dirt IN my lens - oh no

440Hz

Hi all,

I need advice, big time!

I have my 350D for about two weeks now, got the 17-85mm lens with it. I have been taking lots of pics but not really looking at any of the results seriously, just playing with it at the moment to get a feel for it.

This morning I was taking a shot of a wonderfully clear sky when I noticed this little spec in my sky! After closer inspection it appears that this spec is INSIDE the lens. My brand new lens. :Eek:

Any advice? I bought my camera online from Germany so I can't really 'bring it back'

HELP!!

rabbitinlights

Can you see the dirt in the lense? are you sure its not on the sensor? Do you have another lense to make sure its not the sensor?

Not too sure where you would stand about returning it. the lense are ment to be sealed.

S.

Carrigman

It's highly unlikely that it is inside the lens. If you can see it through the viewfinder then it's almost certainly a speck of dirt on the pentaprism mirror and is nothing to worry about. It will not affect the finished photo. You can easily remove it using a Q-Tip. If on the other hand it's only noticeable on the photograph then it's just sensor dust. That requires specialist technique to remove it. DO NOT try using a Q-Tip for that! You can live with it and simply clone it out at the post processing stage.

440Hz

It actually worse than I thought. The lens is fine. When I posted yesterday I hadnt had the chance to remove the lens and see cos I was outside. When I got home and checked it was dirt on the mirror. The camera is only 10 days old so this was really annoying. I didnt have a cleaning kit so I took myself into town to buy one and brought the camera with me just to get some advice on this mysterious dirt.
The guy in the camera shop gave it a quick clean and sent me off, I was happy. Until I got home and checked it only to find it is EVEN MORE dusty now. It was a Canon dealer so they SHOULD have known what they were doing. Now Im stuck with a 10day old dusty camera. Given that the dust was there to start with I think I might contact Canon or the shop that I bought it in. I should not have received it with dust in the first place, right?

rabbitinlights

A similar thing happened to me, I spoted a bit of dust on my mirror and tried to clean it with a Q-Tip, when I looked through it again after, it looked like a cat had shed its fur all over the inside of my camera (dont use cheap normal Q-tips)! my girlfriend gave me some micro tissue (Very very thin lint-free paper) and a blower thingy with a brush on the end and it was clean after about 20 mins of me being very carefull. Just have a white wall to look at through the body while there is no lense on the camera. I also found using a bend in a Q-tip covered in the tissue helped to get the corners.

Good luck.

Carrigman

440Hz wrote:

It actually worse than I thought. The lens is fine.

So how could it be worse? Don't worry. With a little bit of painstaking care you will be able to remove the gunge from the mirror. Dust happens. It's part and parcel of digital SLRs. And yes, it is not uncommon to find it on brand new cameras. It will not affect the image quality of your photographs and that is the main thing. What you will find over time is that dust will gather on your sensor
as well (there may be some there already) and at some stage you will have to get it cleaned as it will most definitley affect the image quality. Relax. You have an excellent camera. Enjoy it and don't get het up over a little bit of dust.

heffsarmy

Its well known that dust is a problem for digital cameras, you should invest in a cleaning system for the sensor, sending it back to canon every couple of months will cost you a fortune...I use the copperhills method, very easy to use and works great, here is a link to there site.

http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning

440Hz

Yeah the censor cleaning kit in town is €100. I dont mind buying that and spending time on it, but Im disgusted that I have to do it after 10 days, having spent that much moeny on the camera to start with

peckerhead

That's dust, the way it goes...

440Hz

Contacted Canon anyway just to log the fact that it was delivered like this day one in case there are any problems down the line. They were very good about it, said I can either send it back to Germany, or send it to be cleaned by Canon in the UK. They were of the opinion that it should have been perfect out of the box, and that perhaps I was sent a model that had been on display, with frequency lens changing or something. So... off to the UK with it I suppose.. if they are going to do that free of charge I may as well get it right from the start?

440Hz

So I eventually got the chance to download the images from the camera (work week from hell) and it turns out that the sensor is filthy too. canon in germany decided not to replace the camera but apparently they have changed their minds and now say that it CAN be cleaned in Ireland, so I DHL'ed it off to Dublin this morning, to some crowd called Image Supply Systems, anyone know these guys? Fingers crossed and hoping for the best...

Dimy

440Hz wrote:

So I eventually got the chance to download the images from the camera (work week from hell) and it turns out that the sensor is filthy too. canon in germany decided not to replace the camera but apparently they have changed their minds and now say that it CAN be cleaned in Ireland, so I DHL'ed it off to Dublin this morning, to some crowd called Image Supply Systems, anyone know these guys? Fingers crossed and hoping for the best...

I think I read in another thread that what ISS does is basicly the same as you can do yourself with the copper hill cleaning kit as sugeested above. But they charge you 50 euro or so for it. The cleaning kit costs you about the same but you can use it many many times. I ordered my kit last week as I have some dirt on my 350d sensor as well, but still awaiting delivery.

Good luck with it anyway.

440Hz

Thanks Dimy. I dont mind paying for the cleaning kit, in fact im going to order one this week. This clean is on Canon though as the camera came out of the box looking like someone had blown a hoover bag full of dust into it. Boo

rymus

dont spend 100 quid on a cleaning kit, get the copper hill kit for around half that from one of the european distributors (i posted the link in another thread recently). Are canon paying for your courier charges too? Cameras regularly come out of the box brand new with dust on the sensor. Image supply systems use a method identical to copper hill; hell it probably even is a copper hill kit they use.

440Hz

rymus wrote:

dont spend 100 quid on a cleaning kit, get the copper hill kit for around half that from one of the european distributors (i posted the link in another thread recently). Are canon paying for your courier charges too? Cameras regularly come out of the box brand new with dust on the sensor. Image supply systems use a method identical to copper hill; hell it probably even is a copper hill kit they use.

They said they will pay for all of it. I think the reason I sent if off was cos the camera is so new Im half scared of messing anything up by cleaning it myself. I know I have to learn sometime, but I kinda dont want to kill my camera in record time.

rymus

ahh the first time is the worst but after that it's a breeze. That reminds me, I must squeegee my sensor later