G7 Sucking Dust

[Reservoir_Dog]

Hi all,

my G7 has dust between the inner lens elements, and i know that it wasnt when i bought it.

Are there others with this problem? How to deal with it? Send it back to canon?

Greetings!

[EORI]

Every one of my lenses (including several sealed L lenses) have dust. My G7 is no exception. It hasn't affected the image quality. I wouldn't obsess over it. :)

[Savas K]

Yes, don't worry about it. These are not hermetically sealed cameras. G7 has moving parts notably the lens, that requires some space tolerance in order to function.

[Reservoir_Dog]

Then why am i reading all across the net about people like me, who's got more and more dust in that lens? And eventually see it in the pictures?
With my G2 i didnt had that....

[EORI]

How about posting some images where the dust is visible?

[gariber]

I to have a G7 with dust problems. I had enough dust insde the lens to have it repared under waranty. Now the waranty is over and dust is acumulating. Those of you who think it is ok for a 6 month old camera to have dust in it, have forgoten what quality is supposed to be. I have a Sony DSC S70 for about 8 year now and there is not a single sign of dust in it, even if I look for it with a laser. Yes it can show on pictures, not all of them and only in certain conditions, but it is not 1 year old!! What will it look like in 8 years? Especialy for a camera this expensive, I expected more. We should not minimize this problem. Like Reservoir_Dog said, his G2 did not do that. Why should we tolerate this? If you bought a car and lost all four hubcaps within a week, would you accept that somebody tells you it is still roling so don't complain? We feel that we did'nt get the quality we payed for. Buying such an expensive compact camera (one of if not the most expensive) I should not have to wory if it will be still usable in two years. This is my first Canon and frankly, if Canon does not help me in any way with this when I will call them, it will be the last one of my life. I payed over 1K can$ for the camera and accessories (battery, converter lenses). This is unacceptable and ridiculous.

Bernard

[EORI]

That's not dust. It looks more like a bead of water that trickled down and dried on the lens. Were you taking pictures in rainy conditions (your sample image shows a stormy sea)? Was the front element of your lens clean?

Dust particles inside a lens, unless we're talking about a cookie crumb size one, will generally not show in the image. I have 2 digital SLRs, and over a dozen Canon lenses. Every one of those lenses has some degree of dust inside, and it is never visible in the images under any condition. I also have dust accumulate on the camera sensor, and even there, the only time it will appear in the image is if I'm shooting with the lens closed way down.

I have had my G7 since about March of this year, and looking into the lens with a magnifying glass, I see very few if any dust particles inside.

[gariber]

Water never trinkled inside and it may not be the dust itself, but a consequance. Going from a air conditioned hotel room to the hot and humid air of the caribbean created condensation inside the lens, which is normal and hapened also with my Sony. But the humidity must have disolved the dust and created halos. You might not see the dust particle it self in the picture, but in very bright scenes, light will reflect on it and reduce contrast, subtly but surely affecting the image. Also, dust will project larger shadows on a compact camera sensor than on a DSLR bigger sensor.
Have you seen this video on youtube?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7QxuAuJ2LM
You might not see the problem now, but are'nt you woried? Why would an old G2 be dust free but your spanking new G7 starts to show signs of dust? I hope you don't plan a trip to India soon! Yes it can be argued if it shows or not in the picture (for now), but so many complaints after so little time means there is a problem. I returned mine after 2 months of use. This camera was to expansive for this to happen. I sincerely hope they changed the lens on the G9 and if they did, beeing the same construction as the G7 it should not be so hard to do a recall and fix them all. If not, I would never recomand buying a G9.

[Reservoir_Dog]

I am going to bring my G7 back, its still in his warranty time...

Greetings.

[EORI]

Have you seen this video on youtube?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7QxuAuJ2LM
You might not see the problem now, but are'nt you woried?

Yes, I had seen it before, as it was posted by a forum member back in April. Whatever it is, it certainly looks bad. My guess is that it is manufacturing dust and other contaminants that have made its way to the sensor.

If this was a widespread problem, I would expect to have seen more posts about it, both here and on other digital camera sites. The G7 is used by professionals, who would be very particular and vocal about such problems. I wonder if it is a defect that's affected a particular batch?

I'll keep a close eye on my camera, and do some periodic image testing to make sure it isn't occurring.

If your camera is as bad as the images from Youtube, I would certainly be upset.

[gariber]

I wonder if it is a defect that's affected a particular batch?


Then why would'nt Canon say anything about it? I would love to know! Now I have to pay the repare to find out.

Good luck Reservoir_Dog! Hope it will be fixed!

[EORI]

Now I have to pay the repare to find out.

If it happened before, and you had it repaired under warranty, and it's happened again, then I why not tell Canon that they failed to repair it adequately the first time, and demand that they repair it again for free. The only problem that you may run into is the visible condensation marks. I doubt that's covered under warranty.

[aostling]

In April my G7 went electrically dead, two weeks before the warranty expired. Canon repaired that problem. But I noticed dust spots on the image, much like those which have been posted here. I sent the camera back to the Canon repair facility in New Jersey, expecting that the dust problem would be taken care of for no charge, even though the warranty has now expired. I explained that there was no problem with dust before it got into the repair facility (where the camera body was opened up).

Canon now wants $147. They say there is now damage to the case, with 2 or 3 mm cracks! This is ridiculous, as there was no such damage when I wrapped the camera in the same packing that the repair center sent it back in before. Very effective packing. They say the package was undamaged (or they would have refused delivery), but that the camera now has these big gaps in the casing.

On the phone I asked to talk to the supervisor. The woman said that she was the supervisor. I guess I will have no choice but to pay the $147, since the camera is worthless unless repaired. But I am irritated.

[Bob_A]

I to have a G7 with dust problems. I had enough dust insde the lens to have it repared under waranty. Now the waranty is over and dust is acumulating. Those of you who think it is ok for a 6 month old camera to have dust in it, have forgoten what quality is supposed to be. I have a Sony DSC S70 for about 8 year now and there is not a single sign of dust in it, even if I look for it with a laser. Yes it can show on pictures, not all of them and only in certain conditions, but it is not 1 year old!! What will it look like in 8 years? Especialy for a camera this expensive, I expected more. We should not minimize this problem. Like Reservoir_Dog said, his G2 did not do that. Why should we tolerate this? If you bought a car and lost all four hubcaps within a week, would you accept that somebody tells you it is still roling so don't complain? We feel that we did'nt get the quality we payed for. Buying such an expensive compact camera (one of if not the most expensive) I should not have to wory if it will be still usable in two years. This is my first Canon and frankly, if Canon does not help me in any way with this when I will call them, it will be the last one of my life. I payed over 1K can$ for the camera and accessories (battery, converter lenses). This is unacceptable and ridiculous.

Bernard

This looks like condensation on the sensor itself, not on the lens. It sure doesn't look like dust to me. For dust in the lens you wouldn't see it as dots or blobs on the image anyway, and it would take a lot of dust to result in any noticeable image quality degradation (i.e., lower contrast).

[aostling]

Bob,

You are replying to a post from last September -- I assume you didn't check the date.

I kicked this thread back to life, since it seemed an appropriate place to vent frustration at the dust problem which does indeed seem to be a problem with the G7, certainly on mine.

[Bob_A]

Ahhh ... got sucked into the vortex of this thread ...

I hope you get your problem resolved with Canon aostling. If you have dust spots on the image it sounds like the sensor got dirty during the repair, which I would have thought Canon would clue in that it's their fault.

Best of luck.