Sensor Spots Canon Cannot Clean

[jacob_moyt]

<p>I purchased a new Canon 5D Mark II recently. I soon noticed debris and spots on my photos. I should have sent the camera right back to the dealer, instead I sent it to Canon thinking a simple camera cleaning would do the trick. ( A brand new camera should not have the debris and spotting that this camera had, but that is another issue. ) <br>

As of May 21st I have sent my camera to Canon three times. I still have spotting on my images. The last, 3rd, time I sent the camera in I talked directly with the Senior Executive Response Specialist at Canon and he said that this is wrong and the problem will be taken care of. I sent my camera along with a detailed letter and multiple files of my photos showing the spotting. I will be calling them on Monday and we will begin this game again.<br>

Usually the spotting can be seen when you really look at the image closely. The spotting becomes very noticeable when you begin to play with the contrast and brightness of the photo. The spotting really stands out with I run it through the Tonal Contrast filter in Nik Color EFX Pro 3.0. The spots are blurry and not crisp.<br>

In the past I have noticed that the spotting stays in the same place photo after photo.<br>

So far Canon has replaced my sensor and cleaned the high pass, or was it low pass?, filter. And I still have the spotting issue. <br>

My camera was purchased on Feb. 17th of 2011. I have asked Canon to swap my camera out with a new one and get this mess over with.<br>

Does anyone have a clue as to what these spots are and why Canon is not able to fix this?</p>

[William Kahn]

<p>Sounds like dust, but a couple of questions:</p>

<p>Are the spots still in the same place in the image now as they were with the original sensor?<br>

Do you shoot and change lenses frequently outdoors?<br>

Can you post a shot showing the spots (a 200-300% crop shot should do it)?</p>

<p>Dust on the sensor is actually pretty normal, and usually easily managed by using the clone or healing brush. If there's a lot of dust, cleaning is the only solution. Since your camera is still under warranty, keep working with Canon on a solution. After that, you can use a product like the Eclipse Type 3 sensor swab, which does an excellent job.</p>

<p>Just for info, I've had the same experience with Nik SilverEfex. Also, I suppose the 5D2's automatic sensor cleaning helps somewhat, but not nearly enough to keep the sensor completely dust free.</p>

[g dan mitchell]

<p>Post an example please. Unless we can see what you see, nothing we can say is more than a wild guess. With a sample to look at we may be able to say something about the cause and so forth.</p>

<p>Dan</p>

[bobatkins]

<p>You'll never get a sensor clean enough that no dust spots are visible if you look hard enough (lens stopped down, contrast enhanced) and even if you did, you'd have dust spots again the next day unless you operate inside a industrial clean room.</p>

<p>If they've changed the sensor and cleaned the LP filter there's not a lot more they can do. If the dust spots are always in exactly the same place, point that place out to them. However, if they clean that spot off, odds are you'll see something somewhere else if you look hard enough. If the position of the spot doesn't change, then you have an issue (maybe they didn't clean it well enough or maybe it's behind the LP filter).</p>

<p>There are only two placed the dust can be. Between the LP filter and the sensor is the worst place bacause you can't get to it to clean it. You'd have to take the camera apart. Dust on the surface of the LP filter is par for the course, but it's position should change after a cleaning, either beacuse it's been moved around or because that spot is gone, but another one has appeared.</p>

[john_macpherson]

<p>I have seen an issue where spots reappeared on the sensor after repeated cleaning and it was due to an excess of lubricant/or leakage of minute amounts of lubricant from a moving component in the mirror assembly.</p>

<p>Not saying this is the case here BUT if you have a series of images taken before/after EVERY Canon service and the marks are in the EXACT same place then I think you need to list these, with dates from the metadata and referenced to the dates of service, and then speak to someone senior in the Service Centre and point all this out to them.</p>