Oil? spots on sensor

Mike Adams

Senior Member
My D500 is only a few weeks old and I have multiple spots showing up. All my shooting is in a microscope facility with filtered air, the camera is mounted on a copy stand facing down, so I find it hard to see how dust could accumulate so fast. My local dealer looked at it and thought they looked like oil spots, rather than dust. Has anyone seen or heard of a similar problem?
 

Mike Adams

Senior Member
Since I am focus stacking, the spots show up as streaks radiating from the center. Here two in the top right are obvious. sage.jpg
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
This has been a problem for some time on many different Nikon models. Do a goggle for "nikon oil spots on sensor"

No there hasn't. There was one model with this issue. ONE!! God, please stop the nonsense.

The curve in the lines tells me it's not something on the sensor. Would need to see the complete setup, but I suspect it's something in front of the sensor, not on it.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
I don't think wet cleaning will void a warranty... and certainly won't take the 2 or 3 weeks Nikon has the camera...

At the very least, a good sensor scope is only a couple dollars and should give you a clue as to what is ON the sensor... I assume you used a blower like the Giotto rocket to see if whatever it is can be blown off the sensor?
 
I don't think wet cleaning will void a warranty... and certainly won't take the 2 or 3 weeks Nikon has the camera...

At the very least, a good sensor scope is only a couple dollars and should give you a clue as to what is ON the sensor... I assume you used a blower like the Giotto rocket to see if whatever it is can be blown off the sensor?


Rocket blower first. Many people here use the Sensor Gel Stick for cleaning and it is very easy and safe.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
My local dealer looked at it and thought they looked like oil spots, rather than dust.

The curve in the lines tells me it's not something on the sensor. Would need to see the complete setup, but I suspect it's something in front of the sensor, not on it.

Oil spots and dust spots do look different from one another (had both problems with my D600). These marks don't look like either one, and as Jake mentioned, it may not even be on the sensor.

Do you keep your lens and body caps fastened together while the lens is mounted on the camera? If not, they can collect dust and debris which can then transfer to inside the camera's body. I fasten mine together then place them in a baggie or ziplock bag. I didn't used to do it that way, but once my D600 had so many repeat problems, I now do it that way.

I have this loupe which works well and allows you to see spots on the sensor. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0091SS310/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 

Mike Adams

Senior Member
Since the D500 has nothing else in front of the sensor it would seem that the problem must either be on the sensor, or in the lens, but exchanging lenses does not help. Given the location and set-up, I find it hard to believe that dust is a likely culprit, and blowing has no effect. I gather no-one else has had a similar problem with their D500, so I may have to just contact Nikon.
One factor that I have not mentioned. I am doing longterm focus stacking, which means up to 2000 shutter releases in a row, with the accompanying mirror movement. Whether this would enhance the likelyhood of a problem I don't know.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Since the D500 has nothing else in front of the sensor it would seem that the problem must either be on the sensor, or in the lens, but exchanging lenses does not help. Given the location and set-up, I find it hard to believe that dust is a likely culprit, and blowing has no effect. I gather no-one else has had a similar problem with their D500, so I may have to just contact Nikon.
One factor that I have not mentioned. I am doing longterm focus stacking, which means up to 2000 shutter releases in a row, with the accompanying mirror movement. Whether this would enhance the likelyhood of a problem I don't know.
To check for sensor dust/oil spots you can run a simple test. Using Aperture Priority mode, Matrix metering, ISO 100 and the smallest aperture the lens will allow (e.g. f/22), point your camera at a clean white surface, like a sheet of blank copy paper or a white painted wall. You want to fill the entire viewfinder, corner to corner, with this white paper, wall, whatever. You can also aim it a clear blue sky if that's easier. Once everything is set, take a shot. Open the file on your computer and review it at 100%. Scan it from corner to corner looking for dark spots. If you have Adobe Photoshop there is a function in Adobe Camera Raw called "Visualize Spots" (Spot Removal Tool) that will make this easy. Lightroom might have a similar tool but I don't use Lightroom so I wouldn't know.

