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My camera is 6 months old and I noticed there is quite a few spots on the sensor (especially when taking HDR shots of bright scenes or the sky) The hand blower does not lift these particles off the sensor and I don't know if there is enough spots to have the sensor professionally cleaned at the service center.

There is a function on the camera that records "Dust Delete Data" which is (according to the manual) used with the Canon Digital Photo Professional software to delete these spots i presume. I don't have any of the Canon software installed as it is not needed for my workflow and don't really want to add an extra step if I don't have to.

So the question is; can the "Dust Delete Data" be used with Lightroom? (or Photoshop, although I would prefer LR since this is where most of my post-processing takes place)

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    \$\begingroup\$ Why not just try it out? And let us know what the outcome is :) \$\endgroup\$
    – blubb
    Jun 26, 2011 at 19:11
  • \$\begingroup\$ You can learn to clean the sensor yourself, not just blow the dust around inside the camera with a bulb but wipe the sensor with the appropriate tools. \$\endgroup\$
    – Alaska Man
    Mar 12, 2017 at 8:59

3 Answers 3

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Dust delete data is Canon proprietary, and no third party software that I'm aware of interprets it. I can say for certain that Lightroom/ACR, Aperture and Capture One are all blissfully ignorant of this data.

I'm sure everyone making RAW image processing software would love Canon to open up a bit more on these details but so far, it's still not public information as far as I know.

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Though Canon doesn't disclose their Dust Delete algorithm, Canon Digital Learning Center published, several years ago, this quick tutorial on how to use such file to perform dust deletion with a third-party RAW processor - in case they offer such a similar option.

Amazingly enough, the article's author, though obviously writing under Canon's assignment, selflessly points out that such procedure can even be accomplished with files from competitors' cameras. Though we known that, the fact he chose not to ignore it, is as commendable as the article itself, IMO.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ With "such file" are your referring to a regular, out of focus photo of a blank wall with dust spots on the sensor (which can be obtained with any camera)? Or are you referring to the Canon Dust Delete file/information? From the article (thanks for the archive link) I understand that the Canon Dust Delete information is only usable in DPP. \$\endgroup\$ Oct 27, 2020 at 14:48
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Another option is to use the Spot Removal tool to manually fix up the photos where dust shows up significantly.

Here's a good article walking through the process: http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-remove-sensor-dust-with-lightroom/

I'll probably stick with this approach and only fix the few photos where dust is actually visible.

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    \$\begingroup\$ The whole point of using dust data from the camera is to avoid having to remove dust manually on every image. \$\endgroup\$
    – Caleb
    Mar 10, 2017 at 17:51

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