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Oh no!!! Whats happened to my sensor????

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J R R S

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So I came home from an afternoon shooting only to find a horrid mess on my images. (see attached) - first thought - lens - clean as could be.... sensor? looked spotless!
So took an image without lens on to confirm - and oh no its still there!

Then got out the micro fiber cloth and gave sensor a carfull clean (it already looked spotless) - then took the 2nd pic without lens - no change at all!

I am guessing it is part of the brayer filter comming off? I dunno, but I have a horid feeling my camera is done for!

Please any suggestions how to clean this up or any idea exactly what could have caused this? - I am very carfull with lenses and sensor? I don't understand how this happened?

Could it have been water damage? - not that I got the sensor wet to my knowlage - but maybe a change of lens in a fine mist type reain might do this???

I don't know - HELP!













Thanks in advance....
 
Have you tried some liquid cleaner? When I have cleaned my sensor I've used PecPad's and a couple of drops of Eclipse. The approach is discussed of the Copper Hill Images site.
J R R S said:
Then got out the micro fiber cloth and gave sensor a carfull clean (it already looked spotless) - then took the 2nd pic without lens - no change at all!
Click to expand...
 
Thanks good idea - will try a wet clean! - i'm UK so US suppliers are a bit out the question - but will try and find one in the UK.

I am alittle disshartened by the non change in marks after a dry clean - I would expect at least 1 to have moved! :(
 
i would check with different lenses to make sure the fault doesn't reside there before going for a wet clean of the sensor
--
i like turtles
 
like i have illustrated - fault is apparent without any lens attached!
 


This wipe worked for me beautifully.
Now, how to use it:

1. do not open packed bag, take a scissors and cut this pack along long edge approximately in half

2. Notch/trim the the corner of future cleaning side. It must come into the camera sensor and cover the whole height of sensor

3. Pull swipe out and do not unfold it (do not touch notched/trimmed side, have opposite side in your fingers)

4. As on youtube: swipe one time only the sensor having this swipe in your fingers. If you want to make second run, flip the swipe to use another edge of the same trimmed side.

It is so simple and save to do that I feel myself stupid giving all these instructions
--
MFT in progress

 
Thansk for feedback... but does anyone else susspect the type of dirt/defect seems to be a little deeper/nastyer than dust??? - looks pritty bad to me?
 
J R R S said:
nice - maybe a little cheeper ;)
Click to expand...
NO, absolutely NOT!!

The best stuff (that's available to us infants, thanks to EC Directives) is 'Eclipse' fluid - available from Warehouse Express.

Use with a Pec pad spatual. - one wipe ONLY, in one direction, than a fresh pad, and wipe the reverse direction.

Don't worry, it's easy - just seems a bit daunting before you do it.

But stay well away from 'lens wipes' (you might as well nip down to Tesco and buy some Wet Ones' ;)
 
doesn't look like any dust i've seen, it's white and it's there with no lens attached, it's sharp edged and with a lens attached it's showing at f/4
--
i like turtles
 
yes my thoughts exactly - thats why I wondered about the brayer comming away - it is allways red - all the bits???
 
Try pixel mapping first (somewhere in the menus) it's a no-pain easy way to see if it's an electronic or physical problem.

Bad stuck pixels usually show as bright spots but totally dead ones would be black spots. The Bayer interpolation and other processing during making the jpeg spreads the single bad pixel out into a surrounding area of anything up to a patch of maybe a dozen pixels and makes it very obvious.

If that makes no change then a wet clean is called for. But it does look pixelly to me.

Regards............. Guy
 
I don't see pixels, I see splotches.

--

'Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer - and often the supreme disappointment. '
  • Ansel Adams
 
Thanks - but been there done that!

Its a very very odd issue - look closely 1:1 original image - that is some weird pixel mess - does not look like dirt (although I will try cleaning it)... or dead pixels... it looks more like pitting or scratching - but very odd as it is scattered over quite an area and not scraped at all.... if i didnt know any better its like tiny bits of acid or somthing...

N.b. the sensor looks to the very carfull eye absolutly clean and smooth!- like new?

I realy don't think this is an easy one - I have a feeling its done for! but would be intresting to know what the hell can do this?.... like I say I have not exposed it (within my knowlage) to anything out of the ordinary!
 
Hmm, if it was dirt I'd just expect the spots to be black, but they look like there are actually white spots in there.

Try taking a photo with the lens cap on, if it's dirt then you'll get a black image, if it's damaged pixels you'll still see white or coloured spots.
 
I have no idea what it is but its like no dirty sensor I have ever seen... dirt on the sensor need's a closed down lens to become visible.. with wide apertures or no lens you would be hard to tell if there was any there at all (unless it was a very large bit of dirt).

also on m4/3 camera's, there is the ultra sonic cleaning thing that sits above the sensor making dirt spots less visible compared to other cameras were the dirt sits directly onto the sensor.. when your cleaning your m4/3 your cleaning this ultrasonic dust protection part and not the sensor itself.

Sadly it looks like something has gone tits up with your sensor.. but I hope that's not the case, did you ever fly with the camera? I hear that radiation at high altitudes can damage photo-sites, also Lasers are bad news for sensors and can mark/burn your photo sites.
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31735225@N02/
 
Gary Stallones said:
I don't see pixels, I see splotches.
Click to expand...
It looks more pixelly to me, dust is just black shadows and blurred. Here's a 500% view of some of the mess from the full size lensless image.....



Of course jpeg creation from the original image may spread the effect, a RAW file carefully examined may tell more.

Regards......... Guy
 
ah yes... I was just looking back over my photos to see what/when the effect started to appear...

And then bang it hit me... I went out to a night club the other week and did a load of low light with the F1.4 (C-mount) and over the course of the night I can see the sensor must have got burned by the lasers in the club! - Bummer!!!!! anyone know if this is at all in any way recoverable?

Anyway I persent you the images that killed my E-P1... in cronological order (you can just about see the progression of the laser burn over the night, look at the gorillas shoulder & some of the marks on the brick wall and the toilet are burn marks).









































Well I always wondered how I might be able to remove the brayer mask for low light - Any suggestions - as it looks like I now have an ep1 willing to undergo surgery!
First thoughts on removing brayer are: acetone & intense U.V.
 
Big thanks for the time in replying eveyone - I think its laser damage - see my post below!

Any suggestions on a fix?
 
Sorry to here that! Yes, lasers and sensors don't go well together. I very much doubt that the sensor is recoverable. I think the photosites are permanently damaged, probably thermal damage. There was someone here in the past year that toasted their sensor with a laser as well. Had to have the sensor replaced.

Well, at least you solved the mystery!
--
Ken W
See plan in profile for equipment list
 
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