What do you think these spots are?

So I have noticed on some of my shots that I am getting spots. The combo is a 7D and 400mm 5.6. I keep all my gear in as dust free environment as I can. I clean the lens and filters religously. So I got to thinking it could have something to do with ISO or the camera as I do not see anything on the lens. First shot is at ISO 100 with a heavy crop. Second shot is at ISO 6400 with a heavy crop. You can see the spots in the second photo. When I crop even more they look like little crosses.

Any idea what tha heck it is? Just about to get rid of it and get something else.

Sorry. Here is a better shot

Both black and white spots appear.

Have you tried another lens in order to narrow it down to either the body or glass? That's the first thing you need to do. You need to shoot something bright with a different lens and see of the spots are still there. If they are, it's the camera. If not, it's the lens. Then you can further troubleshoot from there. If you don't have another lens, take your camera into best buy or some place where you can test a lens on your camera body and shoot a pic of the ceiling lights. Then when you get home check to see if the spots are still there.

Thanks. I just put on the 24-105L and shot at the ceiling fan light. Not quite bright enough so I swapped the photo over to negative setting. ISO 100 no spots. ISO 6400 spots are there

I've never quite seen spots like that before... even at high ISOs where the noise is unacceptable to me. I shoot with a 50D and I usually don't care for anything about ISO400 on my camera. It's something that I've come to expect and accept. A few months ago I was able to try out a 5D3; absolutely loved it even at ISO6400 (and above). It too had a level of ISO performance that was unacceptable to me, but I don't even remember what it was anymore... I know it was a LOT higher than what I was expecting. I also remember getting clean shots at ISO6400, which I can't even get to if I wanted to with my 50D.

I took some shots of my son, who at the time was only a couple of months old. They were taken in his room with dim lighting. I remember literally telling my wife how clean the pictures were at ISO levels that I don't even have on my 50D; note that I was already shooting at f/1.8 so I literally wouldn't have been able to take the pictures with my camera unless I added more light.

I have not either. When you zoom in really tight on a full resolution photo, they look like small crosses.

PeteD wrote in post #16489181
.... they look like small crosses.

I can see the headline now "Man discovers face of Jesus in RAW data".

LOL....Good one. My fame to fortune

PeteD wrote in post #16489181
I have not either. When you zoom in really tight on a full resolution photo, they look like small crosses.

Small crosses is a normal phenomenon when there is some issue with a pixel on the sensor and the demosaic process then makes use of the data from the bayer sensor to create an RGB image.

The demosaic process has to use weights to form one RGB pixel from red, gree and blue sensor readings around that pixel position - the sensor reading closest gets the highest weight. The north, west, east and south neighbours gets a lower weight and corner neighbours even less weight.

So you think it might be the sensor?

I don't know. If only dark spots, then it could be anything that can block the light for an individual well on the sensor - just that the low-pass filter is above the sensor and is intended to fuzz light to hit multiple light wells. But I'm not sure how the LP filter is affected by something tiny directly on the surface. And I wouldn't have expected it possible to get lighter points from dirt.

I, personally, think you should send photos to Canon and have them ponder if the camera needs service.

pwm2 wrote in post #16489661
I, personally, think you should send photos to Canon and have them ponder if the camera needs service.

This is what I was thinking as well... it would be nice if something like a simple sensor cleaning could fix the issue. Hoping it's nothing major that would be of great expense to the OP.

Let us know if you contact them, what they say, or what the resolution is. I'm interested to find out.

OK. There is some voodoo you may want to try before you ship it. There is some considerable debate to why this seems to fix some sensor problems but it has way too many positive results to be a fluke. It even worked for me with some purple pixels. I'm sure that the mention of this will cause a good deal of debate here but since it only takes a minute to do it, there are no negative consequences and it may save you a trip to canon. Some or all of these steps may not matter at all but may as well do them all.

1.) Remove the lens from the camera and replace with the camera body cap that came with it.
2.) Cover the viewfinder so light can't enter the viewfinder. Alternatively, go into a room with no light.
3.) Hold the camera with the screen up and the front facing down as if you were shooting a photo pf the floor.
4.) Go into your menu and find the "sensor cleaning" menu
5.) Choose "clean manually"
6.) When you do this, the mirror will lock up. hold it in that position for 1 minute or a little longer if you like.
7.) Press the button to stop the sensor cleaning.

There's a reason I call this voodoo. There is no reason this should work for the many sensor problems that it appears to fix. But it works quite often. There are many theories which you can research if you feel the desire.

I've never seen black pixels before. One of the theories on this is that there is some pixel remapping being done in the camera. If that is the case, it may not fix the black pixels. But hey, it's worth a shot and it will add to our body of knowledge about this curious procedure.

Will have to give all the suggestions a try.

What really has me baffled is, this has only recently started. I have done 6400 and above with big crops and never seen anythong. Now, I have this

do you compensate the high iso by closing the shutter? dust on the sensor is far more easy visible at small apertures.