Black spots

[jon_206]

I have had my camara Digital Rebel XT about 2 weeks now and I noticed these black spots on the images. At first I thought the lens was dirty but it does it with either lens. Any suggestions. Here is a pic for an example.

[mjs1973]

That looks like dust on the sensor to me. Are the spots in the same location on every photo? I used a Giottos Rocket blower to clean my DRebel sensor a while back and it worked great. Follow the instructions in your manual for cleaning the sensor, then lightly blow the dust away. Hold the camera upside down when you do it, so the dust falls out of the body. There are some specialty swabs on the market for cleaning sensors, but they are a little expensive and the blower worked great for me.

[jon_206]

Yes they are always in the same spot. Some photos I notice more then others. I appreciate the quick reply and I hope its something simple like dust!

[SmartWombat]

If you see it more at small apertures like f22-f40 then it's dust all right.
I hope it's simple dust

I am still after 2 weeks trying to clean out my 20D (same sensor as a rebel 350XT I think).

There's a pretty good overview of cleaning here http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/methods.html
This also shows how your sensor is laid out internally http://www.photo.net/equipment/digital/sensorcleaning/ but I wouldn't want to use the speck grabber, anything sticky on the sensor has to be a bad thing in my mind.

I had no luck with a blower.
It sucked in dusty room air and blew it into the camera.
After the first couple of goes, when it was down to about 10 spots, it was 50-50 whether there was more or less after using it.

DO NOT use canned "air" dusters, they in fact use a chemical of low boiling point.
You might damage the sensor by freezing it, and the condensation from the very cold air might make the dust stick even worse.

I've tried Sensor Brush that had great reviews - but not good for me. (e.g. http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/con...id=7-6460-7296)
I got it clean except for one speck. Then on the next pass picked up mess on the brush and made it worse than before I started. Totally frustrating exercise.

I would not recommend using their chamber clean, it seems to leave a tacky residue that is very easy to pick up on the cleaning brush and wipe onto the sensor.
Great for controlling dust in the mirror chamber, and stopping it reaching the sensor/mirror, but unless you are very careful you will end up making your life worse with it.
I guess I wasn't careful enough.

SensorClean does a pretty good job, but the clinical cotton swabs don't remove the residue and can sometimes make it worse rather then better after cleaning.

The "copperhill method" (http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning) might work, as it uses a lint free swab and a flexible thingy to wipe the sensor. The eclipse cleaning fluid certainly leaves far less residue than sensorclean, but until I can buy or make something to use the pec-pad properly, it's not going to do better than sensorclean while using those swabs.

This is interesting though, if genuine: http://dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?...essage=5602180

[jon_206]

Ok I went out and took some shots tonight. Some photos the spots showed up really bad, and some they hardly showed at all. These two files are not sized down at all because thats the only way I could make the spots out on the first picture. The only real differences here are the pics were shot in different modes, slower shutter on the second image w/ the aid of a tripod. Let me know if anyone has additional suggestions. Tomorrow I'm going to call the store I got the camara from and see if they can be of help. Wish me luck.
Thanks in advance for your replies!.

Good



Bad

[Peter_AUS]

Still looks like dust.

[another view]

Yup, that's dust. It's part of life with a DSLR and the two things you'll learn to do is:

1. change lenses in a way that minimizes dust getting inside the mirror box (like quickly and with the camera pointing down)
2. learn how to do a quick cleaning of the sensor

I don't do anything other than use the Giottos Rocket blower on mine (following the instructions to expose the sensor for cleaning mode). If there's a little bit of dust after that, it's easy to clone out in Photoshop. Your first and last shots could be cleaned up in a few seconds this way. My thought is to not try to really get in there and clean it the way the pros do, less chance of damage because I never touch the sensor itself.