Aperture Dust Profile – Dust Analysis

The Aperture Dust Profile chart shows the number of high-confidence dust spots detected at each aperture.

Key:

• Red diamond: count of high-confidence dust spots

Basic Interpretation

Detected spots are filtered by aperture, so if they do not appear in the same place over a range of apertures they will be ignored.

This chart says nothing about the size or opacity of the dust spots, just the overall quantity.

It is not uncommon - even with a clean sensor - to have some spots detected at smaller apertures (higher f-number). A sensor usually only needs cleaning if dust spots are detected at or below commonly used apertures, so typically portrait photography (where wide apertures are used) will tolerate more dust than landscape photography where very narrow apertures may be used.

You would expect to see a profile similar to above for a fairly clean camera sensor. At smaller apertures, the dust spots will be more apparent and as the lens aperture is opened up the spots become more diffuse and disappear into the background.