Hey Everyone! Hope you had a great week.  This weeks discussion is on cleaning the sensor of your camera. First a disclaimer.  Before attempting to clean your sensor read your manual on the procedures to clean to your camera and if you don't feel comfortable doing it, don't.  Take it somewhere you trust to get it cleaned. That said cleaning your sensor is very easy especially if you have a mirrorless camera.  So why do we need to clean the sensor?  When your camera is on an electrical current goes through the sensor making it somewhat of a magnet for dust and dirt.  When changing lenses sometimes dust can get in.  Some cameras aren't sealed as well as others and dust and dirt can still get in.  So cleaning your sensor from time to time may be needed.  A dirty sensor will show spots and specks on your photo's especially if you are stopped down to f22 or so and usually shows up in scenes with blank backgrounds like the sky or a white wall.  So let me go through how I keep my sensor clean.

Prevention. The first step in keeping your sensor clean from dirt and dust is prevention.  Don't leave your camera laying around without a lens or body cap on the camera.  The less your sensor is exposed to the elements the better.  So quickly changing my lenses is the first thing I do. Some times I hold the camera body sensor side down and blow out the inside of my camera with a blower bulb to dislodge any dust that might be in the camera body then put on my lens.  I don't do this all of the time but try to do often. Try to keep the camera side of your lenses clean so not to accidentally insert dust and dirt when attaching a lens.  Keeping your camera and equipment clean is a must.

Cleaning. Most modern camera's have some sort of cleaning function on them.  This basically de-magnifies the sensor and vibrates it to let dust fall off. This is worth a try but I haven't had too much success.  The next step will involve touching your sensor.  Never touch with your fingers! The dirt and oil from your hands can harm your sensor.  The only thing that touches your sensor is something that was made to touch your sensor! These products were made to touch your sensor and not to harm your sensor. First you should have access to your sensor.  If you have a DSLR camera you will have to get your shutter out of the way. (Read Your MANUAL!)  Usually some sort of shutter lockup or cleaning mode will let you see your sensor.  Most mirrorless cameras when you take off of the lens your sensor is there is in full view.  Some newer mirrorless cameras have some sort of shield that goes over the sensor but this is not the rule but the exception. Know your camera and read your manual! The first thing that you want to touch your sensor with is a sensor brush. These are soft and specially made not to harm  your sensor.  Some of them have a negative charge on them to collect dust and the dirt that will cling to the brush.  Make sure you follow the instructions and be gentle with the sensor.  If you had to go this far to get your lens clean the brush usually does the trick for stubborn dust and dirt. If you have a spot on your sensor you may have to use a solution with a special swab to wipe the sensor to clean it.  You can get swabs that already has the solution on it or you can buy dry swabs and solution and then add a few drops to the swabs then use.  I have used both.  I keep one of the pre-moistened ones in my camera bag especially when I travel for emergency cleaning.  The swabs are shaped like a little paddle that is the exact size of the sensor.  You will wipe with one side then the other side and discard the swab.  If you still need to clean you use a new swab.  Again follow the directions of the equipment you are using. There are different types of solutions and your camera company may have a use this solution only.  For my Sony they recommend "Aero-Clipse" cleaning solution.  

Cleaning your sensor does not have to be scary and can be done easily just follow your camera manual instructions and the instructions of the cleaning tools and you will have a clean sensor making editing quicker not having to remove spots.

So until next week, with a clean sensor,  get out and shoot!

Hey Everyone! Hope everyone has had a great week!  This week I want to talk about something new in my bag.  Something I have been missing ever since I switched from full frame and went to crop senor cameras.  I did not miss the image quality or even the dynamic range that full frames claim to have.  But I did miss one thing.  When I was shooting Full Frame cameras of course I was shooting full frame glass and very good lenses to boot.  I had two out of the big three for Nikon.  I had the 70-200 f2.8 and the 24-70 f2.8.  Let me say I just loved these lenses.  Although they did weigh a ton the image quality sharpness was outstanding!.  I recently got on to Light Room and did a search for the most used focal range and the 24-70 by far has the most photo's taken.  Whether I was using a crop sensor or not .   This focal range was the most used and I knew that but wanted to see the numbers. 

When I first got into the crop sensor sized camera's I like everyone else just had the kit lens.  I quickly upgraded the kit lens that was a 16-50 (24-75mm full frame equivalent) pancake lens with a variable aperture to the 18-105 f4 lens ( 27-157.5mm equivalent). This was a pretty good upgrade without too much money and I used this lens for quite a while but it wasn't as sharp as I wanted.  What I wanted was a 24-70mm f2.8 that didn't exist.  I finally upgraded to a Zeiss 16-70mm f4 (24-105mm equivalent) Lens and this was better but not by much but was more compact.  I still didn't have the large aperture that I was used to at 2.8 so I got a 35mm 1.8 (52mm equivalent) and a 24mm 2.8 (36mm equivalent) But I still didn't have the zoom with the wide aperture that I was used to with my Nikon setup.

