dust in my pictures whtf!!!

hello. i've adquired a 30D recently. went out shooting and guess what?
i see spots in most of my pictures. specially if it involves white clouds.
i've been trying to clean the sensor, mirror and view finder. i see the spots in the view finder also. the sensor looks spotless.
is driving me crazy and killing my pictures. anyone knows or had this experience before.
where can i have it clean? can i camera shop handle this task?

I would send it into Canon to get the body cleaned. Spots in the sky are on the sensor.

Mike

What did you use to clean the sensor? Maybe you didn't do a good job? At what aperture you use to see these dust spots?

Did you purchase the 30D new or used, if used then this may be expected, if new then send it back to the seller?

If you are seeing them in the images and in the viewfinder (and they are the same spots) then I'd say the lens needs to be cleaned.

is not the lens. it was purchased used. the sensor was blown with compressed air.
if is the sensor i should no be able to see it in the view finder and vise versa.
the lens is clean as i use it on t1i and they come out clean.
oh well off to get cleaned.

illrooster132 wrote in post #10501763
if is the sensor i should no be able to see it in the view finder and vise versa.

Exactly. Anything on the lens should be too far out of focus to see but can't think of any other way for a spot to appear both in the viewfinder and on the image.

illrooster132 wrote in post #10501763
is not the lens. it was purchased used. the sensor was blown with compressed air.
if is the sensor i should no be able to see it in the view finder and vise versa.
the lens is clean as i use it on t1i and they come out clean.
oh well off to get cleaned.

Of course you get dust in the viewfinder. My 1dmarkIII has couple. They don't show up in the pictures. You did the most minimal to try to clean the sensor. Unfortunately, you may need to wet clean it with a sensor swap.

illrooster132 wrote in post #10501763
the sensor was blown with compressed air.

What kind of "compressed air" was used to blow debris off the sensor?

SkipD wrote in post #10501881
What kind of "compressed air" was used to blow debris off the sensor?

Yeah, that was my thought. You shouldn't use cans of compressed air on sensors as they can squirt propellant gunk as well as air and that can stick to the sensor and make it worse than you started with.

sandpiper wrote in post #10501898
Yeah, that was my thought. You shouldn't use cans of compressed air on sensors as they can squirt propellant gunk as well as air and that can stick to the sensor and make it worse than you started with.

Actually, there is NO AIR AT ALL in the cans. The contents of all "duster" products (the types contained in a thin sheet metal can) is purely a propellant that hopefully will completely vaporize on its way out of the can.

illrooster132 wrote in post #10501763
is not the lens. it was purchased used. the sensor was blown with compressed air.
if is the sensor i should no be able to see it in the view finder and vise versa.
the lens is clean as i use it on t1i and they come out clean.
oh well off to get cleaned.

You should never blow the sensor with compressed air!

You should use a gentle hand held puffer. If that doesn't work, then take it to get cleaned properly. Personally, I clean my own with a kit I bought, but I don't recommend that for just anyone.

I cleaned my sensor only once, so I am not an expert, but here is what I can tell:
-it is not rocket science and with right tools you can do it yourself
-blower is not efficient most of the time
-the best is the wet method
-a set for cleaning can be bought for around $40
-my kit is comprised of: giottos blower, eclipse fluid, pec-pad wipes and SensorWand tool.
-my kit should last many years, not only for sensors but for lenses and my telescopes
-you dont need $100 miracle wands
-google for tutorials on how to use the tools from the kit I described
-dust is visible the best at very high aperture values, e.g. 40

Alex

I have the same kit Alex and you know what i found out....all the camera shops in my town use the exact same kit to clean sensors. As long as you have the right Eclipse fluid (it's different for different sensors) and the right size wand, you can do this yourself. One of the shop people here showed me exactly how to do it.

krb wrote in post #10501789
Exactly. Anything on the lens should be too far out of focus to see but can't think of any other way for a spot to appear both in the viewfinder and on the image.

Yeah, it's pretty much impossible. I get viewfinder dust regularly from storing my camera in a flannel lined messenger bag to carry around, and a few bursts of air from a compressor at about 15 psi does the trick nicely.

However, if you have spots on the sensor, it's a different issue entirely unrelated to the viewfinder.