Is problem with oil spots gone?

Hello,

so, it seems that this will be my first post on Nikonites

Actually, I want to make me happy with one FF camera. In this moment I am happy owner of one Canon 550D, but I am thinking about D600, as well as Canon 6D. My favorite is Nikon in this moment, but the biggest concern are those oil spots on sensor. Is this issue solved, or actual cameras still suffer of this problem. I spoke with guy in local (Stuttgart, Germany) store, and he told that the issue is behind, but as far as I understand threads in this forum, it is not so.

Do you folks have some advice.

Regards
Mostar

I had this problem when I first bought the D600 about a month ago. Not as bad as some but still there. I would clean the sensor every 300 shots or so and now after 1800 shots it has not reappeared. The pictures that this camera takes is well worth the small issue I had at first.

I didn't think the D600 had problems with oil spots...I believe they had a dust problem that Nikon has addressed...

Just to be clear, the spots are not oil, but dust (or possibly internal debris from the old shutter mechanism) that sticks to oil on the sensor and does not blow off like other dust.

Given that Nikon has (sort of) acknowledged the issue and is replacing faulty shutter mechanisms on cameras sent in, one would hope that new production cameras have the corrected shutters. How many of these are in the marketplace unsold is an unknown, but I suspect they are out there to be purchased. I've shot about 500 shots since getting mine back from Nikon and have not seen a return of the issue (my first spots appeared the first day at about 150 shots), so I hold out hope. It's a great camera, and I actually will use it ahead of my D800 for everything outside of birding and special projects where I know that I may want the additional resolution for printing. The idea that you might need to send a newly purchased camera back to Nikon for a replaced shutter so quickly (a 3 week process currently, I am hearing) can be disconcerting. So while I do not blame anyone from shying away from the investment I would say that on the back end of the repair it's well worth it - especially if you have something else to shoot with while it's at Nikon (i.e. don't sell you're old camera too quickly).

Hi,

New batches of D600 are free of dust problem. Nikon did acknowledged & made some improvement. And if dust occurs, it's not a big deal, dust is part of photography since film days, just clean it like what other DSLR....my D600 now at 4K clicks and still clean as it was bought. You will never regret of having this fantastic camera, it will never let you down.

Cheers!

BackdoorHippie said:

Just to be clear, the spots are not oil, but dust (or possibly internal debris from the old shutter mechanism) that sticks to oil on the sensor and does not blow off like other dust.

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That's correct but it is an oil issue as that oil (lubricant) isn't suppose to be on the sensor.

I've only had dust on my D600, some may have had oil issues, but sometimes the problem is mis-diagnosed since dust appears to look like a "spot".

jwstl said:

That's correct but it is an oil issue as that oil (lubricant) isn't suppose to be on the sensor.

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Agreed. Just want people to understand the full extent of the issue - that there is oil, and there is excess "stuff" that seems to be generated from the shutter mechanism itself. Hence "dust" that appears in a camera that has never had the lens removed.

I can only go by my own experience and some of these "dust" spots were quite stubborn. In one case it took me at least 4 wet swabs to clean it off. Perhaps my cleaning technique is not as good as it could be but still these were some super dust debris.

In any case proper care and a bit of tenacity won the day. I do love this camera and still get amazed at some of the pictures it produces I just purchased a second strobe and the photos are so clear I had to clean the dust off the subject I was shooting.

I've had two D600s now and they both have the dust issue, but neither of them have had an oil issue. I will be exchanging it again in about two weeks, I am really hoping the newst models have improved internals so this stops happening.

You can't be sure that where you are returning it to does not still have older inventory. If you keep cleaning it will eventually go away.

I agree, but I also feel like Nikon will have to deal with two cameras that I return and I'll end up with a brand new camera again. I'm love my camera, but I'm fairly disgusted that Nikon is still having issues this far into the product cycle.

VectorZ said:

I've had two D600s now and they both have the dust issue, but neither of them have had an oil issue. I will be exchanging it again in about two weeks, I am really hoping the newst models have improved internals so this stops happening.

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Dust issue? I WISH I only had to deal with dust. Body #2 went into the light today for the first time since getting it. I only have about 1600 shots on it & I have not cleaned it since day one. Lots of spots, although I only checked at f16. My previous body had a massive amount of spots clearly visible even at f5.6.

As to blowing out the dust, which I do not have, this is what I use:



At first, even the gigantic sized rocket blowers would do nothing, so I've had to invest a substantial amount in cleaning products.

This is after trying to blow everything out:



4 wet swabs later:



I'll start keeping an eye on it from now on. My previous body would have a ton of spots after 10 shots, so I really hope this one won't be as bad. Looks like I'll be bringing along all my cleaning gear for the next couple of vacations.

Lol, after cleaning mine today I found some spots woundn't go away because the spots were in the white paper I was using for my test shots

Why can't I make my signature smaller? I don't have that big of an ego.

I changed from a Canon 550D to a Nikon D600. Actually added it. Mine does have the spots but seems better than some others (I don't have the the upper left corner issue, it's more even throughout the frame).

The only thing keeping me from selling the Canon 550D is Live View. Except only having x5 and x10 enlargement (the D600 has many sizes of enlargements), it is just better than the Live View on the D600. The two issues are that the D600 Live View gets much more noisy at anything without great light and that at a high enlargement the D600 will "stutter" if the camera or the subject are moving.