Thanks Gwyn

I used the Arctic Butterfly brush, but will get some swabs and try them. I just assumed that the in-built dust check would work and if it showed clear it must be something else.

Any particular swabs you'd recommend or are they all much the same?

Well thanks, I think. I'm not sure your reply needed to be quite so patronising. I'm judging it to be clean because the sensor dust check doesn't show anything.

I've been around long enough to take that sort of reply with a pinch of salt, but I doubt a new member would come back again.

I take my hobby VERY seriously

I've cleaned the sensor and it looks spotless. When I do the dust check it's completely white, but I still have a few spots on the photos. Could it be anything else? It's the same on both of my PKA lenses so can't be the lens.

Could it be dust on the mirror?

Thanks - not sure 'crud' is any more reassuring I've cleaned the sensor, but still struggling to test the image. Probably have to wait for a blue sky - that will be next June then....

Italian picture as requested - embarassed to post it really! It's the one that shows the stains the worst - there might be some lower down, but I can't see them.

[IMG]http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp15/chriseast/sensor.jpg[/IMG]

Cheers - hadn't thought about the blue TV background - I'll give it a try. The only pastel coloured wall I have needs re-painting and probably looks worse than the sensor stains!

Much appreciated, thanks

No - my nose attracts all the pollen from a 3 mile radius during the hayfever season

Slightly misleading title as I wasn't sure how to word it!

Checking my Italian photos I can see a number of small sensor stains, particularly against the very blue skies. I thought I had dealt with these before I left, but obviously UK skies weren't blue enough....

I've cleaned the sensor, but am finding it difficult to tell if they are gone or not. No blue skies here and I can't get them to show up either before or after the cleaning, but I know they are/were there.

Any tips on how to check if they are gone in this miserable summer? I've tried a white sheet of paper, but can't see anything. They may well be gone, but I can't say for certain. Nothing shows up in the dust check, but guess they are a different animal.

What causes this? I'm really careful when I change lenses and don't do that often anyway. Can the high heat/humidity do it?

Any advice appreciated

I wanted it and had it on my watch list, but forgot the hour time difference in Italy. Logged on to see it had gone 45 minutes earlier for £77

Another one today in Naples Museum. Common as muck obviously Not a K-r this time, had a top screen and I didn't want to look too closely in case she thought I was some sort of voyeur.