Two-Parter

[5ybarite]

Hey all,
total newbie here and I have two questions. First, I think I have dust inside my lens; I have a casio exilim 7.2 mgp point and shoot. I just read another thread stating that this could in fact be a dirty sensor? or is that something that only plague's SLRs? I thought an example might be handy, so here it is.

Second, I'm headed to Dublin in April for about 5 days, and I want to take more than just my little point and shoot. I was thinking about upgrading to something a little more robust. I used to have a Canon EOS 35mm a long time ago, so I'm no stranger to interchangeable lenses and filters and such, but I'm also not sure I want to mess with all that again too much baggage. My father just bought a P80 Nikon, which I'm very fond of; but was hoping for a little advice.

Thanks!
~5yb

[another view]

Is your sample image just a part of the whole shot? I'm trying to figure out how big that piece of "something" is. Usually this is a problem that affects DSLR's because the lenses can be changed, and that opens up the possibility of getting dirt on the sensor. But it's not impossible with a non-interchangeable lens camera either.

I haven't kept up with all of the different cameras out there - that would be a full time job! Newer is generally better, and I think the P80 just came out. Looks like a nice camera but it's getting close to small DSLR size - a lot closer to that then pocket-sized anyway. A D50 (or other brand's equivalent) will cost more, but I'm sure you'd gain some flexibility with it too. You'd also get a much better optical viewfinder.

[5ybarite]

You can surf around that album and see that piece of dirt several times; the dirt is most prevalent in bright light like that in those photos, though I have seen it in lower light shots as well. The dirt has changed in the time since I took those shots, though it is still there. Would the recommendation be then to return it to Casio to get them to fix? or should I look for a local option?

[another view]

If you have a good local shop, you might want to ask them to look at it - especially if you happened to buy it there. If they're able to do something easily to fix it, it might be nice to repay the favor buy picking up a memory card or something. Good to have those kind of places around! Since you say it's moving, I'd do that before just shipping it off.

[freygr]

looks like hair or fiber of some kind to me. I had a piece of horse hair in my D70 and it looked just like it.