Beginner Camera Maintenance Help - Sony A77

Nicholas Allinson · Feb 16, 2015

Howdy Everyone! Quick background before explaining my scenario:
-I'm 19
-A physics college student
-I've been into photography for about a year now
-I like to travel and take alot of nature pictures
Okay, so here's my predicament. I have a Sony Alpha-77, and recently it got dust/marks on the covering of the sensor. It's happened once before, but this time I can't just blow it away. It WAS under warranty with Sony and the store said it could be repaired for free, but I had to contact Precision Camera Repair. I tried taking it to a lot of places around Houston (my hometown), and no one would do it. The only opinion I got from a guy was saying "We could pay him 3x the amount and he still wouldn't try it"...
I've been trying to contact precision camera for the last couple of months with NO help. The only information I managed to get out of them was that they would charge $200, and when asked about the warranty they went to 'check on it', then the line went dead.
I've read reviews and everyone says that they're basically bloody useless anyway. I've been without my camera for about 3 months now and its KILLING me...
I have a friend with a good amount of pull in a large Houston Camera Club who said he might be able to help, but I'm worried about damaging a camera I can't afford to replace right now.
What are my options?
What can I do?
Who should I send it to?
Thank you very much,
Nick

P.s. this might be in the wrong thread/location.. I apologise
I also uploaded a pretty typical photo of mine. I like natural light alot, so the black spots end up being pretty horrific to my eye when the sensor's dirty.

dxqcanada · Feb 16, 2015

Let me get this straight ... there are dust or marks on the sensor ? or on the translucent mirror in front of the sensor ?

Nicholas Allinson · Feb 16, 2015

dxqcanada said:
Let me get this straight ... there are dust or marks on the sensor ? or on the translucent mirror in front of the sensor ?

There's definitely marks on the mirror, there could be some on the actual sensor. I also assume it to be more than dust because using a blower does nothing.

dxqcanada · Feb 16, 2015

Show us an image with the marks on it.

Sony How to clean and maintain your camera and lenses

Clean SLT mirror like you would the sensor - Dyxum - Page 2

Nicholas Allinson · Feb 16, 2015

dxqcanada said:
Show us an image with the marks on it.

Sony How to clean and maintain your camera and lenses

Clean SLT mirror like you would the sensor - Dyxum - Page 2

The mark is just down and left from the sun, this is from before it got bad. Now there's about 3-4 marks and a tad more solid black than this. Unfortunately, I have no recent pictures from it loaded.

unpopular · Feb 16, 2015

What have you done yourself so far in trying to clean it?

Also, do you or anyone else know if this is a pellicle or traditional glass beam splitter? If it's glass, it *should* take a bit of air pressure. If it's a pellicle, I understand why nobody would want to touch it.

Nicholas Allinson · Feb 16, 2015

unpopular said:
What have you done yourself so far in trying to clean it?

I have tried using a blower, it worked the first time, then about 6 months later the problem returned. (where I'm at now)
I've used a blower, compressed air (made the situation worse) and a microfiber cloth very lightly. Nothing has yielded any results, except for negative ones.

unpopular · Feb 16, 2015

What kind of compressed air? Like a manual blower, or something more substantial?

Can you take it into one of your professors for advise? Certainly they have delicate optical equipment that needs to be cleaned?

dxqcanada · Feb 16, 2015

It looks like the particles are on the low-pass filter in front of the sensor ... not the mirror.

You will need to flip the translucent mirror up out of the way then blow off whatever it is on the filter ... as noted in the first link in my previous post.

Fox_Racing_Guy · Feb 16, 2015

This is not a warranty issue, cleaning your camera is a maintenance issue.
Start here http://pdf.crse.com/manuals/4291132131.pdf
Starting on page 200 is the procedure for cleaning the sensor. If you used a garage compressor like the kind for running air tools, inflating tires and such you might have done some damage.
If it requires a "wet" cleaning here is what I use.
Photographic Solutions Sensor Swabs 2 12 Pack SS2BOX
Photographic Solutions ECDCS Eclipse Cleaner ECDCS

This is the type of air blower you should be using.
Giottos Rocket Air Blaster Manual Air Blower 6.6in AA1910

This place in your town has a great reputation as well.
Professional Camera Repair - Houston Texas Sensor Cleaning Digital Camera Repair Film Camera Repair Medium and Large Format Camera Repairs

TCampbell · Feb 16, 2015

The dust is almost certainly on the sensor. This is because you cannot see "dust" unless it's located at a focus point and, for your camera, that focus point only exists on the sensor focal plane.

