New OLPF with tiny Dust - Dilemma

[ErnestoDeCarvalho]

I am in the middle of shooting a documentary with my newly upgraded Scarlet Dragon and I've realized that the image is too noisy for my taste, while using the STHO. (Even 1600 looks bad with red noise all over, with sensor calibrated etc...). So I decided to open for the first time my LLO. So, I get everything ready, and in the moment when I take the LLO out of its case I realize it has specks of white dust (clearly from factory, as this is coming out of its unbroken packaging for the first time). I softly blow some air with a proper blower, and some of the 7 or 8 tiny specks go away, and 1 of the 2 slightly bigger ones go away too, but there is still 1 resilient one and 3 or 4 minuscule ones, that I can flare up with a flashlight, that simply won't go away... Image attached What do I do? Is the effect of tiny specks negligible enough, so that I can put it on anyway? Thanks for any extra-light!

 

[Tony Mac]

If you know someone that has an Artic Butterfly, you can try that first, and if that doesn't work you can always use sensor swabs with some cleaning solution. A company called VisibleDust makes all these products. This is a helpful video I've viewed to clean sensor glass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l1GrP4fQKk

 

[ErnestoDeCarvalho]

Thank you! But damn, I'm in a really isolated area! Access to nothing here. So I suppose you are suggesting that a little bit of dust on the OLPF is a no-go, right?

 

[Tony Mac]

Thank you! But damn, I'm in a really isolated area! Access to nothing here. So I suppose you are suggesting that a little bit of dust on the OLPF is a no-go, right?

Have you checked to see if it actually impacts your image quality?

 

[ErnestoDeCarvalho]

Hey Tony, thank you for the follow up! Well I put it on the camera anyway. Will try to examine the footage later to see if any spots are visible... Will report back!

 

[John Marchant]

Shoot with it - that dust will only show at deep stops or in the most giant of bokeh. Keep an eye out for it, but I've seen filthy OLPFs come back from shoots where nobody even noticed.

 

[ErnestoDeCarvalho]

Thank you John! Will do that.

 

[Brant Hadfield]

I managed to clean mine with lens cleaner on a doc shoot in a very remote and isolated area. It's harder to clean than a lens, and in a perfect world I would have had sensor swabs, but I eventually got it cleaned up. Not ideal, but it worked and did not damage the OLPF. Dust particles that close to the sensor can be a problem for the image. You might be able to use the edge of a piece of lens paper to just dislodge whatever is there and then blow it away without using any liquid.

 

[Corey Benoit]

I have cleaned my many times. Here is the best stuff to use. Been using it on all sensors for years.

Pre-Moistened type 2:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...hic_Solutions_PE2C_Sensor_Swab_Plus_with.html


Dry Type 2 (add your own fluid. MUST USE ECLIPSE FLUID!!)

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...phic_Solutions_SS2BOX_Sensor_Swab_Type_2.html


Eclipse Cleaning Fluid:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...Solutions_EC_Eclipse_Optic_Lens_Cleaning.html