Last night, while practicing my off camera lighting (ala Strobist), I noticed a black spec showing up on all of my images. I checked the lens, cleaned it, but still the same spot. Switched lenses, and yet still a spot. Damn, dust on my image sensor! I've had the camera for about 8 months now, so it's about time this happened.
I opened up the camera instruction book, only to find it telling me to take my camera to an authorized repair shop since I did not have the AC adapter to plug it in while cleaning the CCD. My local camera store (Coe Camera) to the rescue. I gave them a call, asking why I needed an AC adapter to clean my CCD. Turns out, it's just a precaution so your battery does not die in the middle of cleaning. First hurdle avoided, I'll just use a fully charged battery.
Now the second hurdle, my camera won't go into cleaning mode without the AC adapter! The Nikon D2 series has a special cleaning mode that will raise the mirror, open the shutter, and expose and uncharged CCD for cleaning. Unfortunately, it is not available without an AC adapter plugged in. Doh! Bulb mode to the rescue! I just set my shutter to bulb, and held down the shutter release, opening the shutter and raising the mirror, giving me access to my CCD, albeit charged. Now static comes into play as I'm trying to get dust (easily attracted by static) off of a statically charged surface. Luckily, I was able to blow the dust off using an old nasal aspirator from when Sarah was born.
The guy from Coe was very helpful over the phone, going through all of my options with me as I hit one hurdle after another. He even suggested a statically charged brush designed to clean the sensors that I will have to pick up. He says they work great, and sells quit a few of them. I know this problem will come up again, but now I know how to solve it.