How often should I clean the sensor of my Canon EOS 350D?

EOS magazine: The Canon EOS 350D was the last model released by Canon without the integral cleaning system. Any dust that falls on the sensor has to be cleaned manually. Use the correct equipment and technique and the chances of scratching the sensor are very low. As to how often the camera’s sensor NEEDS cleaning – that’s up to you. How much dust gets on your sensor depends on a lot of things. Do you shoot in a dusty environment? Or change lenses a lot? When we change our cameras’ lenses we turn the camera off (the electrical currents running through the mirror and sensor can attract dust) and hold the body with the lens mount facing downwards to minimise the amount of dust that can enter. Another thing to watch out for are air blowers – they may not be as clean as you think inside. One squirt from a dirty blower will put dust onto your sensor rather than remove it!

There’s an easy way to see how much dust is on your sensor. Take a photo with your camera pointing at a blue sky, making sure the entire frame is filled by the sky and that you’re shooting at f22. Open the file in Photoshop and go to Image > Adjustments > Auto levels. You will now be able to see the dust on your sensor. The question is, can you see the dust on your regular photos? If you take a lot of photos with blue skies, for instance, you’ll probably see the dust quite clearly. But if your photos are very busy with lots of texture, you might not notice the dust at all. And if you can see dust in your photos, are you happy to clone it out with Photoshop (or whatever imaging software you use) or would you rather that it just wasn’t there? How important are the photos that you’re planning to take? Are they snapshots or are you planning to make large prints or send them to a magazine? All these things should be considered. 

In short, we’d say that your camera’s sensor needs cleaning when the dust spots that are visible in your photos become a nuisance and you’re spending a lot of time editing them out of your images.

We’re planning an article on sensor cleaning in an upcoming issue. We’ll give clear instructions on the best way to clean your camera’s sensor.

Reader feedback: What do you think of the answer to this question? Click on the stars to rate the answer (five is best). Do you have anything to add? How often do you clean your camera’s sensor? Please respond using the comments form below.