sensor cleaning every time?

[jli]

The default for my Canon camera is to automatically clean the sensor (I understand this is just vibrating to get dust off?) whenever it's turned on or off. Being slightly OCD, I turned this off because I figure the less moving parts the better as I run around with my camera, and it seems to make the power-on-to-first-shot time longer. I do manually clean the sensor when I've changed lenses a few times. Am I crazy?

[sk66]

Nope, you're fine.
But there really isn't any major reason to disable it other than response time. Can you set it to clean only when shut down?

[spencer28n]

I would leave it on. In fact I do. Power on time shouldn't be an issue because your camera should be on way before the decisive moment. Depending on how hard you run the camera, the battery is going to last you at least 4 or 5 hours, usually more.
Just sayin'.

[Saralonde]

I leave mine on all the time. My XTi has about 40,000 clicks and I haven't had a problem yet.

[SoxAddict]

No, not crazy! I set mine to just clean each time I shut the camera off - that might help you avoid the slow start-up time.

[douglas]

I leave mine on all the time...it takes less than a second.

[Doug Pardee]

Originally Posted by jli

I turned this off because I figure the less moving parts the better as I run around with my camera

The "moving parts" are piezo-electric. Not really anything that's going to wear out in your lifetime.

it seems to make the power-on-to-first-shot time longer.

You don't have to wait for it to finish. You can take your first shot whenever you want.

Am I crazy?

I'm not qualified to answer that.

Bear in mind that the dust-shaker is a dust prevention system, not a dust removal system. It needs to run frequently in order to keep dust from attaching itself to the sensor. It's one of those "ounce of prevention" things.

[prrs4me]

I leave mine on all the time. However I don't turn my camera off very often so it doesn't operate that much anyway.

[jli]

Originally Posted by Doug Pardee

The "moving parts" are piezo-electric. Not really anything that's going to wear out in your lifetime.

...

Bear in mind that the dust-shaker is a dust prevention system, not a dust removal system. It needs to run frequently in order to keep dust from attaching itself to the sensor. It's one of those "ounce of prevention" things.

Thank you for once again destroying ignorance with knowledge, Doug . My camera's back to auto-cleaning.

[smc1377]

Originally Posted by prrs4me

I leave mine on all the time. However I don't turn my camera off very often so it doesn't operate that much anyway.

Same thing here. Hardly ever turn off my camera. That way I can just pick it up, press the shutter halfway to wake it up and I'm good to go.