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Hey guys

Just got back form a one month trip around Europe, will share some photos soon but in the meantime I have a little problem.

My camera seems to have got some dust or something inside and is showing up on photos when using f16+. Its not the lens as it happens on all my gear.

With the D1NZ season only a few weeks away (and I regularly use f16 and higher wen panning) where can I get this fixed soon and how much should I be looking at paying?

Here is a photo showing the marks (look at the sky):



Thanks!

hey nice photo RooDub!
i don't really know how much your local shop charges. but i guess normally shops charge 1 hour for clean up
You can try buy a sensor cleaning kit and DIY. But you also risk damaging the CMOS (actually the glass filter, not CMOS, but a lot of DSLRs you can't replace the glass filter by itself so you have to buy a new CMOS if the glass filter is damaged)

Looks like my sensor after a trip out I normally use a rocket blower with my camera facing downwards. Works for me so far. I think when panning with a background the dust spots won't look so visible either.

I have never had to guts to clean the sensor in any other way

hey Roo, i normally use a rocket blower, use a sensor cleaning pen occasionally but if i need a really good clean i would just send it back to Nikon.
From memory they charge me 2 hours labour to do a clean + check service, so total is something like just under $200NZD. Yes, not cheap at all.
But really even when Nikon cleans it, it doesn't mean the sensor will be 100% dust free after the clean. (and definitely won't be dust free after you change lens for a few times)
so if it's just a few small dust that's not visible until f/16 then i probably won't worry too much.

Why do you want to use f/16 for panning? is it because you want maximun depth of field? or is it just because you a long exposure time under bright sunlight?
if it's the later, why not just get a ND filter? say get a ND8 which cuts 3 stop of light, so instead of f/16, you can use f/5.6 instead, and sensor dust won't show up in the photo

A 77mm B&W ND8 filter is around $100-150 from Progear, that's useful for other type of photography too.

Thanks Richard, yeah the the later. Shooting at 1/40 and 1/30 in the middle of the day.

Will look into the ND filter idea, I was thinking about a ND Grad for this season anyway as I always get blown out skies when doing long exp panning shots, esp if its a bit cloudy. Do you think a ND Grad would cut enough light to stop down a bit? If so, what should of one should I be looking at?

Cheers!

ND grad can definitely help with blown out sky.
but it won't help you keep the overall exposure down as the clear half of the ND grad filter is... clear.. so you'll still need a separate (normal) ND filter to allow you to shot with larger aperture.

i would guess a soft edge 3 stop ND grad filter would be good for your panning shots?

oh and when you getting the ND filters, get the 77mm one.. and use a step up ring if you lens takes a smaller filter...

Thanks Richard.

I will look into ND filters but I think I will get it properly cleaned as well. I dont like the thought of dust and stuff inside my (still kinda new) baby. Haha.

This is the reply I got from Nikon:

Hi Andrew,



Generally a CCD clean and check up costs about $150 +gst, but our policy is to automatically do any repair required up to cost of $300 +gst and only provide estimate if cost will exceed that.

Declined estimate will cost $47.00 +gst

Currently we are on a turnaround of 4-5 days.

yeah that sounds about the same as what i pay.

oh and if you want the step-up rings and can't find anything cheap locally, then just go to ebay, they should be only US$1-2 dollar including shipping from overseas!

I dropped my camera off on Monday morning and they just phoned to say its all done. Said the cost is $180. So not too bad, will collect it this arvo and take some test shots!

wow that's a quick turn around. Would be keen to see the test shots when they're up. Was the drop off at TA macalister?