Dust On Sensor....

[Andrew Khan]

My mom and I (me mostly) have noticed, that on some of my pictures, where the background is very bright, always has shown up, in the blue sky pictures, there will be a dark circular speckle on the top left corner of the picture. It' s not something continuous, it does not show up everytime, and is only with the blue sky shots, where it's bright, or noticable. I thought I might have to return it, if it's a defect in the camera, since I have not had it but two weeks. What could this be? How can I fix it? We already cleaned the lense. I am pretty sure, that there is dust on the sensor, though. I opened up the camera,and looked at the sensor, under bright light, and did not see a thing, not even a speck of dust, and it looks a lot worse, around lower apertures (higher number) perhaps 18-20-22 f/stops, looks very very bad, but the higher the apertures, (lower the number) the better they look. I have a dust blower made for blowign the mirror with, and I used that, and it moved one big particle of dust, but there are still a lot left. What do you fellow photographers do?

 

[Michael P. Morris]

You are probably going to have to use a direct-contact brush to get the junk off your sensor. Be careful, though because if done incorrectly it can ruin your sensor. As long as it's 100 percent camel hair like the ones offered by Adorama you should be OK.

 

[Andrew Khan]

Well, you know htose little blower brushes? It's a little thing you squeeze, and it blows, and on the end of it, where the air comes out, is a black britstled brush. I do not knwo, however if they are camel hairs or not. So, all I really need is a cameal haired brush, and then I just brush off the sensor, just like that, very gently? I don't have to buy anything expensive and hightech ?

 

[B Ozanne]

Sounds like dust on the sensor. My advice is to deal with it as long as possible. Just clone out the dust in photoshop or a similar program. This sounds like a pain, but it is not a new problem. Back during the film days dust was also a problem and it was much more time consuming to fix. When the dust becomes unbearable in your photos I suggest cleaning the sensor. But, procede with caution. Cleaning the sensor is somewhat expensive and a risky operation, best to be done only when necessary.

This article from the Luminous Landscape should be very helpful:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/s...-cleaning.shtml

 

[B Ozanne]

Well, you know htose little blower brushes? It's a little thing you squeeze, and it blows, and on the end of it, where the air comes out, is a black britstled brush. I do not knwo, however if they are camel hairs or not. So, all I really need is a cameal haired brush, and then I just brush off the sensor, just like that, very gently? I don't have to buy anything expensive and hightech ?

The blower brush you are talking about is not sufficient. Do not use that on your sensor! The problem is that you are dealing with very small pieces of dust, using one of those blowers might just introduce more dust. My guess is those blacks bristles are plastic, do not go anywhere near your sensor with those. Again, please read that article before doing anything.

 

[Andrew Khan]

Thanks for your help.

 

[Greg Campbell]

Those woven polyester swabs are the way to go, if you can find them in small, affordable, quantities. We use these things at work. I 'recycle' the lightly used ones; they are fantastic for cameras, scopes, etc. E-mail if you like, I'l send a handful your way. Whatever you do, don't try to use a q-tip or other cotton swab. The lint/fibers will go everywhere!

Finding pure methanol or ethanol is the trick. A few minutes shopping found http://shop2.chemassociates.com/shopsite/C...S-methanol.html
They sell small amounts for a reasonable price.

Whatever volume you buy, make very sure to seal the cap immediately after pouring out what you will be using. Meth sucks water out of the air at a ferocious rate. A bit of H2O won't kill you, but does make spotting more likely. Use a small plastic bottle as your feeder/user supply, keeping the main stash tightly sealed at all times.

BTW, Film is self cleaning...

- Greg

 

[Rockwell Schrock]

I followed the tutorial at CleaningDigitalCameras.com with success. I bought PecPads and Eclipse cleaning solution at my local photography store, and then just cut up a rubber spatula to wrap the PecPad around. Bing, bang, boom, over and done. I reccomend a gander at that site.

 

[Andrew Khan]

That is a great resource! Thank you.