The Canon EOS 400D Knows How to Clean House

The Canon EOS 400D Knows How to Clean House

It is not the first time that this has happened. The more modest camera model assumes a responsibility to reveal a new technology that will eventually be taken over by more glamorous models. Thus it came to pass, that the EOS400D played the role of guinea pig. It was the first Canon SLR system with integrated sensor cleaning. With this service as a cornerstone of its current cutting edge cameras, the EOS 400D paved the way for other entry level SLR products from Canon. Some minor amendments and more than 2-megapixel resolution helps distinguish it from the EOS 350D, which inherits its good quality, good price ... and some outstanding issues for improvement from it's predecessor.

---

It was inevitable and necessary. I refer of course to the inclusion of the cleaning system sensor that Canon has developed and, for the first time, has installed on a SLR. Apart from the 10 megapixels or pricing discrepancies, there is no doubt that the EOS 400D is the company's response to a demand for a automatic dust cleaning system, that allows photographers to focus exclusively on taking pictures.

Maybe the new users that come first to the world of interchangeable lens cameras (SLRs) will not attach greater importance to this detail and prefer to focus on value for money offered by the cameras. However, with the inclusion of the cleaning system, Canon has managed to kill two birds or flecks of dust with one stone: First of all, to become more competitive with other manufacturers already offering this feature, and tempting more automatic compact camera users to the SLR fold.

That is why, given the striking similarities in the EOS 400D with its predecessor, in addition to the new cleaning mechanism the current SLR landscape is changing.

The aforementioned cleaning system is based on two separate actions for the same purpose. On the one hand, the sensor-or rather, the Low Pass Filter, has a special coating that seeks to prevent dust particles from attaching to it.

Secondly, it is the low pass filter, immediately before the sensor, which vibrates under the control of the Self clean sensor unit. A procedure that strongly recalls the filter SSWF Olympus uses in all its digital SLR. As if this were not enough, the EOS 400D includes the option of taking a photo reference, via software on your computer to help remove any additional imperfections in your photos.

This cleaning process takes place whenever you turn on the camera, and lasts less than a second. It can also be activated manually, by a simple pressure on the shutter trigger, prior to capturing a photographic moment. Of course, the cleaning system can be activated at will and at any time. Moreover, we can always raise the mirror to perform a manual cleaning process, the old way.

The lens that came with the basic EOS 400D kit is the Canon EF-S 18-55 mm f3.5-5.6. One should try to avoid prolonged exposure of the CMOS to the environment as this will also help keep things dust free.

Tests of the new cleaning system with a more challenging dirt have occurred. Deliberately placing dust particles on the sensor surface, the vibration could not complete eliminate all dust. In this case you would have to resort to manual cleaning.

Interchangeable Lens Camera