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dust inside my ZS50 lens

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patticake

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there's a big honking piece of dust inside my ZS50 lens that shows up in pics and the shadow it casts is pretty large. i tried asking our local samy's what it would cost to have the lens cleaned, but they would be sending it to panasonic and has to get a price.

so i contacted panasonic via live chat. i asked like 7 times what the cost would be. the guy told me practically everything in the world but the price, and since this is an older camera probably worth no more than $150 at this point, price is a factor.

if the cleaning and shipping is as much as i suspect, i'll probably just buy another camera.

has anyone here paid to get dust cleaned out of a panny compact's lens? if so, how long did it take, what did it cost and were there other issues involved or was it pretty smooth sailing.

thanks!
 
Try gentle ( the emphasis on gentle) vacuuming with a vacuum cleaner nozzle. I have done that on several fixed lens zoom cameras over the years with good results.

Don't go crazy or you may suck bits and pieces off the camera. :)
 
I don't have any idea if the vacuum cleaner will work but it's worth a try because sending your camera to Panasonic would probably be a waste of time.

I'm 99% sure Panasonic would say there's no way to clean the lens and that the entire lens assembly would have to be replaced.

I could be wrong but I really doubt the repair center would go to the trouble of tearing that lens apart to clean it.

It's terrible to say this but most of the inexpensive products we buy today (and some of the expensive products) are basically throw away items and not worth repairing once the warranty has expired.

Even the more expensive cameras, that can be repaired, are going to cost an arm & a leg to get fixed after the warranty has expired.

Good luck and I hope I'm wrong about all this.
 
thanks, Sonyshine - i'll try that... very gently.

as far as i can tell, they'd be willing to look at it, which would cost shipping plus a $75 diagnosis charge. they also may - according to our local camera store - be willing to take the lens apart and remove the dust for around $200, maybe less. so for just over twice the value of the camera, i can send it out to the panasonic texas repair place, a place with a whopping 1.5 stars out of 5 :(

i've been a long-time panasonic fan. i LOVE their cameras, but this doesn't sound very appealing to me. and now i see how disliked their repair place is, i must admit i'm not as excited to buy panasonic in the future...
 
Last edited:
How sure are you that this dirt is INSIDE your lens?

Can you SEE it? --Sounds like you can, just trying to make sure. Show us a photo of the problem if you are in doubt.

If it's on the BACK of the lens, or on the sensor, it's pretty easy to fix yourself - here's a tutorial on doing it:


This is pretty straighforward, the hardest part is finding the tiny screwdrivers - Amazon can help with that. I like to work on a piece of fabric or paper towel so dropped screws won't bounce and get lost. I also like to draw a sketch of the parts I'm working on and place the screws on the sketch next to where they came out of, as some of the screws are different lengths/sizes.

Taking the lens apart is possible, but I haven't done so:


I've done several different Panasonic models with 100% success so far.

Give it a try - it's not that difficult and.....what do you have to lose?

Good luck,







--
"Measure wealth not by things you have but by things for which you would not take money"
www.flickr.com/ohlsonmh/ [email protected]
 
Erik Ohlson said:
How sure are you that this dirt is INSIDE your lens?

Can you SEE it? --Sounds like you can, just trying to make sure. Show us a photo of the problem if you are in doubt.

If it's on the BACK of the lens, or on the sensor, it's pretty easy to fix yourself - here's a tutorial on doing it:


This is pretty straighforward, the hardest part is finding the tiny screwdrivers - Amazon can help with that. I like to work on a piece of fabric or paper towel so dropped screws won't bounce and get lost. I also like to draw a sketch of the parts I'm working on and place the screws on the sketch next to where they came out of, as some of the screws are different lengths/sizes.

Taking the lens apart is possible, but I haven't done so:


I've done several different Panasonic models with 100% success so far.

Give it a try - it's not that difficult and.....what do you have to lose?

Good luck,



--
"Measure wealth not by things you have but by things for which you would not take money"
www.flickr.com/ohlsonmh/ [email protected]
Click to expand...
i can see it very easily, and it's inside the lens.

thanks for the video links - my husband has manual dexterity and a workbench with a magnifying light plus lots of tiny tools for working on small parts of guitars. i'll ask him if he'll give it a shot. as you say, what do i have to lose?

--
my old user profile
 
Wonderful !!

If he has all that stuff he's probably well qualified to do the job, although that lens disassembly looks complicated, like an old Chinese puzzle!

But just getting to the sensor allows the lens to come out - at least on older ZS models. The sensor and lens are installed together as a unit.

An LX100 I tried to clean the sensor on had too much in the way and I decided not to take a chance of ruining someone else's camera since the mark was just at the edge of the image.

Looks to me like you are "Good to Go" !







--
"Measure wealth not by things you have but by things for which you would not take money"
www.flickr.com/ohlsonmh/ [email protected]
 
I had dust on the sensor of my ZS50, and while looking the camera over I also discovered dust in the lens. The dust on the sensor was the big problem, but I left it alone for a while and one day it was gone. The sensor is vertical so I guess the dust on the sensor just slid down and off during day to day handling. After reading this post I looked at the lens and again the dust was gone. Where I do not know.
 
Erik Ohlson said:
How sure are you that this dirt is INSIDE your lens?

Can you SEE it? --Sounds like you can, just trying to make sure. Show us a photo of the problem if you are in doubt.

If it's on the BACK of the lens, or on the sensor, it's pretty easy to fix yourself - here's a tutorial on doing it:


This is pretty straighforward, the hardest part is finding the tiny screwdrivers - Amazon can help with that. I like to work on a piece of fabric or paper towel so dropped screws won't bounce and get lost. I also like to draw a sketch of the parts I'm working on and place the screws on the sketch next to where they came out of, as some of the screws are different lengths/sizes.

Taking the lens apart is possible, but I haven't done so:


I've done several different Panasonic models with 100% success so far.

Give it a try - it's not that difficult and.....what do you have to lose?

Good luck,



--
"Measure wealth not by things you have but by things for which you would not take money"
www.flickr.com/ohlsonmh/ [email protected]
Click to expand...
I have removed dust that actually on the sensor side of the lens, from three Lumix compacts - first a friends, the other two were my TZ6 and TZ30. All were solved as the first video, so did not have to resort to vacuum method nor disassemble the lens unit completely.
 
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