I recently went to Silverstone to watch the F1 qualifying and took my DSLR camera with me. Throughout the day, I switched lenses a few times, but each time was very conscious that there was a lot of dust around (by then end of the day, my clothes were covered in dust).
Every time I changed lenses, I was very protective of the SLR body and made sure the amount of time that the SLR lens hole was exposed was minimised. Was I being too protective, or is it very easy to get dust in the SLR body when changing lenses?
Answer
In my experience, it is pretty easy to get dust...as well as other unwanted junk, inside your camera body fairly easily. I follow a pretty rigorous routine when changing my lenses so that I minimize the world-exposure time of anything...sensor, back lens element, etc. Despite my attempts to be careful, even a short, random gust can blow in the most astonishing things and they can drastically effect your photos.
A couple months ago I was out taking shots of birds (one of my first times trying bird photography) and I changed a lens. I had exposed the camera sensor for only a few seconds, but a dried fragment of a grass blade ended up inside my camera body. It took a while to find it at first, as I was looking at the shutter and sensor assembly. After some time, I finally realized it was actually stuck to the prism that redirects light to my viewfinder.
Since then, I've completely accepted my paraniodism about switching lenses. Better safe than sorry. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment