What's wrong with my camera?

[JohnS.]

I think something is wrong with my camera sensor or lense.... I notice random spots when I shoot lighter objects. See picture below.

Does anyone know what could be wrong? I've taken my lense apart and lightly brushed / blew off everything. And I've cleaned the mirror on the camera too. What's going on? If you look towards the bottom, there are even more.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Appears to be dust on the sensor.

I say that, but my Nikon D7000 looked like that. Sent it to Nikon and they had to physically replace parts to fix it.

 

[JohnS.]

I think it's the lense. I took this open body:

Unless the spots only show up at certain points of focus.

 

[Big Mike]

I'd say that is almost certainly dust on the sensor. Part of owning a DSLR is having to clean the sensor from time to time.

The dust should show up with any lens, but it practically disappears when the DOF is shallow (large aperture). So to really test for it, shoot a test shot at F16 or F22.

Cleaning the sensor is a fairly simple procedure, but you may need to buy proper tools to get it done. It's been talked about many times before, just search for it.

 

[JohnS.]

Thanks. I will try that report back later.

 

[ricbkewl]

YouTube it keyword: sensor cleaning

 

[JohnS.]

Any idea how much said tools cost? Like a brush and sensor stamp?

It looks like I have a ton of dust on my sensor:

 

[JohnS.]

Well I took it to a local photo/video store and the guy ended up hooking me up with a free cleaning and firmware update!! I had called earlier this morning and asked if he was available to do a quick walk-in/walk-out cleaning and he said stop by around 2. So I did and he thanked me for calling ahead and appreciated that I did so he let me walk out for free.