Sensor dust
August 14th, 2008 Rob SheppardEver since digital SLRs came out, we were always told to turn the camera off when changing lenses to minimize dust problems. That was because the sensor was charged and could attract dust.
Well, it turns out the manufacturers have been changing this part of cameras and not letting anyone know! I was having lunch with a friend from Canon who said that Canon digital SLRs all turned off power to the sensor as soon as a lens was removed from the mount. So you did not have to turn off the camera to change a lens.
That was a revelation to me. I had to know if other manufacturers had done this. So I checked with friends at Olympus and Nikon. Sure enough, cameras from these manufacturers also turned off power to the sensor as soon as a lens was removed. In fact, Nikon had been doing this since the D-1, yet when I first inquired, no one knew about this and they had to ask “Japan.”
So now the secret is out. I don’t know about other cameras, but I suspect they do the same. You don’t have to turn your camera off to change lenses. Now if you are in dusty conditions, you may still want to turn your camera off and on if your camera has dust-removal technology built into the camera as this is usually turned on and off as the camera powers up or down.
