I'm new to this site, and I have a small problem...

[TopPop]

First of all, I want to say that this site seems great! What a wonderful resource.
So my problem is this:
I went out today with my Nikon D70 to take some pics for a couple of hours. Sometime throughout the day, I managed to pick up a small hair, which is quite visible in the photos. Only problem is that I have NO FRIGGIN CLUE where it is! :x It's not on the lens, because it shows up in the same spot for both of my lenses. Also I can't see it through the viewfinder. Can't find it on the mirror or the pick up area (I don't know what it's called... the thing that the mirror reflects onto).
And I don't know if this helps, but it is affected by changin the focus of the lens. What I mean is that I have different pictures with the hair in various states of sharpness.
Thank you in advance for any advice. I'd rather not take the camera into a shop, but I will if I have to.
Cheers,
Chris

 

[ksmattfish]

Hair and dust on/in the mirror or viewfinder do not affect the images.

It's probably not on/in the lens either. While hairs and dust in/on the lens can affect the image (often times they won't affect the image), it wouldn't show up as anything you'd recognize as a hair. I don't know much about DSLRs, but it would seem to me that it might be on the sensor.

Can you post an example?

 

[Hung Over Harry]

well, if it is visible on the photos then it isnt on the mirror or prism. the mirror lifts up and covers that to expose the chip that records the image.

so its probably on the chip but im not sure if youd be able to see it when you are focusing.

take it to a camera shop and let them look at it, or if youre feeling courageous:

lift the mirror up and CAREFULLY blow air on it to see if you can get rid of it. if you use canned air make sure you blow up into the camera, if you blow down you run the risk of the can's water dripping into it, VERY BAD! you may want a second opinion on this but thats what id do. just remember if you screw up the chip then youve ruined your camera. thats probably $600 to $700 to fix, so be VERY careful.

 

[SLOShooter]

I would guess that it's not on the sensor since TopPop mentioned that the image of the hair changes with the focus. That would lead me to believe that the hair is in front of one of the many lens elements. I guess I'd try cleaning the first and last elements and hope that gets rid of it, otherwise I'd geuss it's inside the barrel but that sounds highly improbable.

My diagnosis maybe way of here I'm just trying to think it through.

 

[Kent Frost]

Well, he said the hair is still there when he changes lenses. In the menu of your camera, there should be an option for SENSOR CLEANING.
What that option does is it will lift the mirror and open the shutter until you turn off the camera, that way you don't have to keep it open on BULB, leaving you the opportunity to accidentally release the button and close the shutter on whatever tool you would be using, thus damaging the shutter blades.

Once you get the Sensor Cleaning option turned on and the camera opens up, take an ear bulb, much like this:

...and gently blow air into the camera towards the sensor. DO NOT USE CANNED AIR, as the chemicals typically associated with them can put the equivilent of water dots on the sensor which will also show up on every picture.
If this doesn't fix your problem, go to a camera store to have them do it professionally.

 

[TopPop]

Can you post an example?

I have a couple of pics that I could post, but I am not (yet?) allowed to post attachments here. Is there another way that I could get some pictures up? I don't have a website, so that's out of the question.
Cheers,
Chris

 

[danalec99]

I have a couple of pics that I could post, but I am not (yet?) allowed to post attachments here. Is there another way that I could get some pictures up? I don't have a website, so that's out of the question.
Cheers,
Chris

What do you mean by you are not allowed to post pictures here?
BTW, You don't need a website to post pictures here. I post my pictures from fotki.com. Most people over here uses photobucket.com

Cheerio!

 

[Contra|Brett|]

you have to use another hosting site, or host them somewhere else, like a comcast ftp, or a site like photobucket.

once you do the whole "

"

 

[ksmattfish]

That would lead me to believe that the hair is in front of one of the many lens elements.

No normal lens can focus that closely to resolve clearly something as small as a hair on or in the lens.

This can be demonstrated by taking your camera and shooting a pic through a fence or glass with wire in it. Put the lens right up to the glass/fence, and even though you can see with your own eyes that the wires are in front of the lens, they won't show up in the pics except possibly as areas of lower contrast.

Back before modern lens making techniques it was common to have air bubble in the lens glass. Several of the older lenses I use have bubbles, but they don't affect the images, because they are way inside the lens' minimum focusing distance.

 

[Rob]

A possibly really silly question here, but..... Is this problem on prints you've got from the shop, rather than on the JPG images viewed on the computer? Can you see the problem on the LCD display on the camera?

A human hair on your CCD sensor (which seems to match your description the best) under the mirror would be pretty damn huge in the picture and couldn't theoretically be in focus I guess. How big is the hair in the pictures?

Rob

 

[BernieSC]

if it was truely a hair when you shot the photo it has to be on the shutter plane. It is possible that the processor could have had a hair or dust in the neg carrier. The only way a hair or something that small could be seen is if somewhere along the way it blocked that microscopic part of the film from receiving light.

Thats why cinamotgraphers right after they finish filming a scene say, "check the gate" because if a hair should find its way right in front of the film plane it will show up dark on a postive print, now if it was on the neg or in front of the neg while being printed it would be white on the print. Its a microscopic light block.

 

[TopPop]

Okay, so I followed the directions in the manual (novel idea), and opened up the shutter. There was an ever-so-fine piece of dust (some sort of fiber) on the CCD. A few shots with an airbulb, shut the camera off, took a new pic... voila! Rien du tout! Perfectly clean!
Thanks for all of your advice, everyone!
Cheers,
Chris