Dust inside my DSC H9 lens ??

[susaan]

After a few nights of trying to capture the awesome moon,took the Sony DSC H9 out into the yard to practice shooting motion on my trusty model,"Cheese" the ginger tom,when..

Horror ! -the dust is back,inside what I thought was a sealed lens unit.

My camera has been to the store once already for the same problem,after a year of trouble free shooting.

It went back another time for a short in the articulated screen,Sony say they replaced the screen,but on close examination,there is a "burn" mark on it,where a deep scratch used to be..Hmmm. Got to be a bit careful with the local Sony people,as they are my only link to help,but feel like they may be a bit less than honest,here....

At present,I'm considering a Sony DSLR like the A350,alongside the first choice of XSi Canon Rebel,as I love the Sony range and would like to stay with it,for many reasons.
But is it tough enough for me ?

Pretty careful keeping my lens cap on,it has never been dropped-any time the camera is not in use,its in my Lowepro bag,examining the inside of the cap shows its very clean,and Jakarta is way less dusty than,say,New Mexico,so don't think its a regional problem.

Perhaps I'm just pushing my camera beyond its limits ,its nearly 2 years old-(made nasty whirring noises all night,on manual,shooting at the moon)-out most days I'm home,shooting to learn-using it in a way it was not designed for ?

Dust shots,(yes,the screen needs cleaning,rare I put it away like this,but eyes too tired to see well,after an all-nighter....)

The two hexagonal bright spots in the lower right hand corner are my problem,-shot bracketed-visible in the lens from the front and on the live viewer screen,about to clean the lens and try some more.

[SmartWombat]

My Canon G9 has a similar problem, so does my Panasonic LZ-5.
Both have extending multi-segment lens units, and I think it's the increase in volume as it extends that causes a lower air pressure inside the camera so the dust gets blown in.
The Canon after less than a year is loaded with pocket fluff, which shows up in shots with a lot of sky as the aperture is shut down or in some macro shots.
The Panasonic is nowhere near as bad, having lived in my pockets for two years, has only 3 annoying dust spots that show up in shots into the light (like yours) or in close up flash situations.

I'm considering a pocket DSLR when the micro 4/3 are available.
Or perhaps a fixed lens pocket camera.

I know I could buy a Leica M8 but it's rather expensive for a pocket camera

[susaan]

Aha !
Thanks so much,Smart wombat,your explanation makes the most sense.

-After a really good clean,found some dust particles inside the lens,glinting in the strong sunlight-may decide to live with them-it takes weeks for our dealership to fix a camera-and rarely shoot into the light as in the examples.

How about the noises-do you get anything like that at all ?

[SmartWombat]

No noises.
But the Panasonic has a weird habit when switched off, it will sometimes extend the lens, go beepbeep, and then retract the lens.
It's woken me in the night before now, and the cat is really interested in it.
Replacing the batteries will make it work right for a few weeks, then it starts playing up again.