How to wet clean oil spots from sensor

[Just-Clayton]

My 300s did the same thing when I first got it. I was finally able to get the spots to stay away so far. I just kept cleaning and inspecting.

 

[Dave_W]

FYI - depositing fiber pieces on the sensor is why I do not use "Sensor Swabs", the same thing happened to me when using these swabs. That's why I use the V-Dust swabs. They're angled so you're less likely to scrape it against something on the inside and loosen fibers and it seems to clean the sensor a little better. The last observation is a little more subjective than the first one.

 

[NVSteve]

I go through 4 or 5 swabs every cleaning before the sensor is spotless. You can buy the pec pads pre-cut into the strips, or just buy the pec pads and cut them yourself. I bought the pads and used a large paper cutter to cut them to size. I only blow a few puffs of air before cleaning, then use the pads, then a few more puffs of air to remove any lint that might be there from the pads. I also picked up a sensor pen when I was having so many spots on the first camera body I had, and it works quite well. One of the cleaning guys out on the net said he only uses a sensor stamp to clean sensors. Not sure how well it works as I can't really seem to find any reviews outside of Amazon product reviews.

I just want to beat all of the various forum posters over the head-the ones who keep saying "all sensors get spots...not a big deal, just blow it off and you're good to go...super easy to fix in photoshop, etc." My current body is doing fairly okay. At least it is far better than my first one, but shooting from F11-F22 is pretty much out of the question unless my sensor had been cleaned seconds before. A couple of spots once in a while is one thing, but 15 or more at F16 is a bit much for me.

 

[Blade Canyon]

Just a reminder, you are not actually cleaning the sensor itself, just the low-pass filter that sits on top of the sensor. If things go wrong and you scratch it during cleaning, I suppose you could get the low-pass filter replaced (or simply removed, like the IR conversion companies do with the IR filter that is part of the same filter stack). The D800E has no low-pass filter, and this gives extra sharpness, though it increases the chance of moire and "false" color. (D800 has the low-pass filter.)

Here's a link to a picture of the sensor and filter stack being disassembled:

http://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/XRu3PELglKpWsdSc.huge

Or step 23 here, second photo:

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nikon+D600+Teardown/10708/3

My experience with the D600 is that spots appear in the upper left corner of pictures, but they go away just with a few rocket blasts of air, so I don't think they are oil. I haven't noticed them for awhile. I bought my D600 used with 6k actuations, and I now have over 23k actuations (many hours of timelapse shooting during a month in Wyoming).

 

[NVSteve]

Just a reminder, you are not actually cleaning the sensor itself, just the low-pass filter that sits on top of the sensor. If things go wrong and you scratch it during cleaning, I suppose you could get the low-pass filter replaced (or simply removed, like the IR conversion companies do with the IR filter that is part of the same filter stack).

One of the third party companies that specialize in removing low pass filters would probably be far, far cheaper than sending it to Nikon, who would then say the sensor needs to be replaced.

The D800E has no low-pass filter, and this gives extra sharpness, though it increases the chance of moire and "false" color. (D800 has the low-pass filter.)

The 800E does have the low pass, but there is also another filter that negates the low pass:

Nikon | Imaging Products | Nikon's original technology - Nikon D800/D800E

 

[hark]

I finally had the time to sit down and really try to clean everything off the sensor today, but unfortunately today is one of those days where nothing seems to be going right.

I had everything assembled on the table, but when I went to put the camera into Mirror Lock-Up, the option was greyed out. So I made all kinds of setting changes to see if that would make a difference. Manual Mode. Nope. Shutter Priority. Nope. I switched from Auto-focus to Manual focus. Nope. Tried the Quiet Mode. Nope. I changed all kinds of buttons, but nothing worked. The battery had more than a 50% charge left on it (actually looked to be @70%). I even put a lens on the camera, took a few pics (it worked fine), removed the lens, then tried to put it into Mirror Lock-Up again. Nope. Grrr....

So I got out David Busch's book on the D600 to see what he had to say about Mirror Lock-Up. According to him, the camera needs a battery with at least a 60% charge on it to enable Mirror Lock-Up. Mine looked to be @70% charged so I'm hoping that is the problem--the battery is being charged right now. Will let you know if that is the solution. Just hope this serves as a heads-up for others!

 

[hark]

Now that the battery is fully charged, I can enable the Mirror Lock-Up option. I'm just surprised because it looked like the battery icon displayed an over 60% charge remaining. Ah well.... I'll try cleaning the sensor on another day.

 

[Rick M]

At least you solved today's problem!

 

[hark]

*sigh* This has been futile. Today I spent time cleaning the sensor using Pec Pads attached to the Sensor Swab wands along with the Eclipse solution.

First I used the Rocket Blower to make sure no dust/dirt was on the sensor then I wet cleaned it with the moistened swab per the instructions in the video. Then I used the Rocket Blower a 2nd time and wet cleaned it again. A test photo followed--still didn't get the sensor cleaned completely. So I repeated the entire thing again (twice like I did the 1st time) and took another test photo. STILL didn't get it cleaned. Grrr...

So the third time I used the Rocket Blower then really scrubbed with yet another moistened Pec Pad and Eclipse solution then used the Rocket Blower again and wet cleaned the way it should be done. Another test shot ensued. Geeze.... STILL not clean. And I used a clean Pec Pad every time (6 total).

So I took 100 continuous high speed shots (well, I don't have a grip so 'continuous' meant 5 here then 3 shots, then 2, then a few more until I reached 110--I went as fast as the D600 would allow).

Here is a 100% crop of the upper right corner of the photo. Previously it was the upper left and lower right that showed the highest amount of spotting.




So my plan is to contact Nikon Customer Service and see about getting my D600 sent out. I also want to have them check the autofocus calibration along with how well it works when holding the shutter partway to autofocus before recomposing the shot. Somehow there is an autofocus issue. At first I was having a lot of front focus issues, then I took this shot--focused on my Australian Shepherd's eyes while holding the shutter partway before recomposing and taking the shot--this is a completely unedited photo shot at f/5.6.



This definitely looks like it back focused. I've never had this issue with my D90, my N90s, or my N70 (or my previous Minolta manual focus camera). Something is off somehow. It is time to contact Nikon.

 

[Fred Kingston_RIP]

Was this a brand new D600, or one of the recent Refurb'ed ones?

 

[hark]

Was this a brand new D600, or one of the recent Refurb'ed ones?

It was new back in mid-March so it's not quite 6 months yet. The spots started showing up after only a few hundred shutter actuations.