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Out, damn spot! [SLR Camera Cleaning]

EinEin CaliforniaRegistered User regular
edited June 2007 in Help / Advice Forum
Hey guys!

I have a Pentax K100.

I keep the lens caps on when I'm not using it, but I seem to have developed a bit of a recurring problem with a particular spot in my images. It ends up appearing as a fuzzy 'spot' on the images towards the top right quarter.

Thinking it might be some gunk on the lens or whatever, I took the lens piece off the camera body and wiped it down with the camera cleaning stuff I have - a special cloth and solution... but after reattaching it, nothing changed. There's no visible obstructions on the lens anyway.

So, alright, I think to myself. Maybe I have a bit of gunk on the sensor? So I have the camera flip the mirror up, and I use one of those squeezy-ball air pumps to blow any crap that might have been on it off. Still, there's nothing on it.

I fix it all back together, and take a shot, and damnit! It's still got that spot!

I am assuming it is something to do with the lens; the spot in some shots is very in focus, whereas in others it is a bit blurry. There isn't jack that I can see on the lens surfaces, though.

Some examples of the dreaded spot:

Particularly in-focus:

damnspot1.jpg

Out of focus:

damnspot2.jpg

It's worth mentioning that first shot had about twice as much exposure time as the second, which could also account for why the spot's in focus, which would also not account for the lens being the source of the problem.

It's also obviously not on the backdrop. It appears in other places.

Really, I'm not sure how to find out what's causing it, but it shows up in nearly all of my close-up pictures - pictures of something across the room, it doesn't appear, which suggests to me that it's out of focus enough to be invisible.

Ein on

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    ProtoProto Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    I assume you only have the one lens?

    If you have a camera store nearby, take it there and try it with another lens to confirm that it's not dust on the sensor. If the senor is fine, there might be some dust inside the lens. The store should probably be able to help with that.

    Proto on
    and her knees up on the glove compartment
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    EinEin CaliforniaRegistered User regular
    edited June 2007
    I do only have one lens, else I'd be testing it.

    I was just glancing at the sensor with the mirror up and I think I might have spotted the problem - two very, very, very small spots that I almost didn't see in the same position as the spots are in the picture, but upside-down. I grabbed one of those little blower-squeeze-ball things and got rid of them; taking a test picture now to see if it fixed it

    Ein on
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    EinEin CaliforniaRegistered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Yeah, that got rid of it. :)

    For future reference, I suppose I should never touch the sensor?

    I didn't, because it's scary and arcane, but I'm just wondering what happens if I can't get crap off it with the hand-blower.

    Ein on
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    SentrySentry Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Take it to a camera shop.

    It's never a good idea to randomly touch stuff inside a camera unless you know what you're doing. Unless you don't mind your pictures looking like shit.

    Sentry on
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    ProtoProto Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Yeah, that got rid of it. :)

    For future reference, I suppose I should never touch the sensor?

    I didn't, because it's scary and arcane, but I'm just wondering what happens if I can't get crap off it with the hand-blower.

    Never touch the sensor. You'll just end up making things worse.

    A brushless blower is fine for almost everything. If it ever gets to the point where you can't blow the stuff off, take it somewhere to get it cleaned. You can buy special cleaning tools, but they are expensive and not really worth it unless you are a pro who needs to clean the sensor regularly.

    Proto on
    and her knees up on the glove compartment
    took out her barrettes and her hair spilled out like rootbeer
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    stigweardstigweard Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    There is a piece of glass over the sensor, so you can't touch it directly, but it is still a good idea to have a shop clean it for you. If you are really comfortable with it, there are procedures you can use to get the really sticky stuff, but I don't recommend it if you can't afford a repair cost should you mess it up and scratch that protective glass.

    stigweard on
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    nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    You really shouldn't be messing with the mirror in an SLR. You'll only mess stuff up worse.

    nexuscrawler on
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    GrimReaperGrimReaper Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    Amen, never, ever touch the sensor or the glass etc.

    In order to clean it ALWAYS take it to be cleaned by a proper place. For example, I have a Canon EOS 400D when I want to get my lenses cleaned i'll send them to a specialist Canon place for the cleaning.

    GrimReaper on
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    PheezerPheezer Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited June 2007
    If you have a blower, that's safe to use. You'd have to be a complete fucking gimp to ruin your camera using a blower. If the blower doesn't fix it, take it to a repair shop.

    Pheezer on
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    blincolnblincoln Registered User regular
    edited June 2007
    The cover on the sensor is a piece of glass, so I'm not sure why people are so concerned about it.

    I have a sensor-cover-cleaning kit that's a little plastic wand with special foam tape pads that go on the end. It works great for getting dust off.

    blincoln on
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