DSLR dust removal / sensor cleaning shootout

We already know that megapixels don't matter (right?), but an oft hyped (but untested) feature that has emerged on DSLRs is automatic sensor cleaning. The anti-dust capabilities (or lack thereof) of Canon's EOS-400D, Olympus' E-300, Pentax's K10D, and Sony's Alpha A100 were put to the test, and although the methodology was less than scientific, the results were intriguing nonetheless. Essentially, each camera was given a before / after test shot in order to judge the results, and after the digicams sat through a dirtying process, they were "self-cleaned" 25 times and finally rated. Considering that Olympus was given credit as being the first manufacturer to include dust cleaning technology in its products, it's not too surprising that it took home the gold, but even sitting in first place, the E-300's effectiveness was only rated at 50-percent. Canon's EOS-400D came in with high expectations, but received a "poor" rating as the cleaning effectiveness clocked in a paltry five-percent. If you thought these two were bad, it only got worse when the Pentax K10D and Alpha A100 stepped to the plate, as both highly-regarded cams were deemed "useless" in the anti-dust department. So if your number one priority in a new DSLR is how well it cleans up after itself, there doesn't seem to be a standout option just yet, but feel free to hit the read link and decide for yourself.

[Thanks, Romain B.]

[Gil @ Mar 26th 2007 4:59AM]

I wonder what causes that nasty static charge buildup in the 400D. Maybe it can be adressed via firmware (powerdown the CMOS first then use dust removal)

[Adam Pflug @ Mar 26th 2007 6:27AM]

For the 400D the statically charged sensor is actually supposed to be a feature. The theory was it would prevent dust from ever settling on the CMOS sensor at all, and it as actually part of their "EOS Integrated Cleaning System". It sounds as if there was something wrong with their test unit if the charge was attracting rather than repelling dust however. I am very curious what went wrong since I have that camera, lol.

More info via the youTube link in the article.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P8_LNmpFSc

[LanceW @ Mar 26th 2007 4:20PM]

As always Olympus gets little respect for its innovation. Even when reviewers lower themselves to admit that Olympus wins the tone is always somber. Ask any long-time Olympus DSLR user about dust problems. You'll rarely hear anything. Now ask the others....mmm-hmmm. Also, why do the reviewers use an Olympus E-300 when it is a discontinued (old) model, but use the other makers' newest cams? Same old story.

[Shaocaholica @ Mar 26th 2007 3:48PM]

I emailed the editor and he says that they DID NOT use the manual "CCD clean" function on the Sony A100 which is much more violent than whatever the camera does on startup. The editor says that they did not do this because the "normal user" doesn't know about this function. My guess is that they didn't know about it when they did the test. Avoiding any manual cleaning features on any of these cameras is not truly testing them.

As a A100 owner, I know for a fact that the A100 manual cleaning function does a lot more than just cycling the power on the camera. The camera literally vibrates for a full second and you can clearly feel it.

[Chris @ Apr 9th 2007 6:40PM]

Hello, I was JUST playing with my new sony, and I tried out the manual CCD cleaner, which does vibrate the sensor at a very high speed. It seems however that most of the tests which deem the Sony's cleaner useless, did not test the manual cleaning option! What an invalid test!

[tekdroid @ Apr 2nd 2007 5:40AM]

exactly. Add to that Olympus' Pixel Mapping. Hot Piexels and so forth still a common occurrence on many many other cams. Olympus provided a simple fix for the user in-camera YEARS ago (and still does).

[BertramImages @ May 8th 2007 11:36PM]

Would be interesting to have an actual user survey. Getting scared seeing dust on the E300 in this test, I right away tested my two E300s. No dust whatsoever. It might be, living in Florida at nearly 100% humidity keeps the dust in the air at nearly zero, I guess.