Are Canon mirrorless camera's more susceptible to sensor dust ?

May 20, 2013
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A Sony Alpha 7 II owner I know has been having endless problems with sensor dust, he has put it down to there being no mirror shielding his cameras shutter assembly when changing lenses, and the fact that the sensors/shutters in mirrorless cameras are positioned closer to the lens mount.

Are Canon mirrorless camera owners also experiencing a similar increase in sensor dust since switching from traditional DSLR's ? If so this is only likely to get worse with FF mirrorless.
 
Mar 25, 2011
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If you are very sensitive to sensor dust, all DSLR's have it, it varies by individual and user, so its not a easily answered question. I've certainly never seen a difference between FF and aps-C in terms of dust on the image. The costings on modern sensors tend to shed dust pretty well, the mirror movement may tend to blow it away better.
 
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Oct 26, 2013
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In my experience, you have to be more careful when changing lenses on a mirrorless camera. My mirrorless cameras do get more dust on their sensors, but the self-cleaning operation has always sufficiently removed it. Of course, this doesn't help the pics you take before the sensor gets cleaned at shut off or start up. It's also easier o get other things such as moisture on the sensor which has only happened to me once, but ruined a bunch of pics. Don't know how a small drop of water got on the sensor - perhaps dripped from some leaves above as I changed lenses in the field. i wouldn't consider it a big issue, but one I would definitely say is more prevalent with mirrorless in my limited experience. And, of course, it has nothing to do with Canon. So your title should really read "Are mirrorless cameras...."
 
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Mar 25, 2011
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dak723 said:
And, of course, it has nothing to do with Canon. So your title should really read "Are mirrorless cameras...."
I am not so certain that dust is going to be more or less of a issue for different brands. The IBIS sensors definitely are different, they depend on IBIS motors to shake dust loose rather than the Canon ultrasonic method, for example. Then, patented coatings may make a difference.
It is pretty much unstudied as of now, and all we have is various users guesstimates based on their usage. The amount of dust where they photograph, and how often and where they change lenses, can be huge factors, likely larger than manufacturer to manufacturer differences.
Before I retired, one of my jobs was to create the requirements for cleanrooms used to assemble space born electronics. We worked with a group of dust experts who had their own lab to measure and experiment with dust. It turns out that not all dust is the same either, particle size shape, and composition vary from place to place and present different problems. Even the detergent used to wash those bunny suits had to be specified because of differences in cleaning. Hundreds of loads of washed suits tested for dust, and for durability of antistatic coatings! Our QA guy did that for us, he was great!
 
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jolyonralph

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My experience is that dust tends to accumulate faster on the Sony A7RII than on my 5DSR. But the flipside of this is because the sensor is closer to the mount it's easier and quicker to clean the sensor (and much easier to tell when the sensor is clean or not) than on the larger camera with the recessed sensor. My M series cameras tend to have less of a problem than the Sony, I wonder if that is to do with the relative sensor size or just good design?
 
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Oct 19, 2012
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Mt Spokane Photography said:
I am not so certain that dust is going to be more or less of a issue for different brands. The IBIS sensors definitely are different, they depend on IBIS motors to shake dust loose rather than the Canon ultrasonic method, for example. Then, patented coatings may make a difference.
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To my experience dust cleaning using IBIS mechanism to shake sensor is pretty useless.
Maybe it could shake-off big dust particles which rarely could be on sensor but for small ones effect is practically equal to zero.
I think ultrasonic cleaning is better way, at least on my 1DXm2 I practically had no issues with dust but a lot on Sony cameras.
This is why I was so pleased to see how Fuji addressed this problem with their new G mount design.
At least one manufacturer did that right.
I mentioned that in another post.
http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=35383.msg731119#msg731119
Just similar as protection filter in front of lens, very smart.
Also positioned 9mm in front of sensor so dust on top of protection glass has less impact on images and for wide apertures practically not visible as it is out of DOF.
And the same as for protection filter in front of lens, space between protection glass and sensor is closed and isolated from outside, so no dust gets in.
 
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Don Haines

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Jun 4, 2012
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Neutral said:
To my experience dust cleaning using IBIS mechanism to shake sensor is pretty useless.
Maybe it could shake-off big dust particles which rarely could be on sensor but for small ones effect is practically equal to zero.
I think ultrasonic cleaning is better way, at least on my 1DXm2 I practically had no issues with dust but a lot on Sony cameras.
This is why I was so pleased to see how Fuji addressed this problem with their new G mount design.
At least one manufacturer did that right.
I mentioned that in another post.
http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=35383.msg731119#msg731119
Just similar as protection filter in front of lens, very smart.
Also positioned 9mm in front of sensor so dust on top of protection glass has less impact on images and for wide apertures practically not visible as it is out of DOF.
And the same as for protection filter in front of lens, space between protection glass and sensor is closed and isolated from outside, so no dust gets in.

Yet another good reason to keep the EF mount when Canon introduces a FF mirrorless...space for an optional protection filter :)
 
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Feb 26, 2012
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Lots of variables there make the difference.

I've had fewer dust issues on my Fuji and Oly MILCs than with DSLRs.

Oly's thick filter stack reduces the dust shadow effect more than most perhaps.

My Canon DSLRs were a bit more dust prone than my Nikon and Pentax ones, not sure why.

Nikon D5x00 series touted specific mirrorbox design to minimize that problem and I'd have to agree they were somewhat successful tho too bad the mirror itself was often a tad out of alignment.

Seems the latest polyphobic and antistatic coatings used on the outer sensor stack filter go a long way towards keeping the sensor dust from being a big problem.

It's not worth worrying about unless you're swapping lenses in a windy, dusty, outdoor location.

Using sensible procedures when changing lenses is the biggest factor to reducing the problem.
 
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