Artifacts on images

Hi

I seem to be getting a couple of artifcats on all my images, in the same place. I have cleaned the lens and the tried wiping the mirror ( not sure I should be doing this) but they are still present. I am assuming that they are on my censor but I am unsure of the best way to clean this with causing damage, any ideas please.

It would help us to help you if we knew which camera you are using. As it has a mirror we can guess that it is an SLR. Which model?

What do these artefacts look like. If they are grey fuzzy blobs you have dust on your sensor. Follow the cleaning procedure in your manual.

If they are bright spots you have hot/stuck pixels. These are common and can easily be cloned out using post processing software (like Lightroom, SilkyPix, CaptureOne and others). Most software will remove them automatically during its noise reduction process.

In any event, you should not touch the mirror with anything. If you must remove the dust, use only an air blower, not canned air unless it is 100% guaranteed to be oil and/or propellent free.

If there is dust on the mirror, focussing screen, pentaprism/pentamirror, it will not affect your images anyway as the mirror is raised before the shutter is released and none of these is in the light path when the image is exposed.

Yes sorry

It is a Pentax K200d. Dull grey blobs. I do have the sensor shaker switched on to activate each time but whne I look at the image of the sensor it does look pretty dusty. So a soft brush with air blower?

Sounds like dust on the sensor.

Sensor shaker is near useless. (totally useless in my opinion, but some people find it helpful)

Would try an air blower first. Not a big deal to clean the sensor with other methods but why bother the hassle if a shot of air will do the trick. (Almost two years with my K10D and never used more than air to clean)

The Rocket Blower is probably the greatest invention on earth for "no-touch" cleaning of the sensor.

Pop a photo on here

I second that, the rocket blower really works well. I find that regular blasts from the blower work well and about every year I have to use a Brillo pad - only kidding - Eclipse swabs and liquid on the sensor. I read somewhere that really persistent lumps of crud are usually pollen.

As Mannesty says dont touch the mirror, the reason being that they are silvered on the top unlike a domestic mirror which is silvered on the back. This is to prevent double images but the silver surface is fragile. It would take one heck of a mark on a lens to show up distinctly on an image. For comparison you might have a look at the entries in the fortnightly competition, one has a sensor dust mark on the sky.

If you are seeing grey blobs in the same place on various images, it's almost certainly dust on the sensor.

A rocket blower should get rid of all but the most sticky dust (probably pollen). When it becomes necessary, which is very rarely, I use an Arctic Butterfly brush from Visible Dust.

One or the other or both should sort it. If not, you might have to resort to a wet cleaning system. I wouldn't use a brush from a cheapo brush/blower if I were you. The Giottos Rocket blower is the best.

IIRC the K200D has a 10Mp sensor which I think is the same as the K10D. You may have to use the Pentax cleaning kit, or Eclipse 2 fluid and PecPads. The original Eclipse fluid is not suitable for the 10Mp sensor because it has an additional anti-dust coating.

Get a quality blower as not all as good as the rocket blower. My cheapo just doesn't have the go-go in my opinion.

Mike

Or Puff, Puff.

The silver on SLR mirrors nowdays is coated, so the surface is not as fragile as it used to be. It is still a good idea not to touch it, though.