GH4 Gh4 without a lens left exposed!

T

The Irish TRex

Well-known member
So I have a GX7 and now a GH4 as well. My wife uses the GX7 but doesn't really know cameras that well so a couple hours ago she took the lens off the GH4 which was sitting on a tripod in our home office and put that lens on her GX7 to go out for the day. Problem is, she didn't cap the GH4 or replace it with another lens. It's been about 2 hours that it was sitting here without a lens. The room has one window and the camera was just under the window facing away from it from about 9am to 11am. Thankfully the camera was off. Am I okay? I just threw on another lens, turned it on, and it looks okay. Doesn't appear to be any dust inside. I don't know if this could have caused any issues or damage. Is there a way to check/test? Or am I okay?
 
jdatkinsn said:
It certainly didn't cause any damage, so don't worry about that.

All camera sensors - mirrorless camera or otherwise - pick up dust particles from time to time, and if it didn't happen to your camera this time it will eventually. If you want to see if there's dust on your sensor, stop your lens down to f/16 and shoot a picture of the sky during a sunny day. Take it into photoshop, scrub around at 100%, and if there's any dust on the sensor you'll see it. If it's there, you can either leave it to work itself off (the camera does a "sensor cleaning" each time it turns on and off, and dust rarely if ever shows up in photos taken at apertures wider than f/11), or you can clean it yourself, using a rocket blower (NOT CANNED AIR). If for whatever reason a rocket blower doesn't get it off, then you can either do a wet cleaning yourself using Eclipse pads (or an analogous product) or take it to a camera store and they'll do it for you for a nominal fee.

The biggest thing, though: dust will eventually get on every sensor of every camera you own, and it is completely benign. You probably won't ever notice it if you shoot at "normal" apertures, and if you do, a basic cleaning will get you back to normal.
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Thank you so much for that. Puts my mind at ease for sure. Just so I know, if the camera was on would that have made any difference? It wasn't but I'm just curious. I'm guessing that "charges" the sensor (?) which may attract more dust? But it's good to know that it's gonna be okay. I thought that the camera would somehow be exposed to light for a long period of time which would be bad, but I guess it's different than back in the day when photo camera's film was exposed, etc. to light.

Phew! I literally looked over, saw it, and yelled NOOO!

While we're on the subject... she also left the lens that was on her GX7 sitting out without a cap on the bottom side that attaches to the camera. I know from watching other photographers that many shooters don't always cap their lenses until the end of a shoot but just toss them into their pouches for quick changeability so I'm sure it's okay but I'm just curious what to watch out for with the lens itself too as I get more and more into using this camera.
 
jdatkinsn said:
It certainly didn't cause any damage, so don't worry about that.

All camera sensors - mirrorless camera or otherwise - pick up dust particles from time to time, and if it didn't happen to your camera this time it will eventually. If you want to see if there's dust on your sensor, stop your lens down to f/16 and shoot a picture of the sky during a sunny day. Take it into photoshop, scrub around at 100%, and if there's any dust on the sensor you'll see it. If it's there, you can either leave it to work itself off (the camera does a "sensor cleaning" each time it turns on and off, and dust rarely if ever shows up in photos taken at apertures wider than f/11), or you can clean it yourself, using a rocket blower (NOT CANNED AIR). If for whatever reason a rocket blower doesn't get it off, then you can either do a wet cleaning yourself using Eclipse pads (or an analogous product) or take it to a camera store and they'll do it for you for a nominal fee.

The biggest thing, though: dust will eventually get on every sensor of every camera you own, and it is completely benign. You probably won't ever notice it if you shoot at "normal" apertures, and if you do, a basic cleaning will get you back to normal.
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4/3/m4/3 bodies seem to have a special pixie "no-dust" applied to the sensor, as with an E-30, E-PL1, GH1,2,3, and soon to be GH4, over six years I can say that on only a couple of occasions have I had to blow off the sensor - which used to be an almost daily task with several Canons, and occasional wet cleanings.

The other huge bonus of Panasonic bodies is auto-correction of CA in-camera, both JPG's and RAW, and video.
 
jdatkinsn said:
...On the lens front, I always cap my lenses after using them, because if a lens were to fall over onto its rear element it could damage the glass. Surely that didn't happen to your lens this go-round, but it's good practice to cap things up when you're finished using them.
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Thanks for the response. I keep seeing wedding photographers slide off one lens, toss that lens in their pouches or waist band lens holders, and swap in the new lens...all without re-capping it every time to maximize speed. Anything wrong with that? Assuming it's going right into a padded holder of some sort...
 
The Irish TRex said:
Thanks for the response. I keep seeing wedding photographers slide off one lens, toss that lens in their pouches or waist band lens holders, and swap in the new lens...all without re-capping it every time to maximize speed. Anything wrong with that? Assuming it's going right into a padded holder of some sort...
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They are paid for shots and anything getting in the way of that process is bypassed.

cheers
JohnG
 
John Godden said:
They are paid for shots and anything getting in the way of that process is bypassed.

cheers
JohnG
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Well, I'm a Wedding Videographer looking to switch to GH4's so speed is important to me too. I'm faster than the fastest photographer with my current cameras and I need to be that way when we get new ones so that I don't need to choreograph the couple and I can get every shot I want still. That's why I was asking. Thank you all for your help on this. Sincerely.
 
Great info here.....

I am very interested to know how the camera does its own sensor cleaning ? also seen some lovely footage of the Sun shot with the GH4 how dangerous is this to the sensor ?

Thanks
 
A word of caution: similar to the analogue rangefinder days, there is a danger of burning the sensor if you leave the camera with uncovered lens facing towards the sun, especially with the focus on infinity (it's like making fire with a magnifier glass).

This doesn't really apply to SLRs with the mirror down, obviously.
 
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