Is this dust on the sensor?

[photopaque]

I have tried cleaning with a blower and nothing has happened.Is it worth taking it back to jessops and getting them to clean it?How much do places like that charge?Im just a bit scared of trying anything other than just the blow method as im new to photography and dont want to mess up my new camera.

http://img71.exs.cx/img71/1262/img02123qo.jpg

[Dannes]

I have tried cleaning with a blower and nothing has happened.Is it worth taking it back to jessops and getting them to clean it?How much do places like that charge?Im just a bit scared of trying anything other than just the blow method as im new to photography and dont want to mess up my new camera.

http://img71.exs.cx/img71/1262/img02123qo.jpg

Hi,

i'm afraid there is a lot more dust on your sensor. Take a picture at f22 or f32.
I don't mean to scare you but you'll see the dust much clearer that way. Dust is a
problem. They will have to take care of that problem for digital SLR's in the future (or for digital slr's now!). I have a 20 D that attracts dust very quickly. It seems that the 10D has that problem a lot less.

Dannes

[soupdragon]

Just as a matter or interest, did you try and blow the dust off using your breath?

I did this and inadvertently deposited small droplets of saliver on the sensor which I could not see. I had to send it back for cleaning in the end.

[photopaque]

Just as a matter or interest, did you try and blow the dust off using your breath?

I did this and inadvertently deposited small droplets of saliver on the sensor which I could not see. I had to send it back for cleaning in the end.
I used a little blow bulb thing.Gonna give it another clean and do some proper test shots.If its too dirty im going to take it back...they should swap it for another one i hope.

[nitsch]

Jessops will not clean it themselves, they will send it off to Canon which means you'll be without your camera for a while. I didn't find this acceptable when I got my 300D (first one was filthy!) so they swapped for another new one which was substantially cleaner but still had the odd speck or two. I don't know what aperture this pic was taken at but if they are the only two specks I would put up with it, if you swap the next one could be far worse. As a DSLR owner, you have to accept that some dust will get on your sensor and that you will have to clean it from time to time.

[tmurphy]

If you live near one of the Calumet Pro Photographic trade counters they do a 7 day turn around for £30 ish (It varies dependant on which store, bu the Manchester store is definatey £30).

I tried every trick in the book to remove a particulary stuborn speck of dust without any success.

Calumet managed to clear it right off...I now dropmy camera off every 3 months to have it cleaned as a matter of maintainence.

[milou]

My 300D used to look like this at f/29: http://milouvision.net/photos/sen3.jpg but I had it cleaned professionally by Canon...for free! My local London Camera Exchange held a "Pro-Show" which included free sensor cleaning etc. In essence they used a magnifying glass and a very large hand-blower. It took about 10 mins. I know that other people use the Copperhill method successfully: http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning

[KennyG]

This comes up regularly. You have to learn to clean it yourself otherwise it will cost you a fortune in cleaning and dampen any enjoyment you get from the camera. I find it strange that someone is prepared to spend £120 a year to clean a sensor when I take somewhere in the region of 50,000 shots a year in adverse conditions and my cost of cleaning is zero.

Get a Giotto rocket blower to start with as it works in 90% of cases. Don't get too paranoid about the dust unless you photograph blue skies at small apertures on a regular basis.

[SeanH]

Just a little perspective on this whole "dust on my sensor thing".

We (photographers) have always lived with spots, I can remember spending hours “spotting” my prints, and rarely got one that I didn’t have to do some work on. Considering the ease of the “clone brush” in Photoshop I would say we get off pretty easy now days. And if you have never spotted a color print it went something like this……..you have color dyes that you have to mix to try and get the exact color of the area you are going to spot. So you mix the dyes and keep dabbing them on a white area (normally a blank sheet of photo paper) till the color “looked” the same, then with a VERY small brush with about 10 hairs on it you dabbed it on………hoping the color matched. If it did…… great, then you wash the brush and start over on the next spot. If not then you could try to wash it off, or just trash that nice 16X20 color print. I ALWAYS printed a couple extra prints just for that reason.

