Nature and Wildlife photographer Ron Niebrugge has gone a year without having to clean his camera. His secret? A simple product called the Dust Shield.
While the Dust Shield has been on the market for a while, I’ve always looked at it a bit cross-eyed. I’ve invested lots and lots of money into a system that is designed to take great pictures. And between my $1000 lens and $2500 camera (well, in my case it’s a $250 camera, but work with me here), I am going to put a piece of glorified saran wrap?
But according the Neibrugge, the dust shield works brilliantly. In fact, it works better than he was expecting. “Here is an advantage I didn’t anticipate,” writes Neibrugge. “What I found is dust was far less likely to show when on the Dust Shield. I believe this is because the dust is now landing a fair distance away from the sensor, it just doesn’t create ugly black spots like it does when it lands on the sensor. I’m always surprised at how little spots or scratches on filters aren’t viable on the final image – I believe the same principle is at play.”
One potential drawback is the extra piece of plastic does seem to suck up just a bit of light. And if you’re a D3 user, or even a IDs MIII user, you’re out of luck, as the Dust Shield is only available for the 5D and 5D M II, though more are in the works. And bad news for Canadian Photogs: There are no Canadian distributors of Dust Aid products, so you probably can’t run down to your local camera store to pick one up.
Are any wedding photographers using the Dust Shield? Any comment from the field? Let us know what you think, especially if you have hands-on experience.
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2 Comments at "Never Clean Your Camera Again!"
Like you, I’d be extremely reluctant to introduce a $20 piece of saran wrap between my sensor and my lens. It’s a no-go for me.
I think not.
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