Sony NEX5: Why do I have a dark spot in my images?

Question

When I look through the display, I see always a small grey circle at the same place. Also in the picture it's the same circle. When I change the lens, the circle is still there. So I assume it's something with the sensor. Has the sensor an error? What could happened (spot wasn't always there)? Is there a way to fix that (I used the lens cleaning program)? Warranty case?

Thanks

Here is an example: Spot

Is that a whole-frame shot, or is it cropped? – Evan Krall Feb 16 '11 at 07:20 — Evan Krall, Feb 16 '11 at 07:20

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:43

The most common cause of spots in pictures is dust stuck to your sensor, but it's also possible that your sensor or AA filter is damaged.

Assuming that's a crop (not the whole picture), that looks like dust to me, though it could be something else ("goop", as Stan mentions) stuck to the sensor.

This question covers DSLR cleaning techniques, which should also apply to your mirrorless camera; you just won't have to worry about mirror lockup.

You can tell the difference between damage and dust by taking two pictures of a flat scene (the sky works well): one with a small aperture like f/22 or so, and one with the widest aperture your lens supports. If the spot gets blurrier in the wide-aperture shot, it's dust, or something else stuck to your AA filter.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 14 '11 at 07:10

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Try to take bulb and then blow off. It helped me

answered Feb 14 '11 at 07:10

ilya

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You might want to reword that slightly, as it could be misinterpreted. – Rowland Shaw Feb 14 '11 at 08:06

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 15 '11 at 08:54

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Thanks for the picture.

Well, that's not dust. That leaves goop (a highly technical term meaning "a foreign substance") on the sensor, which may be removed with wet cleaning (solution and swabs) or sensor damage. Either way, it's worth making it someone else's problem -- even if it just needs a good cleaning, the home remedy should stop somewhere short of scrubbing.

answered Feb 15 '11 at 08:54

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From the image I think it could well be dust. Only if it resists removal by blowing and/or a static brush, such as the Arctic Butterfly, would I classify it as something else. The escalation process would be 1) blow, if that fails -> 2) brush, if that fails -> 3) wet removal process. The sensor cleaning program is not guaranteed to remove dust. – labnut Feb 15 '11 at 09:57

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 16 '11 at 12:54

Something is on your lens or sensor. It looks pretty big for dust, unless that is heavily cropped. Have a closer look at the lens and sensor, use a blower brush on the back of the lens and sensor (carefully) if necessary, check for trapped debris inside the lens etc.

I once had internal dust/debris in the lens of my compact Canon camera. It looked just like your sample image (assuming that is not cropped). You could see the dust speck when looking into the lens but it was trapped. A few taps of the camera against the table dislodged it and fixed it. Note that since it had such a small sensor, the tiny speck of something had much more effect - small dust particles inside a lens for a larger sensor will not usually affect the picture.

Sony NEX5: Why do I have a dark spot in my images?

4 Answers4

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