Comments on: Canon EOS 5D Dust Problem

By: Dennis MDonald

Dennis MDonald — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 00:33:21 +0000

I have had a 5D for 3 years. Just recently I noticed the same dust problem in the sky. Any darker areas you do not notice the dust. What a pain. Canon should admit there is a design fault and have a recall to rectify the problem. I have been a Nikon man with film cameras but when I changed to digital I only went Canon because they were the only ones producing a full 35 mm digital. Sure wish I did not make the change. The 5D has all sorts of problems working with the Canon flash. When I contacted the man in charge of cameras at Canon Australia he told me he was also a wedding photographer and that he was disappointed with the flash. He said the only way to get around it is to set the 5D on manual at around 30 secs on F5 at 400 ISO. Isn’t that going back 30 years? But it seems to be the only way to get half reasonable shots. Has anyone else had this problem?

By: Mike Walker

Mike Walker — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:49:44 +0000

My 5D Classic, which I have had for about 5 years, has always had dust problems, both in the view finder and on the sensor. My 5D Mk II, which I have had for about 1 year, does not have either issue. I have never cleaned the Mk II sensor and it currently has no dust on it. The Classic on the other hand, must be cleaned after every use.

By: Steve K

Steve K — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 05:43:57 +0000

I’ve had my 5D for about three years now. I have to say I am in the same situation as everyone else here with the dust issue! Plus I have a friend with the same situation; he got rid of his 5D. I just deal with it. I thought I was getting an awesome piece of equipment by paying the price. It seems not that one gets what they pay for in this situation. The question that I want to know from everyone on here is; when does this camera produce a white? I can’t seem to get a white out of this camera without doing some major image manipulation. I carefully work with my exposures, check my settings, but it seems that I can only get a muddy blaaaa image from this $2800 steaming pile of mediocrity!!! Where is the dynamic range in tonality from this “bleepin” camera? I see $200 cameras that get better tonal range straight out of the box. Mud, Mud, Mud. Not only that, I can’t get a consistent exposure with the 580EX! Plus I get serious flash vignette. Another guy I know who is a serious (high dollar) wedding photographer dumped all of his Canon and switched to Nikon because he was having the same problems with exposure. He used Canon for years. I also own 2 EOS 1 “paper weights” film cameras that I miss using so bad!!!! I literally couldn’t take a bad exposure with them and especially with the 430EZ…Absolutely the best cameras I have ever owned!!! I don’t have any hair left to pull out. Any comments? Anyone have any solutions? ( not about the hair of course. HA!)

By: Terry

Terry — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:10:37 +0000

I’ve owned my 5D Mark II for a couple years now.
It’s impossible to shoot video with dust and dirt specks dropping on the sensor all of the time! I performed a test.
Cleaned sensor and verified that it was clear of dust or any specks.
I connected HD monitor to 5D. Connect my 100-400mm lens to it.
All looks good for about a min or two. I then noticed dust and specks
showing up on the sensor while monitoring it on my HD monitor. I really believe the sensor is drawing the dust and whatever while on.
This is totally useless for video work using telephoto lenses.
I don’t see much of a problem when shooting photos with it.

By: Omar

Omar — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 05:54:22 +0000

I am having the same problem with the 5D Mark II. It’s driving me nuts, especially cause I do a lot of landscape photography with bright blue skies at very small apertures – the dust and specks simply ruin all the photos.

I will take it to Canon and see what they say, but I’m not willing to simply live with it – especially at the price of this body.

By: Steve H

Steve H — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 03:02:54 +0000

I had a 1D MkIII and determined it was too much camera for my needs. I went with the 5D MkII and took a trip to Grand Tetons to try it out. I am always very careful changing the lens (facing camera down, etc…) On day 2 sunrise on Mormon Row I was horrified to see my viewfinder full of black specs. That has been almost a year now and I have just learned to live with it. I can’t get the specs off and finally gave up out of frustration. For the first time ever I am downloading Nikon brochures and giving serious thought to jumping over.

By: Valerie Safai

Valerie Safai — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:44:49 +0000

I have had my 5D for 2.5 years now and I thought maybe it was me…and crazy traveling adventures and changing of lenses that were attracting so much dust.

I’ve tried to clean it several times, and it never really comes out perfect.

This is extremely frustrating, especially for a photographer who spends LOADS of time in AFRICA shooting the SKY! (I also live in Switzerland where the sky is equally as amazing in the mountainous areas).

I’d rather spend more time shooting and less time in the digital dark room and this chronic problem has taken much of my enjoyment of shooting away.

There are many things I love about my 5D. But this completely bogus for the caliper of this camera.

I have a long-life warranty and after my recent return from Africa with over 2000 images I’m seriously considering putting my warranty to good use and putting up a stink with Canon to upgrade the body at no cost.

By: anil kumar.k.r.

anil kumar.k.r. — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:21:35 +0000

i am dubai based photographer faciing dust problem in the sensor.

By: dano

dano — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:28:03 +0000

Same problems with dust– everywhere. I thought
my eyes were the problem, until I read the posts about the viewfinder.

By: guillaume D

guillaume D — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:30:21 +0000

the sensor of the 5D is very prone to attract dust (more than the recent sensor)when I first got it 3 months ago I had to clean it every 3 days. to compare I clean my 40D’s sensor only every 2-3 months …

However, cleaning a sensor is very easy: I just tur my camera down and blow some air on the sensor and usually all the dust comes off. if they are persistent particules i use the “sensorklear” which is VERY efficient and easy to use, plus I have the feeling that, for some reason, the sensor attracts less dust.