07-27-2010, 05:39 PM
Different people have different needs and paranoia levels.
Personally I don't worry about dust until it starts having a visible impact in my photos. If you shoot mostly at wider than say f/8 or so, then you need a fairly large speck of dust to become visible. I also do macro where I might be working at f/16 or smaller for DoF, never mind diffraction, and in that case, dust is much easier to become visible.
So to me, I clean when I need to clean. I don't do preventative cleaning - if I can't see it, it is not a problem! A blower is my first stop, and if that doesn't work I do a wet clean. I'm very casual about changing lenses in the field as I mostly do nature and wildlife. I often have lens rears and mirror boxes exposed in any weather condition and still don't find dust to be a problem. I do a wet clean on average maybe 2 or 3 times a year.
Personally I don't worry about dust until it starts having a visible impact in my photos. If you shoot mostly at wider than say f/8 or so, then you need a fairly large speck of dust to become visible. I also do macro where I might be working at f/16 or smaller for DoF, never mind diffraction, and in that case, dust is much easier to become visible.
So to me, I clean when I need to clean. I don't do preventative cleaning - if I can't see it, it is not a problem! A blower is my first stop, and if that doesn't work I do a wet clean. I'm very casual about changing lenses in the field as I mostly do nature and wildlife. I often have lens rears and mirror boxes exposed in any weather condition and still don't find dust to be a problem. I do a wet clean on average maybe 2 or 3 times a year.
<a class="bbc_url" href="http://snowporing.deviantart.com/">dA</a> Canon 7D2, 7D, 5D2, 600D, 450D, 300D IR modified, 1D, EF-S 10-18, 15-85, EF 35/2, 85/1.8, 135/2, 70-300L, 100-400L, MP-E65, Zeiss 2/50, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300/2.8, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Olympus E-P1, Panasonic 20/1.7, Sony HX9V, Fuji X100.