It's only been a month and...

[Twoboysnmygirl]

there's some sort of *spot* on my camera somewhere and I can't identify what is making it.

check out the pictures below, it is in all my pics you just can't see it all the time depending on what is in that area. On the first pic, you can see it under the stem right where the leaf is coming off of it. It's on the right hand side of the pic, about halfway up. The second pic is another example and THEN, in the 3rd pic it actually looks like a black mark on the rooftop. Added one more of the sky to show how visible it is if it's a flat color I'm taking a pic of... I know these are not great pics, I've been learning manual mode and I was off this morning when I took these! LOL

It's not the lenses b/c I've switched them around (and cleaned them) and it's always there no matter what lens I use. I've used cleaner and a lens cloth on the inner parts gently and it's still there. Sigh.

It was not in my pics for about the first week or two, I went back and looked. Is this dust or what? Would the manufactures warranty cover this (and does that mean I have to go without my camera?!?!?!?)

 

[My2Girls66]

Maybe dirt on the sensor. You could try a blower to blow the dust blob off, you don't want to touch the sensor without knowing what you are doing, you could damage it. I've never had to do more than use a blower. I'm sure someone that knows more on how to get rid of it will respond.

 

[zackiedawg]

Yep...it's dust or debris of some kind. Since you mentioned changing lenses, you obviously have a DSLR. And if you do, someone should have told you by now that dust is a regular, normal, and unfortunate little piece of labor that is inevitable for DSLR owners. No DSLR by any manufacturer is dustproof - since you change lenses, you open the body and all the internals to the atmosphere every time you change a lens - something will eventually get in there. You may hear some DSLR folks tell you THEY'VE never had dust issues...they're either very very very lucky, or they just don't realize it's there (if you really want to know how bad it is, set your camera to the smallest aperture (something like F22), then take a photo of a blank light colored area like sky...you'll see any and every grain of dust on your sensor - and it may scare you!!).

Most cameras have sensor cleaning features that vibrate, collect statically, etc - but they're never going to prevent dust.

The easiest solution to your problem is to invest in a $15-40 bulb-type blower, designed for cleaning DSLRs. A popular one is the Giotto Rocket Air. It will usually get rid of 90% of the dust on any given sensor, unless it's something sticky that is really hanging on. Never, ever, ever blow on the sensor with your mouth, or touch it with your hands or a paper towel! Some folks do - but they're playing Russian Roulette and getting away with it. The tiniest specs of saliva or spray from your mouth getting on the sensor can create a much bigger problem than the dust. And even more never ever ever ever use a can of compressed air! You might as well pour acid on your sensor - it'll cause about as much damage if you get the compressed freezing liquid on the sensor from those cans!

In your camera's menu, you'll have something called a 'cleaning mode'. That will flip the mirror up out of the way, exposing the sensor inside. Often, the camera needs to have at least 50% battery charge to enter cleaning mode. The sensor is very obvious - a metallic, mirrored rectangle right in the middle. That's where the dust has gathered - you may need a magnifying glass to even see it...the speck of dust can be nearly microscopic, but look like a cottonball in your photo. To clean with the bulb blower, hold your camera with the opening facing downwards, insert the nozzle of the blower into the opening facing the sensor (but don't insert so far that you touch it), and give several nice, quick squeezes on the bulb to blow out the sensor. Facing down lets any loosened dust fall away. Once you turn the camera off, it will exit cleaning mode, put the lens back on, and you should be ready to go.

There are also some wet swab options you can buy, and sensor brushes, for when the dust is stickier or more persistent, but you don't have to go that far if you're afraid of messing around with the sensor - if it gets that kind of dust, you can always just bring it to a trustworthy camera shop for a cleaning. But a bulb blower is less expensive than a professional clean, and will handle 90% of the dust issues you get - I strongly recommend you get one!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

THANK YOU!!!

 

[GrillMouster]

That's what's called sensor dust. Basically, a piece of dust is stuck to the digital sensor (or more accurately the filter on top of the sensor) inside your camera body; it's a normal part of DSLR life. Newer cameras incorporate a mechanism that vibrates really fast to shake the dust off, but its effectiveness is questionable. It certainly hasn't eliminated the problem. You can minimize sensor dust by changing your lenses quickly in an environment free of dust or wind, facing the camera body down when changing lenses (so dust doesn't fall into the body) keeping protective caps on the backs of your lenses when they're not mounted to the camera, blowing dust off of the back of a lens before mounting it to the camera. Never blow on the lens or camera with your lips, use a good bulb blower, like the Giottos Rocket blower.

When you notice sensor dust, first try removing it using the following safe method. Make sure your camera battery is fully charged. Go into the camera's memory and active the "mirror up" feature (if you don't know how to do this, check the owner's manual) to expose the sensor. In a dust-free room remove the lens and hold the camera with the opening facing down. Use a bulb blower to blow into the opening (holding the camera with the opening down will help the dust fall out of the camera, rather than just getting kicked up and settling back down. Be careful not to touch anything inside the camera body. Blow off the back of the lens and reattach it to the camera. You may need to turn the camera off to get the mirror back down. Take some test shots to see if the dust is still here. It's often easiest to detect sensor dust in images of clear blue sky at small apertures (high f-numbers). Repeat the above process a few times if necessary. If the above "dry" method failed to remove the dust, then your sensor may need to be cleaned using a wet method (Google "Copper Hill" method). If not done properly, you could damage your camera, so you may prefer to have a camera shop clean the sensor for you for a modest price. Everyone experiences sensor dust. Some don't notice the dust as much, especially if they commonly shoot with wide open apertures. Additionally, many of us just clean up sensor dust in post-production. Lightroom is very effective at this. If you have several image with sensor dust in the same location, you can use the "spot cleaning" tool to cover up the spot in the image and automatically sync that spot cleaning to other images. Again, if you check google you'll find lots of tutorials (including videos) that explain this process. I've noticed that sometimes Lightroom also automatically fixes hot pixels on import.

