problem with digital camera?

garveyj · Addict Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 877 City: Savage, MN

Take a look at the picture below. There is a black mark in the top right corner that comes up on all of my pictures. I think it is something in the camera itself because no matter what lense I use it still comes up. Is it something that I can just get cleaned, or something more severe. If it only needs to be cleaned, can I just do it myself?

Thanks

P.S. I have a Nikon D100

jvanick · Posted: Dec 22, 2004 8:23 am Post subject:

maybe dust or a hair on the mirror inside... you should be able to look into the camera and see it... remember that the area of the mirror you should be looking at is reversed.

technically you should take the camera to a professional for cleaning, but you could you a can of air to try to blow off the mirror if it's just dust or a hair or something. You may need to use the lock up function to get access to behind the mirror if it's way in the back.

-J

Nephilim · Addict Joined: 09 Apr 2003 Posts: 658 City: Ephrata, WA

it cant be on the mirror if it shows up ni the picture. Because if their is something on the mirror it wont show up in the picture because when you take a picture the mirror flips up so the light can hit the sensor.

Its either on the sensor or on the lens that part that atatches to the camera. Try dusting off that part of the lens or try cleaning your sensor.

pyrocasto · Posted: Dec 22, 2004 10:09 am Post subject:

Since you said it's on all your lenses then clean your sensor off with a little air. You should be able to see it on there.

Mike Isler · Moderator Joined: 11 Jan 2003 Posts: 718 City: New York

garveyj, it's a piece of lint or dust on your sensor. You can get debris on the sensor if you change lenses in an unclean environment or leave a lens off the camera for a period of time.

There's no permanent damage, but you need to clean the CCD. To properly do this with the Nikon D100, you need the AC Adapter for it, then you can activate the cleaning mode through the menus. This will flip the mirror up and open the shutter without charging the CCD, making it easier to clean.

Do some web searches for CCD cleaning, and you'll have some information to work with.

Best,

Mike

garveyj · Addict Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 877 City: Savage, MN

Thanks alot everyone - it was just a piece of lint that I could blow out without the power source. I just set it to the longest shutter speed and hit the trigger to open it up and could see that lint clear as day. I took some compressed air and gently blew it out of the camera.

thanks again for all your help...I sure am glad it is not something with the CCD going bad.

RD · Addict Joined: 22 Apr 2003 Posts: 626 City: Discovery Bay

Be careful with compressed air as it will sometimes leave oily spots that are way worse than lint as far as removal goes. I use Eclipse, pec pads or sensor swabs and the following guide:

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

A lot of the time you can just blow it out with a rocket blower. Test your sensor by taking a picture of the sky at f16. If you've got spots they'll really show up there. Sending your camera into the mfg has varying results, I don't know how Nikon does but my 1D came back twice as dirty as I sent it in to Canon.