Spots on my digital images

Nikon D200, shot in raw. i had blown out the dust with a blower and wiped down the sensor with sensor fluid and a squeegie i also used a

different lens and got the same spots. so its not the lens. i made this image by de-focusing my camera on a relatively neutral subject with

an exposure of about 10 seconds at about f-20. then i squeezed the levels in photoshop.

its not really the biggest issue, but i'm wondering if this kind of thing is typical, and if a professional cleaning can do anything about it.

thanks<div></div>

It surely looks like dust or debris on the sensor, Try cleaning the sensor again and see if the spots are in the same places or are gone.

Seth -

 

It took me 4 tries my first time cleaning my D200 sensor to get it clean. Agree with JDM, it sure still looks like junk left on it from your example. I can proudly say it now only takes me two tries to get the sensor clean. Remember, don't reuse the swab; new passes on the sensor, new swabs ... entrapped debris is merely smeared around or possibly may scratch the unit. 5 or 6 spots, nice try, just keep at it :_)

 

Jim M.

Seth, if you don't go crazy with it, you can follow up an unsuccessful first cleaning with the following:

 

Prepare two sensor swabs. Get the first swab just a bit juicy (e.g. two drops, instead of one). Carefully mop it back and forth across the sensor, applying very little pressure. This should loosen/dissolve the gummiest debris. Then wet the second swab with the normal amount of fluid, and clean as you normally would.

 

Note: This should only be done after a normal cleaning fails. The normal cleaning would remove any dust, and anything remaining would be goo to be dissolved. If you skip the first cleaning, then you could end up mopping loose grit back and forth across the sensor, possibly scratching it.

 

One more tip: Stack your test images by pasting them into layers. Then you can show/hide layers to see what each cleaning did. That makes it easier to see whether a blob disappears, appears, moves, or partially dissolves (gets smaller).