Spots, spots and more spots

[rab]

Pictures from my three week old 20D are showing five or six dark spots on light backgounds. It's partricularly prevalent in shots with a light horizon. Two of them are about 4-5 mm in diameter when viewed full screen on my 18 inch monitor. I've cleaned the viewfinder and the lens to no avail. Is this a sensor problem?

[neil_r]

Probably sensor, post an example.


N

[rab]

Example attached. I've also tried cleaning the sensor with air.

[lomond]

Yep, definitely senor dust.

[Jonny]

Thats dust on the sensor mate, time to learn all about cleaning im afraid!

Take a photo of a plain sky, nothing else, at F22 or smaller and apply an 'Auto Levels' to it in Photoshop and you will see it clearer.

[rab]

So how do I get rid of it?

[Kinger]

That definitely looks like either sensor or lens dust. I would double check everything to make sure that it is perfectly clean, then try again. My first thought though is the lens, from what I have seen, sensor dust tends to be a little darker.

[ssim]

You've got dust bunnies. I've seen worse but you should clean your sensor if you don't like spending the time in photoshop cleaning these up.

[neil_r]

Here is a very good starter for 10

http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/index.html

Good luck

N

(edit for spelling)

[lomond]

Here's another.

http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning

[tim]

The pbase one is the one I use, it's one of the oldest and best cleaning systems on the net.

[Jackal]

rab, you said you used air to clean it. But did you just remove the lense and blow into the cam? The sensor is still hidden behind the shutter so it's not going to do anything.

Goto the menus for your cam and pick sensor cleaning (with your lense off the cam). It will open up and expose the sense. I'm sure air can blow a few weeks worth of dust off that...Shouldn't be stuck on there that much. :\

Not sure if you did this or not so I'm just making sure. :)

[rab]

Yes I did the 'recommended' sensor cleaning to no avail. I've just been reading the links the other guys left and it's a big, big subject. Not sure my hand is steady enough for this!!

Thanks to everyone who responded. Your help is much appreciated and I will stop cleaning the mirror and viewfinder this minute! I think I will hand the camera over to the experts.