Finally about a year and a half ago Sony announced a 16-55mm f2.8 lens was coming .  I got a little excited until I saw the price and it cost more than my camera did.  They also came out with a longer zoom a 70-350 variable zoom lens which I got at a lower price.  This was a fantastic lens and I could only imagine how the one I wanted was.  So I stuck with the kit I had for another year.  I only buy one big item a year if I need to in camera gear whether its upgrading older equipment or something new.  This year I finally bit the bullet and invested in the 16-55 f2.8 lens.  And invest is the right word.  Its a very expensive lens but if I remember right I paid about the same price for my Nikon full frame but it was 10 years ago.  There was another contender by Tamron a 17-70mm f2.8.  But all of the reviews talked about how the image quality wasn't quite as good as the Sony and that's why I was upgrading in the first place.  It almost half the price of the Sony but quality won out and I got the Sony.  The lens is still new to me but so far I love it .  The Images are sharp and crisp!  It feels like a quality lens and it is not as large as the Tamron.  Size was a big factor when I went from full frame to crop sensor size.  So all around I am happy with my purchase and my kit is about as good as it gets as far as I am concerned.  I am a 99% photography only shooter with almost no video. A rarity these days.

So my main kit now consist of a Sony A6500 body, a Sony 10-18mm F4 the new lens Sony 16-55 f2.8mm and the Sony 70-350mm f4.5-6.3.  This kit gives me a full frame equivalent range of 15-525mm Range.  This is the kit that I leave in my camera bag all the time and are my go to.  I do have other specialty lenses that I use for food or Star or Street photography but this is my main kit.  Which lately I haven't used a lot but plan to making a change to that situation.

So until next weeks discussion grab your kit and get outside and shoot!

Hey Everybody! Hope your week is going well.  This week I want to talk about two pieces of equipment that can be controversial .  People tend to be on one side or another whether to use them or not.  So I will give you my opinion on why I do or don't use them.  First is the Lens Hood.

Lens hoods come in all shapes and sizes and they are always in the box when you buy a lens.  Very few lenses don't come with a lens hood in the box.  Lens hoods attach on the front of the lens and are for protection against stray light bouncing on or off you lens.  Much like if you walk outside and you put your hand out and over your eyes to protect from the sun shining right into your eyes.  Without your hands seeing is difficult and you have lots of glare.  But when you put your hand over your eyes you can see more clearly.  This is how lens hoods work.  So when should you use them? Should you only use them when sun glare can be a problem?  My answer is use them all of the time.  Here is why.  There is no disadvantage of not using them.  They stick out in front of your lens providing extra protection if your lens should bump into something protecting your front element.  They also keep you from touching the front element by accident while handling your camera putting a unwanted smudge on the front element.  The only time I would remove the hoods is if I actually wanted sun flares in my photo.  Sometimes when you're using a larger lens and you want to use your pop up flash I would remove because they can cause a shadow on the bottom of your frame.  I personally never take them off. Even when I put my lenses away in my camera bag they are always on.  So I'm in the for using them and bonus they don't cost anything extra you got them with your lens.

Dune Grass UV filters.  Use them or not?  In the film days UV or UV haze filters were used to keep a blue haze off of photographs.  With digital there is no need for the filters.  So why do so many people insist on using them?  One reason is its a way for camera stores to make a little more money on the initial sale by selling you a 40 dollar filter.  But that aside people use them for protection of the front element of their lens.  I do think there is "Some" justification to that.  I just watched a video on Youtube that pretty much debunked the myth that they protect your camera against falls or breakage of the front element.  This guy did experiments on how sturdy the filter was compared to the front element .  With only a 1/2 pound of weight being dropped 8 inches all of the filters broke.  But it took 11/2 pounds from 3 feet of height to even scratch the front element of the lens. So protection against a drop I don't think they protect your lens.  Actually a lens hood would do better and I have some experience dropping lenses with the lens hood on and everything turned out OK.   But I do think that they do protect in certain situations.  I think that shooting by the ocean or in very sandy situations they will protect the front element of your lens.  There is also the discussion about quality.  You buy an expensive lens and put an inexpensive piece of glass in front of it will it harm image quality?  My answer to this is probably not that you could notice unless the filter has a scratch or something on it.   And then there is the question of cost.  If you  have 5 different lens you have to buy 5 UV filters.  And of course I use a polarizer a lot of the time so I'd be stacking one on  top of the UV which  could cause vignetting at the corners especially on wide angle lenses. So my answer to using UV filters is, not all of the time only when needed like by the ocean or really sandy and windy.  I have one for each size of lens I own.  In  my camera bag I have a 67mm and a 62mm.

So that's my take on Lens Hoods and UV filters.  What's yours?  Drop me a comment and let me know if there is anything that you would like me to go over or any questions you would like answered.  Until next week keep those lens hoods on and get outside!