Post repair dust spots, dammit

OK, I may be a little ahead of myself, but as I was processing photos taken this morning I saw these ... after already cloning out one dust spot. I haven't stuck a blower in there to see if they disappear, but given that I had no spots 10 shots before this I'm about to put my head on my pillow in a minor fit of dispair (upper left corner). I'll keep ya posted...

Ugh that's terrible news. I wonder if it's even worth exchanging my camera for a third one.

Sorry to hear that, hopefully it's not like the first time around.

Thats got to be disappointing for you.

On the bright side, thats a great looking photo ( if you ignore the spots )

Bummer!
Every-time I change a lens, which is often, I give the camera a blow job without lifting the mirror.
I have not had a spec of dust in about 500 shots. It does not take more time to change the lens and if this is what is keeping it clean than I have no problem doing it.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure.
I absolutely love the photos you take and can't think of anyone I'd rather not see have the problem instead.
I really think that if you keep up the cleaning routine it too will pass.

I seriously thought the change of shutter mechanism would solve this issue. It's doing my head in as to why Nikon can't resolve this even after yours went back to them Jake. Get the blower out mate. Surely they will move he says with fingers and toes crossed.

I like this shot very much, BDH. I took the liberty of playing with it a little. Can you spot the differences.

fotojack said:

I like this shot very much, BDH. I took the liberty of playing with it a little. Can you spot the differences.

View attachment 31994

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There is a woman taking a shower in the third window down on the right? She was covered with dust and needed a wet cleaning.

fotojack said:

I like this shot very much, BDH. I took the liberty of playing with it a little. Can you spot the differences.

View attachment 31994

Click to expand...

It looks much better without the truck and pole.

fotojack said:

I like this shot very much, BDH. I took the liberty of playing with it a little. Can you spot the differences.

View attachment 31994

Click to expand...

It's actually about 1/2 way done editing. I moved it into Color Efex and the last filter active was Detail Extractor and BOOM the spot details were obviously extracted. I got so frustrated that I exported it and posted and shut down for the night.

I'm suspecting, and hoping, that when I open the camera up and blow it out this morning before taking a walk that the spots will disappear. The camera has been through nearly 1000 actuations and at least half a dozen lens changes, so getting a little dust in there isn't unexpected. I'm just hoping that's all it is.

Voila!!

Beautiful!! And your PS skills are magic

Do you use the blower whenever you change lenses? No need to raise the mirror. I truly believe that doing that has helped the dust problem I have had albeit smaller than yours.
If you refuse to even try that than I have no sympathy for you.

At home? Absolutely. Outside? It depends on where I am. Remember, when you blow dust out, new air comes in and could carry even more dust, so whether or not I do it will vary. Generally not.

Alas, even after blowing the sensor "clean" this is what I have - including an extremely dark particle on the bottom left which is visible even at f7.1. I'm not even going to bother wet cleaning, I'm calling Nikon. Color me disappointed.

Contacted Nikon and they requested images of the dust spots. The person on the phone said that once they get the images they'll forward me a prepaid shipping invoice "in a couple days". I told them that I'm hoping that it's a little sooner than that, and that since this is the camera's second trip that it won't enter at the bottom of the queue but that they'll expedite the service. We'll see what happens.

I'll keep ya posted.

One thing to point out, I spent most of Friday morning doing long exposures (a couple dozen at 13-20 seconds each), using Live View to do my framing so I wouldn't need to take off the plastic thing that covers the viewfinder. That's a lot of time with the mirror up. I never changed the lens during that time, but that's not to say that something wasn't in there to get on the sensor - and whatever it is it's not coming off now.

Jake, Where in NJ are you? My daughter goes to Drew University in Madison. I do get to make it out that way once in a while. Perhaps we can get together and we can do a side by side thing with my D600. It has to be more than just bad luck that is causing this to happen to you so much. Perhaps it is the way you shoot. Not that you are doing anything wrong. If anything I am the one who is doing or not doing something that causes me to have minimal problems with this issued.

Despite what I said in my last post "I can feel your pain".

Wish that there was something I could do. I just started using two flashes at the same time and the pics are so much better than my inexperience should allow. This camera by far takes the best pics than I can reasonably hope for.

One thing I've learned about Nikon's policy from hanging out with the Nikon reps is their tolerance for spots. They limit their tests to f-16 and then by how well you can see them at f-16. Although I doubt they will use this measure given all the bad PR surrounding the D600 and dust.

Also, given that the "dust" is coming from inside the camera's chamber, consider buying some of these Chamber Swabs (see HERE) or the sticky ones (can't find a link) and wipe down the chamber space. They're much cheaper than sensor swabs (why these are so expensive boggles the mind) and maybe a couple good scrubbing will end the cycle?...fingers crossed!

Makes me wonder if they just replaced the shutter mechanism with one from the original batch. I'm holding out to about the last two months of warranty to see if the dust stops appearing.