Canon EOS 550D / Rebel T2i anti-dust

by photographer

Sponsored Links

ADVERTISE

As far as we understand, the EOS 550D / T2i offers the same three techniques to combat dust as the EOS 50D and 5D Mark II: anti-static coatings to reduce it sticking in the first place, a vibrating filter which tries to shake-free the more stubborn particles, and a software-based solution which maps the position of any pesky marks and appends them to images for automatic removal later using the supplied Digital Photo Professional software.

Following our usual DSLR torture-test we left our 550D / T2i face-up without a lens, inside and outside for ten minutes each; we can’t know how much dust entered the body during this time, nor even how much was present to start with, but we know such a process would result in dust being a problem for most models. We then updated the 550D / T2i’s Dust Delete Data and powered the camera on and off twice to vibrate the filter.

We then took a series of photos at every aperture setting of a plain white surface at close range with the EF-S 18-135mm IS lens zoomed-into 50mm and manually focused to infinity. Dust marks normally become most apparent at the smallest apertures (eg f16 and f22), but it’s also important to test at more common apertures.