Have you ever had a problem caused by the interchangeable lens feature of your camera?

Jock Elliott

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Some pros, I know, avoid some of the issues that result from changing lenses by buying two cameras, fixing a wide zoom to one and a tele zoom to the other. and never removing the lenses while they are in the field.

So -- if you own an interchangeable lens camera, have you ever had a problem -- dust, moisture, whathaveyou -- as a result of changing lenses?

Some folks here have reported dust problems with DSLRs, but I don't know if that was a result of having the lens off or something else.

Cheers, Jock
 
everyone will get dust on the sensor at some point. It may be more likely on an ILC, but at least the user can clean it off without sending it in for repair. I had some dust on a sensor once and panicked for a few minutes until I watched a few youtube videos showing how easily it is to clean it off.
 
I had some pretty pronounced dust on the XT1's sensor, slightly visible at f8 and VERY visible up over f16. I bought all primes, thinking I would forego to convenience of zooms in favor of top-notch glass and big apertures. But it requires (or at the very least it strongly suggests) a lot of lens changing out in the field, which I did, whenever the mood struck me. I would try to angle the camera down and do it quickly, but I didn't try especially hard.

Then, as Luke said, I googled that nonsense. I bought a cleaning kit from the local camera shop for about $25, went to a quiet bar, ordered a good beer, and carefully cleaned the sensor in about 5 minutes. Dust is gone. Now I'm a little more careful about pointing the camera down (so things "fall out" of it as opposed to in), but I still change lenses when it makes sense. One day maybe I'll pick up a used XE2 body and just deal with 2 lenses everywhere. That would be great, actually.
 
I always point my body down, AND I keep the backs of my lenses clean. This entails making sure that the end caps get a quick blow before being put on, particularly if they have been in a pocket. I dust everything off after a day out, with blowers and brushes. I usually carry a spare end and body cap when I am out and about with multiple lenses and I keep them together and hence clean. I also keep the inside of my bag clean. I've not as a result had a particular problem.
 
One time a cheap adapter on a Nex5 gone broken and a not so cheap lens went down because I hold the camera in one hand and an umbrella in the other.
Since then I bought no more cheap adapters if they have moving parts. Dust could be always be a problem.
 
I once dropped a lens while changing lenses. While not common, it is a rare hazard with bad consequences.

Not if you're lucky - mine fell on my boot and rolled away with some minimal scratches to the lens barrel; besides, this little warrior (the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7) is a tank in polycarbonate disguise. Bottom line: It really depends on lens (weight and material) and location. Still, something to avoid, of course.

M.
 
The biggest problem I have with interchangeable lenses is finding that the lens I want to interchange is at home instead of in my pocket

Yup, had that one.

The issue arrises if you don't carry a gear bag full of lenses, (which I don't).

The other issue that I have had is that "once in a lifetime" shot is happening, but I have the wrong lens on. Then trying to change out a lens while hoping the moment does not pass.
 
The only problem I've ever had with ILCs that I didn't have (or had differently) with fixed lens cameras is that the GAS never ends. Because there's always another lens to think about. OTOH, you don't have to think about bodies very often and lenses don't lose value like bodies do, so it's ultimately somewhat cheaper and more useful gas than fixed lens gas, which requires replacing entire cameras...

Yeah, there's dust, but as others have said, the downside is it's more likely with an ILC, the upside is that it's pretty easy to deal with where getting dust in a fixed lens can be un-fixable...

-Ray
 
ILC cameras cause my bank account to leak.

Thank you, I'm here all week. Tip your waitress.

Seriously, I've been doing some more contemplative photography lately, and a fair amount of time is spent thinking about which lens to use for which situation. Choice is a powerful thing but can also overwhelm.
 
Worth noting as well, on interchangeable lenses, that you can benefit from the flexibility without ever "changing a lens in the field". I tend to never do this, but almost always change a lens once I am back home/motel/tent wherever it is calm and more dust free; the concept is to go walking with a different lens for each photo walk or each day, not necessarily to carry every lens with me on every walk (which I never do). Just a different angle to interchangeability.....
 
I literally couldn't get to sleep last night because I was going through what each of the 3 normal-ish Fuji zooms (18-55, 16-55, 18-135) would be like to own... I kept imagining what it would be like to go do the stuff we always do with each of them, then analyzing the tradeoffs between speed and OIS. File Under: "Things that never happened with the X100"
 
The only camera I have ever cleaned internally is the Leica M9. Every other ILC I own has a decent anti-dust feature, including Canon, Panasonic and Olympus, and so sensor dust has never been an issue. The M9's sensor seemed like a dust magnet for the first few months, although admittedly I was changing lenses a few times every day.

Infuriatingly, a rocket blower only seemed to spread the dust around and blow more in! The Dust-Aid cleaning kit with adhesive pads worked well the first couple of times, but the third time, the pad stuck to the sensor and came away from the application stick, which meant reaching into the camera body to pull the pad free. Other people in similar situations have actually pulled the filter glass away from the sensor, or otherwise damaged it in that way, so I could myself very lucky that my camera was still okay.

Eventually I bought the Visible Dust liquid cleaning kit which uses soft cotton v-shaped swabs. This works very well, and I've used it ever since.
 
I shot with Nikon DSLR cameras for quite a while and was always struggling with the dust issues. I knew very well how to prevent dust from getting in (camera upside down, no wind, keep the rear elements and rear caps clean, blahblahblah) and I still had dust issues. It was so bad with the D3 cameras that I traveled with sensor cleaning stuff.
I switched to the fuji cameras about a year ago and for some reason the dust issues have gone away. The sensor is smaller, of course, but the problems just haven't followed me.
One word of caution. Last spring my wife was shooting the XE1 and the 14mm lens. She chimped a shot and found a big glob on the image. I checked the sensor and it was perfectly clean. Blew off everything I could find and took a shot and it was still there. Put the lens on another body and there it was again. I looked closely at the rear element and found a water drop stain. It was big enough to cause the blob on the 14. probably wouldn't have been noticeable on any other lens.
 
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