Dirty/bad sensor?

[Snurk71]

DW was taking some pictures with our Sony DSC this morning and noticed what looked like a smudge on the viewscreen. Well, it's not the viewscreen and and it's not the lens (cleaned it). So I don't know what it is, or if it can be fixed. She wouldn't have noticed it had she not been taking pictures of DD's artwork papers from school and the blur stood out on the white paper. I looked back on some other pictures she's taken and see that this spot has been there for a while, but you don't really notice it unless the background is light.

Here is what we're seeing (seeing it on the viewscreen to take the picture, on the viewscreen reviewing the picture, on the computer monitor):

Here is the spot I'm referring to circled:

Anyone have an idea?

 

[Groucho]

The Sony DSC series are all point-n-shoots, right? If you can't take your lens off, then it shouldn't be a dirty sensor as the inside of the camera should be more or less sealed.

To tell if it is, indeed, dust on the sensor, the usual recommendation is to take a picture of a plain white object (piece of paper, etc) then take the resulting picture, put it in Photoshop, and do Auto Levels, which will make any imperfections really stand out. If you don't have Photoshop, Irfanview's "auto adjust colors" seems to do a pretty comparable job.

You may want to check some of your earlier photos and see if you see the same blob in the same spot. If it truly is dust on the sensor, I would guess that you'll looking at sending it back to Sony (hopefully under warranty)...

 

[MarkBarbieri]

You might also want to try shots with different apertures. If it is a dust spot, it should get sharper with lower apertures and fuzzier with higher apertures.

 

[AbbysFamily]

It may be just me, but I see another trouble spot (but it could be just what you took a picture of. The left edge at about the same height as the spot has an issue too, if I'm correct.

Ouch.... and I know ouch.. The sensor on my S2 died and is at Canon for repair as we speak.