To test for dust, point the camera at a plain white ceiling or wall (or plain blue sky - but the key is you want to take a photo of something with no contrast at all... as plain as possible. It doesn't even matter if you focus the camera. But what DOES matter is that you set a very high f-stop. E.g. f/22 would be good.

At high f-stops, the light enters the camera from such a small concentrated point that the shadow created by the dust are quite pronounced and you see well-defined dust specs. If you use a low aperture, it's sort of light using broad lighting... the aperture is wide so light enters from so many directions that the dust doesn't have well-defined edges and it may wash out and be difficult to spot.

You'll need to follow Sony's instructions to lift the SLT mirror out of the way so you can get access to clean the sensor. Avoid touching the mirror (if you want to put on latex gloves as a precaution, that might not be a bad idea.)

Hand-squeezed air bulbs are safe because they won't spray any residue on your sensor. Cans of compressed air can be a bad idea because they use a liquid propellant and if the can isn't perfectly level, it can fog up the sensor with the residue of the propellent (and if that happens you have no choice but to "wet" clean the sensor because that residue won't evaporate.

If air won't clean the sensor, then I tend to want to look at it with a sensor scope just to know what I'm working with. Brushes can sometimes lift off what an air blower can't clear. If the brush (must be pristinely clean soft brush) does not work, then I use "wet" cleaning. My preferred solution is called "Eclipse" by Photographic Solutions. The same company makes "Sensor Swabs" and these come in various sizes. Eclipse is nearly pure methanol and it evaporates very quickly leaving no residue behind.

unpopular · Feb 16, 2015

Campbell and Dennis are absolutely correct. The dust must be on the sensor.

Nicholas Allinson · Feb 17, 2015

TCampbell said:
The dust is almost certainly on the sensor. This is because you cannot see "dust" unless it's located at a focus point and, for your camera, that focus point only exists on the sensor focal plane.

To test for dust, point the camera at a plain white ceiling or wall (or plain blue sky - but the key is you want to take a photo of something with no contrast at all... as plain as possible. It doesn't even matter if you focus the camera. But what DOES matter is that you set a very high f-stop. E.g. f/22 would be good.

At high f-stops, the light enters the camera from such a small concentrated point that the shadow created by the dust are quite pronounced and you see well-defined dust specs. If you use a low aperture, it's sort of light using broad lighting... the aperture is wide so light enters from so many directions that the dust doesn't have well-defined edges and it may wash out and be difficult to spot.

You'll need to follow Sony's instructions to lift the SLT mirror out of the way so you can get access to clean the sensor. Avoid touching the mirror (if you want to put on latex gloves as a precaution, that might not be a bad idea.)

Hand-squeezed air bulbs are safe because they won't spray any residue on your sensor. Cans of compressed air can be a bad idea because they use a liquid propellant and if the can isn't perfectly level, it can fog up the sensor with the residue of the propellent (and if that happens you have no choice but to "wet" clean the sensor because that residue won't evaporate.

If air won't clean the sensor, then I tend to want to look at it with a sensor scope just to know what I'm working with. Brushes can sometimes lift off what an air blower can't clear. If the brush (must be pristinely clean soft brush) does not work, then I use "wet" cleaning. My preferred solution is called "Eclipse" by Photographic Solutions. The same company makes "Sensor Swabs" and these come in various sizes. Eclipse is nearly pure methanol and it evaporates very quickly leaving no residue behind.

Absolutely fantastic reply! Thank you! I've done this test before, focusing it on my ceiling and that was when the spots showed up the most. It seems like that this is something quite easily figured out on my own. I just wanted to ask for advice before I went further and possibly damaged something I'm still new with.
Thanks again!

dennybeall · Feb 17, 2015

Cleaning the sensor is a scary and delicate operation but one that can be done slowly and carefully using the correct tools.
I had the same symptoms in a Nikon D80. The smudges looked very similar. Bought the kit, went very slowly and carefully and the spots went away.