Here's the puffer brush I mentioned Phil, the squirrell hairs are so soft there's no way you'll scratch the mirror or sensor, using compressed air is not an option I would recommend, all you're doing is moving the particles to another place inside your camera, the rubber bulb puffs very gently and the fine hairs collect any particles, I don't know if these brushes are still available, I've had this one since 19??.

I am having to use the 350d at the moment and noticed today (after going out to take pics *sigh*) that the sensor is filthy....Stephen has been cleaning it all up for me ..in the meantime I have been busy cloning mucky marks off me pics!

i have one of those Nero. Its a useful tool to have.

That's what I used. It seemed fine afterwards although I've just taken a few on the way home from work and guess what. They're back albeit in a different place. grr

Oh well, there's only one recourse, DYSON it I'm only joking.

Dust... anyone? Dust....

It's a pain isn't it... The compressed air idea is risky... If unlucky you may end up with more issues than you started with... You may be lucky - take your chances - see what happens? Up to you

Had a shocking picture today. It looked like a swarm of locusts. It was a RAW image with a clear sky. The aperture settings seem to vary the results. I'll check my house insurance details before I get the dyson out I think.

Here you go

Forget the picture - the colours are all wrong because i've adjusted them to best show of the 'swarm'

Them's midges Phil , oh dear, you have my sympathies, looks like a strip-down job Phil.

Cheers. It's becoming a real pain is the erchie. I've had a trip around the web and it seems a common problem with the D50.

I did find the following tip for checking though.

Just a tip if you really want to see EVERYTHING on your sensor: aperture f22, shutter 1/8 and take a picture of a white screen (like an empty MS Word document). Then open the image in Photoshop and do an 'auto levels'. The program will maximize contrast, and there you go. It will look VERY dirty I'm sure. Then clean the sensor and do the trick again, until all or at least most of it is gone. If you display the image without doing auto levels, that's what you really see in a picture. After cleaning your sensor, and WITH auto levels not everything is perfectly gone, it's not a problem if you don't see it in the version without auto levels.