Bottom line…….don’t freak out on dust……..10 seconds in P.S. and it’s gone

But I will say…..what in the heck do some of you do with your cameras?? Run 10K’s with it on your chest without a lens……LOL. Heck I shoot a lot of motocross in the dirt and my sensor isn’t half as dirty as some I see here.

[Incomplete Pete]

Ken, £120?!?! My local place does it for £35 witha 2 hour turnaround!

[Moments]

Finally, someone who has taken a stand to say stop crying about sensor dust spots. I hate spotting B&W prints and really hate spotting color prints when the lab forgets or does not do it. If I did not do the spotting myself and I returned the prints to the lab everytime they needed to go back and spot them again, I would never get a job done.

Now, on to the digital camera and spots. The amount of spots that I really see in my images is close to nothing. I shot close to 700 images at a Bat Mitzvah on Sat and I did not see any spots I have to retouch out. If I start shooting my walls and the sky, I know it will show that the sensor should be cleaned. The only time I can say I really have to retouch a few spots is if I'm shooting in the studio on a white BKG. I have 22000 + images with my 20D so far, and when it becomes a real issue, I will clean the sensor.

One last thing, I did see the image that Milou has in the thread here. I have never seen that much dust (not just spots) on a sensor. Do you clean the inside of your body/lens caps? I'm not dissing you, I'm just thinking about how you got all that dust.

[Muffin Princess]

Nitsch:You may not find it "acceptable" that Jessops has to send away your camera to Canon, but in the end we are a retail store, not a repair shop, we are under no obligation to even offer this service to you.

Photopaque: Anyway, if you do want your sensor cleaning, Jessops have just had a new system put in where whatever is wrong with your camera, it is going to cost the same amount to get it sent away, whether it needs a whole brand new CCD or if just a button has fallen off or whatever, we now have "standard charges". This reduces the turnaround time of repairs as the camera no longer needs to be sent away for an estimate first. Yes, it's probably going to cost more than you want to pay, but the wait is reduced by a couple of weeks.

Therefore, if you just want your sensor cleaned, do what they all said and don't take it back to Jessops, DSLR repairs are always upwards of £150-£200, so find a Canon specialist place who will do it on site in a couple of hours for a hell of a lot less.

And, what they said, you have about 2 specs of dust on your sensor, if this is all, there is no need to get it cleaned. Plus, if you ever do it yourself, you're never going to get ALL of it off, even with a sensor cleaning kit, as had been often demonstrated by my boyfriend (Incomplete Pete). You're just going to have to do a bit of post-processing. *NOD*

Let's see a pic you've taken at f/22. :)

[photopaque]

Thanks for the info and help.Im new to photography and i guess my gripe is that i can take a pic with my powershot A400 that cost £110 of a sky and its clear yet i take a pic of the sky with my £650 eos350D and there is dust on it.I just didnt realise dust was such a problem and didnt envisage having to edit in Ps after spending so much money on a camera.Anyways.......heres to clear pictures from now on.

[milou]

One last thing, I did see the image that Milou has in the thread here. I have never seen that much dust (not just spots) on a sensor. Do you clean the inside of your body/lens caps? I'm not dissing you, I'm just thinking about how you got all that dust.

Heh - no worries :) I'd spent the last 4/5 days trudging through North Wales changing lenses including one poor attempt at cleaning in the field (or a field to be precise with inquisitive cows). Most of that was on the mirror/lens rather than the sensor. I very rarely shoot at f/22 etc so I hadn't notice the build up.

[Incomplete Pete]

Thanks for the info and help.Im new to photography and i guess my gripe is that i can take a pic with my powershot A400 that cost £110 of a sky and its clear yet i take a pic of the sky with my £650 eos350D and there is dust on it.I just didnt realise dust was such a problem and didnt envisage having to edit in Ps after spending so much money on a camera.Anyways.......heres to clear pictures from now on.

