Yesterday, I was going to write about this, but got sidetracked trying to find out how many pictures I had taken with this camera when I got all tangled up in the whole raw/DNG thing!
One of my favorite features on my D300 is the sensor cleaner. Why? Well, formerly, I had to clean my D2x about every month or so. Looking back, on average, I take between 800 – 1000 photos/month. So, pretty much, I have my camera out about 5 days/week, here there and everywhere. I’m not so careful with it either. Fortunately, I’ve not dropped either one, but as far as changing lenses, etc. I do it right out in the open with no care for prevailing breezes, unless it’s really windy, then I’ll turn my back to wind and change lenses. Also, I’m likely to take one lens off, throw it into the bag without caps, add the other one, zip the bag up and keep shooting. I’ll add the caps later as well as giving the lens a light dusting-off. 
All of this adds to the possibility of dust getting onto the sensor. It happens! So far, I’ve taken about 7,000 shots with my D300. The other day, I stopped down to f/16, took some pictures of the open sky, and guess what?! No dust, at least not anything that I would consider problematic. Just a few very small spots here and there and I’ve never cleaned this camera. So, nearly 9 months in, numerous trips to the beach, a trip to White Sands, NM, the deserts and dryness of Utah and Arizona, it’s still clean!
Mind you, this is no scientific study, merely observation and comparison with a very well sealed camera with no sensor cleaning. There are many features in this camera, and others, that I don’t use or even think about, like HD video. 
But this is one feature that I’m glad that they included.
Next, they should probably start including vibration reduction internal to the camera instead of on the lens. This way, we can all have VR without buying a different set of lenses. I know that they can do it because Minolta did it 4 years+ ago on their Dimage A1! But … maybe the sensor cleaning and VR on the same sensor are incompatible. I’ll take the cleaning as I usually use a tripod anyway.
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5 Responses to “Nikon D300 sensor cleaner”
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My old Olympus E300 has the sensor cleaning and it works pretty well as near as I can figure. It operated automatically every time yo turned on the camera.
I am like you with the lens changing, save for the caps which I always put on right away. But I have only needed to really clean my D200 sensor with swabs once in over 2 years and that was last May. I use a rocket regularly though, probably a couple of times a month. I do have a nifty tool that you put over the lens mount to look at the sensor to really see anything that may be on it. It is a magnifier with a light. I looked at it last week and there was one little spec which came off with one shot of the rocket.
I just got the D700 Saturday…Woot! and it also has the sensor cleaning built it. I haven’t set it up yet though. There are a couple of options for using it like clean at start up and shut down or clean now. What I do wonder though is where does the dust go? It has to go somewhere right?
From what I understand, there is a small, sticky pad near the bottom of the sensor, so it makes sense to have the camera in the upright position when turning it on. I have my sensor cleaning set to clean at start-up. I can actually here it when it is quiet. It’s a very high pitched sound.
Congratulations on the purchase. I see that there is a $300 instant rebate, bringing the price down to $2,699.
Yes, automatic sensor cleaning is a great feature. I have my A700 since almost a year and did clean it only once, to remove the dust that came delivered with the camera.
And stabilisation is the other feature I would never want to miss any more – the A700 like all the Sony DSLRs has it right with the sensor cleaning. An indispensible feature, even if you prefer shooting from a tripod, because you don’t have it always. And now the A900 combines both those assets with a full frame sensor…
If it would be low noise at 16MPix, that would be *my* camera instantly. But at the moment I see no need for 25 MPix, and so the A700 will do for a while. Well, COB (camera on brain, courtesy Mike Johnston) is a disease in the sense of the word, not letting me feel at ease.
That makes sense. I got it for $2,470 at the photo show with the instant rebate.
Reputable dealer. The Nikon booth “pointed” me in the right direction…I think I did pretty well. With the savings I bought the MB-D10 and a good strap.
I am eager to have sensor cleaning built into the next camera body I get. My primary body got dust on the sensor after only a few thousand shots. I’ve been compensating with low f-stops and post processing, but I wonder if built-in sensor cleaning would remove most of the particles.
I’m glad that you are still shooting clean. For all of us with the pesky dust problems, I did a little write-up here: options for dealing with dust on your camera’s sensor
Thanks again for sharing and good luck with your future shoots.