A good photography day…at a price
Well, in my last post, I was struggling with the lack of photography ideas coming to my mind. On the first day of the long weekend, I went out and drove to the side of Edmonton that I don’t normally go to. First, I went to the nature paths behind the Alberta Museum and took photos there. I then went to Connors Hill and took excellent photos of Downtown Edmonton. My third stop was the Low Level Bridge. I have never taken photos of any of these areas before.
The photos turned out really well! With the excellent sunlight and the nice clear blue sky, I was able to take photos with awesome lighting and nice shadows. I’ll post those photos in my gallery soon!
I guess just going out with an open mind and the constant questioning of “what if…” worked! I kept asking, what if I stopped here and took photos, what if I laid on my belly to take these photos, or what if I just angle the camera a little this way or that way. I was very happy with my photos. Each shutter click was filled with excitement!.
Sure it was ultra hot (my car’s thermometer read 28 degrees Celsius *arrrrgh!*), but I still stayed out there in the sun!
At the end of the day, I noticed some dust on the mirror in the viewfinder. It was ok because, in all DSLR’s, the mirror can have dust from time to time, and the sensor can still be OK.
When I got home, I decided to remove my lens, and spray some compressed air into the mirror (bad idea #1). After a few quick sprays, I put the lens back and looked through the viewfinder. I saw the same dust particles on the mirror 
So I decided to do a few more quick sprays with the compressed air (bad idea #2). I then took a few test shots. The look of horror came when I saw dust spots in the photos themselves! That means that the dust was pushed into the sensor! NOOOOO!
All DSLR’s come with a feature to lift the mirror up so that I can get full access to the sensor. I did that and I saw the most expensive and most important part of any digital camera: the sensor. I’ve done this before. I have used my compressed air to push the dust our of the sensor. This time, though, it completely slipped from my mind that if I tip the compressed air can up or down, it will spray water out too! (MAJOR MISTAKE!). The look of horror turned to utter panic! If the water evaporates on the sensor, it’ll be tougher to remove that more than just bits of dust! My nightmare got even worse as I watched the water quickly evaporate. My heart dropped as I thought that my precious camera’s sensor got totally f***ed.
I did not give up, though. I read up on the service manuals and it turns out that there’s a filter that sits in front of the sensor. It means that the sensor is still ok (whew) but the filter’s got all this evaporated water streaks on it. I immediately grabbed a cotton swab (big mistake #4) and put some alcohol in the end (because alcohol will evaporate without streaks as stated in one of the sensor cleaning manuals I read). I gently wiped it (big mistake #5) . When I took some test shots with a wide aperture, it looked like everything was fine. There were no dust spots or anything in any of the photos. However, when I used small aperture sizes and even more in long exposures, there were tiny pieces of dust all over the photo (not a lot, but enough to make the photo look like shit). The dust was mostly concentrated in the corners and edges (probably where the swab couldn’t reach).
So, one mistake after another. I guess what’s left to be done is to take it in to McBain camera and have them clean it for me
I hope it’s still clean-able. I really hope so. I don’t care if the cleaning is a little on the expensive side…as long as it gets cleaned.
*sigh*…just when I got my shutter groove back, this happens. Oh well…
I guess this is a lesson to hobby photographers…DON’T USE COMPRESSED AIR TO BLOW DUST OFF THE SENSOR!!!!!