Stain on my image

My Nikon D7100 is less than a year of purchase now. After 6 months of use I started noticing a spot on images. I thought it was on my lens. But as I changed lenses it followed through. After a time the stain increased in size and later became two close to the first one. I cleaned up my lenses and even the camera mirror with my cleaning kit to no avail. Where else can these stains locate inside the camera? Someone please help.

Welcome,the chances are you have something on your sensor but some sample images would help,dont worry if you have its part of the digital SLR world.

Dollars to donuts you need to clean your sensor. How to Wet Clean Your DSLR Sensor.

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Sanctus said:

My Nikon D7100 is less than a year of purchase now. After 6 months of use I started noticing a spot on images. I thought it was on my lens. But as I changed lenses it followed through. After a time the stain increased in size and later became two close to the first one. I cleaned up my lenses and even the camera mirror with my cleaning kit to no avail. Where else can these stains locate inside the camera? Someone please help.

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Ok.. calm down.. don't panic - it's probably dust on your sensor and it's a very common problem with modern DSLRs. In the days of film, every new image is a new "sensor" - ie you have new film surface when you advance your film. With digital SLR, you sensor stay put and you will eventually get dust on that sensor. When you change lens, if you have dust on your rear lens cap, if you have dust on your mirror, that dust will eventually get on your sensor! (Remember every time you take a picture, your mirror flaps up and down and stir up the air inside that mirror chamber and any dust on the mirror or rear of your lens will get dislodged and end up on your sensor!)

So, like every ones has already pointed out, you can send you camera to a camera shop for sensor cleaning (our shop charge $60 for sensor cleaning) or you can buy a sensor cleaning kit and try to do it yourself.

Here's the best way to determine if you have dust on your sensor - on a bright blue sky, take a few shots with the smallest aperture you can get - like f22. Look at all the images - any dust spots will show up as little grey blobs and will always be on the same position on the image.

fyi, dust spots on lens do NOT show up in images - your lens cannot focus on spots on the lens itself.

Please where is your studio located, I will be shipping from New Jersey.

Very informative. I've seen a ton of people ask about wet cleaning but never looked into it. I'm at that point that I need to do it. So as i'm sitting here, I decided to have a look at my sensor. The option to lock up mirror is grayed out and says not available with current settings? What settings on my D90 are they referring?

How well charged is the battery? The option will not be available if the battery is not charged to something like 80% of capacity or better.

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Ahhh. Yes the battery has only one bar. Thank You.

Well, I would lock the mirror up and use a rocket blower first to see if the dust comes free from the sensor before wet cleaning. He said he only cleaned the mirror. @FastGlass, I was going to say the same as Jake!

I am still expecting your contact address on where to ship my camera for sensor cleaning. Please respond. I have done everything I can with the cleaning kit I have, but the black spot remains. I need a quick help please.

Sanctus said:

I am still expecting your contact address on where to ship my camera for sensor cleaning. Please respond. I have done everything I can with the cleaning kit I have, but the black spot remains. I need a quick help please.

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I don't really think yauman was offering to take your camera in for cleaning, I think he was suggesting you look for someone local to do the job for you and giving you an idea what they will charge for the service. $60 is the going rate around here as well if that matters.

You don't mention what cleaning kit you have, or what you've tried to do but it sounds like you have two options at this point:

1. Get a wet cleaning kit for your camera and learn how to clean your sensor, or...
2. Take your camera to a local camera repair shop and pay to have it done for you.

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Thanks Mr Fish for the quick reply. I have asked around for some local help without success. While I expect someone to help me with a contact, I will order a better complete kit with a magnifying lens. What I had was a friend's kit. But I didn't think the kit was made for sensor cleaning. It was a kit that came together with a lens that he bought. I will try to order a better kit to see how it works. But that could take some time to come in.

Our store only do walk-in service. I'll ask them when I see the camera repair tech tomorrow if he takes in mail in service.
Here's our web site: www.seawood.com

We are in San Anselmo, a little town just north of San Francisco.

When I re-read your original post about a "growing" spot, it does not sound good. Usually dust spots on sensors don't grow - they usually move around or increase in number - ie more and more if you use your camera and change lens under not so ideal conditions. But if the same spot grows in size it may not be dust - it may be the dreaded fungus growth.

Interesting. Please educate me about this fungus.

I have not seen this in a Nikon yet but we have a couple of old Canons with that problem. In the shop we have a Canon 30D with that problem so we cannot sell it and I use it for testing use lenses and for show and tell in my DSLR class.

There is a very thin piece of glass over the sensor to protect it (so when you clean, you are really cleaning that piece of glass and not the sensor!) The glass is glued on with optical glue (optical glues are glue that's optically clear and with known index of reflection - all lens with multi-elements are assembled with this glue.) What happens is that if the glue is defective or if the glue job left air bubble there will be a gap. It's usually harmless but if moisture gets in and if you live in an environment where fungus can grow, a small spot will develop. After some time, that spot become bigger, usually not round, more like spidery. No amount of cleaning can get rid of it as it's not on the upper surface. The only cure is to replace the sensor assembly. (For that use 30D it was not worth it - occasionally we screw up and bought a bad used camera which cannot be re-solded!!! )

My understanding is that in some higher end cameras, that piece of glass which is also the anti-alias filter in some designs are not glued on but rather screwed on or spring-load latched on and thus can be removed for cleaning. (eg Canon 7D) The D7100 do not have an anti-alias filter so that glass over the sensor is just plain high quality optically clear glass and it's glued on.

Like I said, I have not seen a Nikon with that problem yet, so I'm just speculating. If I were you, I'll send it back to Nikon to have them clean it. The process is very simple and safe. Go to their support website, fill out the form; they'll send you a pdf file to print out the shipping label and that's it. Takes about 1 week to 10 days turnaround.

Hope this helps.

yauman said:

Our store only do walk-in service. I'll ask them when I see the camera repair tech tomorrow if he takes in mail in service.
Here's our web site: www.seawood.com

We are in San Anselmo, a little town just north of San Francisco.

When I re-read your original post about a "growing" spot, it does not sound good. Usually dust spots on sensors don't grow - they usually move around or increase in number - ie more and more if you use your camera and change lens under not so ideal conditions. But if the same spot grows in size it may not be dust - it may be the dreaded fungus growth.

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Looks like the OP is in Nigeria so he really needs to finds someone there to do this. Shipping to the US would cost a fortune.

Where in NJ are you? There are shops all over the place that will do it, including Adorama in the Elizabeth area.

Yes I am in Nigeria but I buy all my equipment from US through a contact in NJ. Shipping to him wouldn't be a problem. My contact leaves at carteret in NJ and has actually requested to know where the shop is. So if you can help that will be fine.

If he's in Carteret, have him contact Adorama Camera. They have a facility in Elizabeth which is pretty close (how close depends on NJ traffic). I don't believe it's retail, but they do their repairs and inspections there so he may be able to arrange to drop it off for a cleaning and either wait or pick it up later.

Thanks so much for this information.