Update: I just knew that someone else would post a response while I was typing this! LOL

 

[zackiedawg]

Sorry...I'm a really fast typist! (100wpm)...so even though I write a lot, I can squeeze it in there pretty quickly!

Your advice is spot on the same as mine, so that will help affirm to the OP that the advice is good from multiple sources.

 

[GrillMouster]

...Your advice is spot on the same as mine...

You know what they say about great minds...

 

[ukcatfan]

Sorry...I'm a really fast typist! (100wpm)...

I always wondered how your posts can be so long and not just wear you out!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

. Newer cameras incorporate a mechanism that vibrates really fast to shake the dust off, but its effectiveness is questionable.

Not sure I agree with this...

It certainly hasn't eliminated the problem.

Can probably agree with this.

Be very careful when changing lenses. If you're outside, try to go inside. Hold the camera's opening down, if possible. Some advocate turning the camera off to avoid static electricity "holding on" to dust particles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_reduction_system

 

[jann1033]

you can always clone it out in an editor program.. some cameras also have an option to put it into your editing program so it automatically clones it out( mine does but no dust yet) that way you don't have to do it over and over..if it's just a little i'd do that before messing with cleaning the sensor..the cloning is not destructive, cleaning the sensor can ruin your camera if you don't do it right.

i agree with pea though, i only had 3 or 4 dust spots after 3 yrs and i got them by forgetting to turn my camera off when i changed lenses...it never failed, i'd forget, next photo would have another spot

 

[YesDear]

There is a trick you can use to see if you have dust on your sensor. Take a picture of a white sheet of paper that fills the image. Then in the camera, if it has this function, increase the crop of the picture to 100%. You can then scroll around the image and grey or black specs are that pesky sensor dust.

I agree that I think the vibration system are suspect. Think of it,,,, if is shakes it free, it is free to go elsewhere on your sensor. It does not get rid of it. Even if it falls to the bottom of the camera it is not gone!

My process for getting rid of dust starts with the blower, then I would use a sensor brush. It looks like a brush for mineral based makeup. My belief is that those two methods will usually get rid of 90-95% of the dust 95% of the time. THEN if that does not do it the sensor would need to be cleaned. You can do it or your local photo shop can do it.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I agree that I think the vibration system are suspect. Think of it,,,, if is shakes it free, it is free to go elsewhere on your sensor.

It goes to a "sticky" thing. It does work.

 

[Code]

It goes to a "sticky" thing. It does work.

Olympus anti-dust works well, I never once had to blow the sensor of my E-510 and I'm not a careful lens changer... other brands aren't so great.

 

[zackiedawg]

The shakers do work well, actually. But dust can still get in even the best of cameras with the best dust reduction systems and the most careful owners. I don't deal with dust very much, and do take caution. My camera has a dust vibration function, a sticky collection strip, I turn the camera off before changing lenses always, I face the camera down when changing, etc. But it still gets in there every once in a while, and a bulb blower usually knocks it off. In over a year, I sensor-brushed once...and bulb blew maybe 6 times.

Note that there are a considerable number of DSLR shooters who declare they've never had dust on their sensor who in fact HAVE dust on their sensor and just don't know it. It doesn't always affect your shots - sometimes the particles are small and won't show up unless you stop the lens down to the minimum aperture, and set focus to the closest setting with autofocus turned off...then take a photo of a blank uniform light color - best to use a longer exposure, and even move the camera around during the exposure so you can be sure to blur away anything in the shot except the dust (which is moving with the sensor and therefore not blurry). That will always reveal what precisely is on your sensor, if anything. And there is ALWAYS going to be something on a DSLR sensor unless you just bought it, or have taken all of your shots in a vaccuum!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Olympus anti-dust works well, I never once had to blow the sensor of my E-510 and I'm not a careful lens changer... other brands aren't so great.

I know. I just didn't want to get into a brand thing.

The Olympus dust reduction system works.

 

[bob100]

I know. I just didn't want to get into a brand thing.

The Olympus dust reduction system works.

the Canon "ultrasonic" cleaning systems apparently works too, I haven't had a problem with sensor dust (yet!)

 

[Groucho]

It only makes sense that newer evolutions of anti-dust technologies (from all manufacturers) will be more effective than the first attempts.

FWIW, I've found the system in mine to be very effective, with an anti-dust coating on the low-pass filter, sensor shake, and adhesive strip. The "dust alert" (automatically processes a photo of a white sheet to show dust, no need to "auto levels" in Photoshop) is very handy, too. I rarely need to break out the Rocket Blower even with the huge amount of lens changes that I do. I have it set to shake even time the camera turns on (as usually the main time I'll bother turning it off is when changing lenses) and the occasional dust is usually freed by doing a manual sensor shake (which is slightly stronger/longer than the power-on one, at least to my ears.) The K-7 has more advanced versions of these so I expect even better performance.

I think many of the newest DSLRs should have pretty fine anti-dust technologies. Of course, the best defense is a good offense - change lenses as quickly as possible, hold the camera lens-mount-down and against the wind (if outside) while changing, etc...

Sure, they'll still get dust occasionally - but certainly not as often as older DSLRs with no anti-dust tricks.