That's the price you have to pay for having the luxury of an SLR. To be honest, it isn't a problem! My sensor is HUGELY filthy, I photoshop out the mark seconds, small problem really when you've got the advantages of a DSLR!

[nitsch]

Nitsch:You may not find it "acceptable" that Jessops has to send away your camera to Canon, but in the end we are a retail store, not a repair shop, we are under no obligation to even offer this service to you.

:rolleyes:

By the way you say "we" I take it you work for Jessops? Please don't go defending your wonderful employer without knowing all the facts.

If the camera I was talking about in my post had just a couple of specks of dust on it I would have accepted this as part and parcel of DSLR ownership and it would never have been returned, however this was a brand new camera which had a sensor which looked more like the inside of a hoover bag, so I returned it. It was the attitude of the staff I found unacceptable - instead of immediately being offered a replacement I was met with all kinds of bull and eventually told it would be sent off for cleaning at my cost and I would be without my camera for a few weeks. Am I wrong to find this unacceptable? Eventually I got a replacement from a different Jessops branch who were a lot more helpful to say the least.

The point behind my post was to tell the OP that Jessops do not do cleaning as he stated he was going to return it for them to clean it, and also to tell him that a few specks were almost inevitable on even a new camera, however if it was really dirty it would be acceptable to ask for a replacement.

Anyway top marks to you for once again ruining any faith I may have once had in Jessops staff. :evil:

[k2kv]

Wanna see what I found on my 20D sensor yesterday? Only 900 images taken so far. Now awaiting arrival of a cleaning kit (UGH!).

[Incomplete Pete]

Sorry I was logged in as the wrong person.

[Muffin Princess]

:rolleyes:

By the way you say "we" I take it you work for Jessops? Please don't go defending your wonderful employer without knowing all the facts.

If the camera I was talking about in my post had just a couple of specks of dust on it I would have accepted this as part and parcel of DSLR ownership and it would never have been returned, however this was a brand new camera which had a sensor which looked more like the inside of a hoover bag, so I returned it. It was the attitude of the staff I found unacceptable - instead of immediately being offered a replacement I was met with all kinds of bull and eventually told it would be sent off for cleaning at my cost and I would be without my camera for a few weeks. Am I wrong to find this unacceptable? Eventually I got a replacement from a different Jessops branch who were a lot more helpful to say the least.

The point behind my post was to tell the OP that Jessops do not do cleaning as he stated he was going to return it for them to clean it, and also to tell him that a few specks were almost inevitable on even a new camera, however if it was really dirty it would be acceptable to ask for a replacement.

Anyway top marks to you for once again ruining any faith I may have once had in Jessops staff. :evil:


Yes I do work for Jessops and I by no means think they are wonderful. In fact, I just wrote a 2 page letter to head office complaining about the way they treat their staff resulting in a 2 hour meeting with my regional manager. I hate Jessops and I hate working for them. (for example, we work for less than £5 an hour and recieve zero commission, and yes I am looking for another job)

You never mentioned in your original post that your sensor had dust on it when you bought it, had you said this, then I never would have replied in the way I did. The way you wrote it, I just assumed that you'd had it a while and decided it was time to clean the sensor. No, you are not wrong to find this unacceptable, but you should have exlpained yourself in the first instance. Had you came into the shop where I work and said the same thing "There's dust on my sensor" I, too, would have suggested you had it sent away, unless you actually told me it was like that when you bought it, then I would have sorted you out with a replacement, but you didn't in this instance. I can only work with the information that is given to me.

So I have single-handedly destroyed all faith you have in several thousands of Jessops staff? We're not a single unit, we're individual people. Just because you don't like me, doesn't mean all Jessops staff are the same. I'm sorry you don't like me as a member of Jessops, but I'd just like you to know that my manager recently spoke of me very highly to the regional manager, the store recently recieved a letter from a customer praising my individual service (this very rarely happens; people are always very keen to jump in and complain when something goes wrong, but they hardly ever do something as positive as this when they recieve good customer service. Why is this?) and many times customers have come back into the store to specifically talk to me because they say I was so helpful in the past. I have never once had a complaint against me in the store.

