Sensor Dust is Everywhere!
Sensor dust, sensor dust… it is everywhere. Is it a bird, a bee or a UFO?
NO! In my glorious photograph of open blue skies, delicate details of flora or a child’s precious smile—there lurks the despicable black dot.
Experts recommend you quickly change lenses in an enclosed space, keep those lenses and camera body upside down, or celebrate technical advances of a vibrating sensor. Check out moon beams and sun beams, just envision that entering the body of your camera as you change a lens, or clean the sensor. Several websites and blogs have good tips like : http://blog.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/
A patented product has come on-line that uses the concept of a clean-room that is portable and economically viable. It is called IonosGear1 (i-on-os-gear-one) by Photipherals (fo-tif-er-als). Folded, it is the size of a laptop that can be easily carried in its own bag, or in the laptop compartment of the newer camera backpacks and cases. It weights a little over two pounds.
It doesn’t vibrate, but with a flick of switch it energize itself to scrub the interior of the case to clear the air and help eliminate static electricity, creating a very clean environment to help prevent senor contamination while changing lenses or cleaning the sensor. A bright interior light and a magnifying lens at the proper viewing distance from the sensor helps the most discerning, discern the particulates. Handy interior pockets keep cleaning supplies out of the way while cleaning the sensors. [Note some experts recommend sensor cleaning be done by camera maintenance professionals. So the IonosGear1 is still a great way to extend meantime between professional cleanings.]
IonosGear1’s patented design is pretty zippy. A very long zipper winds its way around the body of the case, making it very flat when folded, but nicely put together and quickly deployed. The designer, an avid digital photographer, calculated in the need to make room for fixed focal length lenses up to 400mm and zooms up to 500mm. But wait! For focal lengths up to 800mm, there is hidden extension panel that extends the bag out. You can go from a macro to maxi lens with great ease. (Designers are working on making hauling that 800mm lens and tripod easier—but levitation is pretty tough to catch in a bottle.)
While marketing plans do not call for offering two for the price of one, the bag can also be used as a protective housing for shooting during inclement weather. There are lens ports and viewfinder windows and the end of the bag unzips.
Technology solutions for the digital photographer: Photipherals is committed to seeking out & applying good technology to deliver products that make digital photography less problematic.
