I'm also having to spot-touch images for dust on a fairly regular basis.

I never had too much of a problem with my 1ds2 and a couple of swipes with a visible dust brush were generally all it ever needed, even after working in some really dusty places. I have wet cleaned it twice in the 4 years I have owned it - once after working in a bakery with lots of flour dust. There was a lot of comment on its vulnerability to dust when first released but I never really had too many problems , but then the sensor cleaning gear improved around that time too. I had quite a lot of trouble with cleaning the kodak 14nx sensor with the available gear before that,
Generally the 1ds3 has been pretty good in the time I have had it and the self cleaning sensor works , but sometimes there is one sticky bit of dust that has to be removed manually( I hope it isn't the same one!) I have had to do that twice in eighteen months. It took a couple of goes with the visible dust brushes yesterday to clean the 1ds3 and It think if you have to do it manually it seems just a little bit harder.

i had a few spots early on with the 40D which i put down to manufacturing oil residue or some such - after a couple manual cleanings i have had no trouble except in dusty environments when i changed lenses and forgot to turn the camera off and cycle the cleaner

i manually cleaned the 5DII a couple of times early on as a precaution otherwise it's clean

this is far different from my experience with the 20D and 5D

ultrasonic works

My 1DsIII has picked up a couple of stubborn goobers. I keep forgetting about them until I do a shoot with small apertures, then I curse myself and turn on the spot-healing brush while I try to remember where I put my cleaning kit....

On my Canon 1Ds Mark 3, the self-cleaning system is only a partial solution. I still get a lot of dust specks. That being said, the situation is much improved over the Mark 2 and I wouldn't want a new camera without a self-cleaning system even if it's imperfect.
Since it's release, I've had to clean the sensor maybe 6-8 times… which is acceptable for me.

Exactly the same for me and my 1ds MkIII here. It does help but it is not enough. Had to clean about 5 times maybe over the one and a half years I own it.

Exactly my experience! The first cleaning was done by Canon. The sensor had more than 100 dust spots and about 20 oil spots. The Canon technician told me that it wasn't uncommon even with the "new" self-cleaning system.

Another D300 owner here. I've never seen a single dust speck on a D300 image, and have never cleaned the sensor at all, in over a year of using it. I used to have to clean my D70's sensor quite regularly and still had a few stubborn dust spots most of the time. So at Nikon, at least, self-cleaning sensors have been near miraculous.

Lisa

After 2 weeks in New Mexico recently, swapping out lenses (on D700 & D300) in the field - I can say with complete confidence that the built in sensor cleaning only does that much.

I have dirty sensors on both cameras...with dust bunnies visible at 100% - not a big issue at the moment (with the ability to remove them via software).

I have tried using the rocket blower a few times, but I am sure i will be doing the "Wet cleaning" very shortly on both cameras.

I used to clean my 5D sensor every 2 weeks. I've been with the MkII for over 2 months now. No cleaning yet. Of course, there are some spots, but nothing I could not clean in pp within a minute. My veredict for auto self cleaning: It damn works!
Eduardo

My experience says that once you begin to clean the sensor, you have to continue more and more often !

Certainly because of static electricity.

So, begin to clean only when necessary !!

Have a Nice Day.

Thierry

My experience with Nikon, D300 and D700, is that the cleaning function works very well for very light duty. After two weeks rafting the Colorado River my sensor looked like a cotton field and it took a trip to Nikon to clean the sensor and other related dust damage. That was extreme, but in general the self cleaning is very effective.

Adding to the consensus....I cleaned my 30D body frequently--every month or two. I haven't yet needed to clean my 50D in almost a year of use.

I think these cleaning systems DO work.

I have roughly the same experience:

D70 - terrible dust. When there was large junk, I'd clean it with a blower only, and otherwise I spotted my pictures.

D200 (with improved anti-static measures, etc.) - Occasional dust, but not too bad. Most dust usually seemed to fall off on its own, given time.

D700 (with ultrasonic cleaning, plus larger pixels hence less sensitive to smaller dust particles) - Essentially no visible dust, ever. I'm very happy about this!

Cheers.