Marks on sensor of Nikon D200

Hi all,

I am brand new to the world of Digital SLR. My dad kindly gave me his old Nikon D200 as he has upgraded to a D300. He mentioned there was some dust on the sensor and after looking around the net someone mentioned taking a shot of something white with a low aperture. I have attached a picture of the result. Should I be concerned about the longer marks on the right hand side of the image? They look worse than just dust to me, but I am a novice so will bow to the knowledge of the community on this!

What is my best course of action for getting rid of these marks? Should I take it to a pro shop?

Many thanks in advance for any help.

Jamie.

well,, yes, a pro shop will charge around 100 dollars for a clean, or you could buy an artic buterfly brush yourself, Pretty large pieces of dust, so, you should clean it. Sometimes a blast of air will work, but dust will still be inside.

Since you got the camera free, why not invest in a cleaning?

thanks for the reply stmv, do you not think I should worry about the sensor being damaged? Just that long line on the right made me think it may be more than just dust.

I agree a cleaning would be the best way forward, what should I use to give it a blast of air? I'm assuming a hair dryer on cold wont be gentle enough?

unless someone took a cloth to it,, image sensors are fairly tough, so,, maybe just a hair? get a spot ligh on it, with a magnifier glass for a look, before investing,

or tell the shop to check it out before cleaning,, to not spend the money if you don't think so.

You are not touching the image sensor itself you're cleaning the filter covering the sensor. Get a rocket blower to try first
and use the mirror up feature and blow it off and I'll bet most on the spots will be gone.

Some reading
Cleaning sensors by Thom Hogan

Thanks for the replies everyone, I will try that out before investing.