I'd be happy to look at your test shot as well, if you want, but I'd like to be able to see a full-size, JPG (meaning it was shot with JPG settings of "Large/Fine") straight out of the camera, or a RAW file; either will require uploading the image file to Dropbox since the forums won't allow you to upload file that large.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
It would be cool to see a full res version of the entire frame. All of the spots "move" in a similar arch shape, and as focus changes would expect them to arc along a similar pattern with reference to the center of the sensor. In a high res version of the shot if you were to draw lines from the start and stop points of the movement then, if it is on the sensor, the lines should intersect at the center of the sensor.

All that said, when you focus stack you almost never shoot at small apertures (the entire point of focus stacking). It is only at these small apertures that you would actually see sensor spots, so I'm more than convinced that this is something that's not on the sensor itself but either in the lens or somewhere else.
 

Mike Adams

Senior Member
To check for sensor dust/oil spots you can run a simple test. Using Aperture Priority mode, Matrix metering, ISO 100 and the smallest aperture the lens will allow (e.g. f/22), point your camera at a clean white surface, like a sheet of blank copy paper or a white painted wall. You want to fill the entire viewfinder, corner to corner, with this white paper, wall, whatever. You can also aim it a clear blue sky if that's easier. Once everything is set, take a shot. Open the file on your computer and review it at 100%. Scan it from corner to corner looking for dark spots. If you have Adobe Photoshop there is a function in Adobe Camera Raw called "Visualize Spots" (Spot Removal Tool) that will make this easy. Lightroom might have a similar tool but I don't use Lightroom so I wouldn't know.

I'd be happy to look at your test shot as well, if you want, but I'd like to be able to see a full-size, JPG (meaning it was shot with JPG settings of "Large/Fine") straight out of the camera, or a RAW file; either will require uploading the image file to Dropbox since the forums won't allow you to upload file that large.

Many thanks. I won't be able to do anything until next week, but will send you a file.
 

Leif

Senior Member
No there hasn't. There was one model with this issue. ONE!! God, please stop the nonsense.

The curve in the lines tells me it's not something on the sensor. Would need to see the complete setup, but I suspect it's something in front of the sensor, not on it.

Those could be small pieces of lint, or some other hair like substance. You want to check the rear element of the lens is clean (I doubt that is the issue, I'd not expect it to be in focus), and as someone said, use a rocket blower on the sensor, but make sure it's a clean one, mine deposited dust on my sensor, it'd previously been used to shift dust from a dusty surface! Could someone have changed a lens when dust was around?
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
This is a small portion of a test shot... Most of the spotting is near the top right
That tiny little jpg is no good for this sort of thing; that's why I said I'd like to see a full-size, JPG (meaning it was shot with JPG settings of "Large/Fine") straight out of the camera, or a RAW file.
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
When I do this test, I try to get a long exposure of a wall AND make certain that I move the camera while the shutter is open. This is to avoid getting a dirt spot on the wall showing up as dust on the sensor. Also you could use manual focus to infinity so that the object serving as a target is completely out of focus.

This is how I do it. Some of you might have different ways to test for this.
 

davedl

New member
I also had lubrication spots on my new D500 sensor. They showed up after a few weeks of use. I live within 2 miles of the Nikon service center in LA so two weeks ago Monday morning I dropped off the camera for a sensor cleaning and had it back by Wednesday. Haven' t had any trouble with spots since. Whether your problem is caused by lubrication spots or not I can't tell but it would not hurt to send the camera to your nearest Nikon service center for a sensor cleaning. If that does not fix your problem than at least you know its caused by something else. Not sure why a previous poster is so certain this can't possibly happen with any camera other than the D600. I am not saying it's a common problem to D500 cameras, only that it happened to me.
 
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