Spot on pictures

[ngythanh]

I recently noticed that all photos I shot in Cambodia have a dark spot in the same area. I understand that this cannot be on the mirror, and during the trip around the dirty roads there I sometimes had to change lenses in the open air.
Please tell me where the piece of dirt maybe, and what to do with the Canon digital 10D. Do I have to seek professional service, or you could advise me to take care of it myself.

Thanks.

[whereami]

It may be worth checking your lens first. Look for small bits of anything that shouldn't be there. Also check filters for the same. I guess if you are changing lenses outside in a dusty environment then there could be something on the mirror or even worse on the sensor, in which case I would take it to a shop and have them deal with it. It would be interesting to see if anyone has any DIY tips!
Hope it all works out for you,

Dan.

[NgocSon]

I agree with Dan that most likely there is a piece of durst on your sensor.

I am not professional on these tasks, but I found some discussions in photo.net about such care, and they referred to http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning


Hope it helps.

[Darren]

I agree with the two previous posters. I get tons of dust on my sensor and have cleaned it a number of times. Other than the initial apprehension, cleaning the sensor as described in the link above is a three minute task. It happens, get used to cleaning it would be my best suggestion. Good luck.

[chabrenas]

Carry a compressed air can with you. With luck, you'll be able to blow off any dust before it gets more firmly attached - but don't touch lenses or sensors with the tube when you are blowing...

[thien]

There are two types of compressed air can and one of them will leave a residue on the sensor that will even be worst then with the dusts. You have to be carefull with this.

I am currently using <a href=http://www.visibledust.com/index.html>Visible Dust</a> product. The simplest one that I have found that works like a charm.

[erdna]

If it is a dark spot it must be dirt on the sensor. Dirts from lenses and filters just blur an area and does not show a dark spot. It is easy to remove dust but if the dirt has hardened on the sensor it is tedious repetitive action that took me an hour to clean, because you have to keep doing it againa and again till the gunk softens and get removed. I use Pec Pads and Eclipse solution which includes a spatula with the width similar to your Canon sensor. I bought these from a camera store. You can check it out in the internet. I read a thred about it here in TE or in TL recently.

[AdrianW]

I've tried this technique, and it worked well for me:
Petteri's Pixel Sweeper

Make sure you follow his instructions though. Total cost for me, around 3GBP - for a new artists brush and some deionised water :-)