Dark spots- any help?

[Ultra Magnus]

It's a Sony P200, been dropped at least once, but just recently I started noticing dark spots in my images at full telephoto. They don't show up very much at wide angle. Thye also seem to move around, not always in the same place over time. I mean, if I take ten shots right now in my cubicle, they are all in the sampe place, but they've moved over that last month or so since I first noticed the problem. I've cleaned that tiny lens as best that I can, but I don't think that's it.

Here are some sample photos. The first one is from the first day that I noticed the problem. Obviously when shooting against a dark background, or at wide angle it's not noticeable. So when I was shooting against the sky at full telephoto it jumped out at me. The second two are of my cubicle wall, one wide (last one) the other telephoto (middle).

BM

Edit: Forget the order, the picture have changed order on me twice since the original post and one edit.

[Photo-John]

That's dust on your lens or sensor. If you've cleaned your lens, they're on the inside. They should be sharper in bright light conditions because the camera's aperture will be smaller and you'll have more depth-of-field. Since it's a compact camera I'm not really sure what you can do. The best thing might just be to shake the hell out of it to try to get them to move out of the image area. Of course, you might shake something else loose, too. Taking it in for repair will likely cost more than the camera is worth now, though.

[Ultra Magnus]

That's just great. I don't suppose that something I can try to fix myself? I have no idea how that camera comes apart, or even if it comes apart (like if it were glued or epoxied together) at some level.

Maybe I'll try canned air with the straw thingy tonight. If dirt got in there, maybe some air can too and blow it around until it's out of the way.

Thanks PJ.

BM

[Ultra Magnus]

Well, I went and did it. I took the camera apart myself and cleaned her out. the results aren't 100?% perfect, but wicked better than it was. The als step (I don't know any other way) required desoldering six conductors on a ribbon so I stopped there. It turns out that in the P200 the lens focusing element and the sensor are not sealed. The sensor itself has an IR filter (so I've read) glued right to the front of it, so the dirt gets on that and on both sides of the focusing element. I blew it all off with canned air. I've read that other P&S cameras have the same problem.

BM