Jessops is horrible to their staff, I would be the last to defend them, I was just explaining how the repair system works

Anyway, I just had a look at your gallery and I love your spider shot, I think spiders are amazing and I like the way you've captured all of its eyes nice and sharp, with the shallow DOF bringing attention to them.

[Muffin Princess]

Thanks for the info and help.Im new to photography and i guess my gripe is that i can take a pic with my powershot A400 that cost £110 of a sky and its clear yet i take a pic of the sky with my £650 eos350D and there is dust on it.I just didnt realise dust was such a problem and didnt envisage having to edit in Ps after spending so much money on a camera.Anyways.......heres to clear pictures from now on.

By the way, where'd you get a 350D for £650? Was the 18-55mm lens kit or just the body? If it was the kit then that's a very good price!

Yeah, anyway, the expense of the kit has nothing to do with whether or not you'll get dust on the sensor, even with a £6000 DSLR you're going to get the same thing if you ever change the lenses. It's only because the sensor is exposed when you change lenses that you get this problem. Obviously with the A400 it's a nice little 3mp point and shoot camera; you're not going to get the image quality you get with the 350D, obviously, but you don't get dust on your pics because the sensor is never exposed due to the lens not being removable! :)

(Again, where did you find one for £110? Did you get the 64mb card, tripod and case with it? Bargain if you did!) :)

[nitsch]

Hey Muffin, I just read your post. OK let me apologise. The dirty camera incident is still a bit of a sore point for me and so are most of my Jessops experiences to be honest so I guess when I read the first part of your post quoting the Jessops company line I just bit. I hadn't put the whole story in my first post as I guess the problems I had weren't relevant to the original thread so of course you had no way of knowing all the details. I don't by any means tar all Jessops staff with the same brush and you are right some of you guys are great. Sorry if it seemed like a personal dig at you, it wasn't meant to be but re-reading it now I can see it was not the best post I've ever made.

Friends?

Anyway good luck in the job hunt. :)

[Dannes]

Wanna see what I found on my 20D sensor yesterday? Only 900 images taken so far. Now awaiting arrival of a cleaning kit (UGH!).
Lets turn this dust problem in a positive thing: Who can show the biggest difference between a really dirty sensor and the sensor after cleaning? Lets just make it a contest. I do not want people to make their sensor as dirty as possible obviously. Please be carefull with your (expensive) camera/ equipment.
But sensor cleaning will obviously become a regular thing for a lot of DSLR owners. Why not make it a special forum/ topic? Not to make fun out of a serious problem but just because it is such a common problem.

[Muffin Princess]

Hey Muffin, I just read your post. OK let me apologise. The dirty camera incident is still a bit of a sore point for me and so are most of my Jessops experiences to be honest so I guess when I read the first part of your post quoting the Jessops company line I just bit. I hadn't put the whole story in my first post as I guess the problems I had weren't relevant to the original thread so of course you had no way of knowing all the details. I don't by any means tar all Jessops staff with the same brush and you are right some of you guys are great. Sorry if it seemed like a personal dig at you, it wasn't meant to be but re-reading it now I can see it was not the best post I've ever made.

Friends?

Anyway good luck in the job hunt. :)

Thank you for your apology. I'm used to angry customers lashing out when things don't go their way; they just need someone to shout at. Unfortunately, I tend to take things personally and get all wound up. OK, let's forget it happened :)

[nitsch]

Cool. :)

[photopaque]

By the way, where'd you get a 350D for £650? Was the 18-55mm lens kit or just the body? If it was the kit then that's a very good price!


(Again, where did you find one for £110? Did you get the 64mb card, tripod and case with it? Bargain if you did!) :)
I got my A400 with the free extras just before Christmas from Jessops and i got my Eos from the same store for £635.99,Its called skillfull negotiation.. :)
And to put another feather in Jessops hat they gave me a brand new replacement one after i took it back and told em about my dust problem---Now thats customer satisfaction. :D