Fuji S3 Pro

[Digitalman]

I have just sent my Fuji S3 Pro back to Fuji for repair it is costing me just over £66. I had lots of dirt like spots on all my images. The lenses were clean. The spots were all in the same places on all images more so when photographing the sky.
Is this going to be a regular repair?

[another view]

Sounds like it's dust on the sensor. In fact, I'm 99% sure of it. It will show up more in shots that have a large depth of field than a very shallow depth of field. To test this, you could try taking a shot with a long fast lens at close focus (longest and fastest you've got, an 80-200 f2.8 wide open at close range would be great) and the dust should almost disappear compared to a wide angle shot at f11.

Dust is a fact of life with DSLR's. I clean my S2 myself using a Giottos Rocket Air Blower, which is just a big blower bulb (no brush). Follow Fuji's instructions for putting the camera in cleaning mode, then blast air at the sensor but don't touch the sensor with the tip of the bulb. It's best to hold the camera with the lens mount facing down (like you would if taking a picture of the ground) so that gravity will keep the loose dust from falling back on the sensor. There are other methods too, but it works pretty well for me.

Prevention is important too - change lenses quickly, keep camera pointed down (as before) when the body cap is off, have the body without a cap or lens on it for as short a time as absolutely possible, don't change lenses in dusty areas, use your body to block the wind if changing lenses outside, etc.

[Digitalman]

The Fuji S3 Pro is a very good camera, but not for fast moving subjects i.e sports etc.
I just wish camera makers could improve all known problems so that we dont have to keep sending camera's back for costly repairs. To have my sensor cleaned it is costing me just over £66. GBP.

[Digitalman]

Go to my website where you will find all images have been taken with Fuji Digital Camera's www.colinsphotography.co.uk

[Digitalman]

Thanks for your reply. I have been looking around the net to see what other folk have been saying and it does seem to be a big problem.

[another view]

Sensor dust is a problem, but it's something you'll get used to living with. Take the precautions and you shouldn't have too much trouble, but a quick cleaning like what I do before every important shoot will help a lot.

The Olympus E1 has some sort of ultrasonic thing that shakes the dust off the sensor, and Nikon does it with software if you shoot RAW files (thru their software program, and you take a shot to record the dust, then it automatically clones it out). Some day the dust problem will probably not be an issue, but until then...