What is wrong with my camera?

looks like you have 2 small hairs on your sensor.

Labe wrote:

looks like you have 2 small hairs on your sensor.

That would be my diagnosis as well.   I would recommend using a rocket blower and the manual lens cleaning setting on your camera to clean them out.  A few hard puffs with the blower, and they should be gone.

isabellamariieee wrote:

Canon EOS Rebel T3

I have a camera that has been in the back of a closet for awhile now, but I recently grabbed it and noticed two dark, worm shaped spots. It does not appear on the view finder before I take a picture, but then it suddenly appears once I preview my shot on the LCD screen and once I upload them to my laptop. I've switched out lenses to rule out that it's definitely not the lens, but something internal of the camera body.

Forgive me, I'm a camera newbie, so I do not know what part of the camera is damaged. I am also curious on whether this is an issue that can be fixed, or if it's too much of an issue that is not worth the cost.

I've attached images to help explain the marks.

Help please!

#1

#2

#3

Yup,what they said. Be more careful swapping lenses. I never leave the body "open" for more then a second. Plan the swap in advance,lay out lens caps etc first.

As others have said, you have a dirty sensor. Since you are a "camera newbie" take it to a camera shop for cleaning.  Also, as others have said, make sure to keep a body mount cap or lens on it at all time and minimize the time the lens mount is open to the elements.

isabellamariieee wrote:

#3

The 1 worm blends in quite well there. I wouldn't have noticed.

dust on your image sensor. Get a rocket blower (handheld squeeze device ) and do it on your sensor while in sensor clean mode. That should do it. No need to pay a store $40 to do the same thing!

I went through the same thing a couple of months ago with my used T4i.

I do mostly macrophotography at 1:1 or greater.  As I started to increase the magnification while experimenting with equipment, I started noticing streaks in my focus stacks.

I thought it was movement, but people on another forum explained to me that it was dirt on the sensor.

Unfortunately, the Cleveland, Oho area isn't the best for serious photography gear and accessories, so I had to make do with inferior cleaning products until the good stuff arrived from Amazon.

I highly advise you to get the best stuff you can afford, since trying to clean my sensor with the cheap (and only) stuff available at my local camera stores was an exercise in frustration.  I was literally just moving the contaminants around.  I went through almost a complete pack of cheap swabs without eliminating the spots.

When my good fluid, swabs and blower arrived, I had the sensor clean with the use of only two good swabs.

Following directions on forums and in YouTube, you can clean your own sensor.  Just make sure you buy the good stuff.  Otherwise, you'll accomplish little besides getting frustrated.

A tip:

As noted, you can take a picture of the sky or a piece of blank paper to see the spots on the sensor.  However a lot of instructions leave out a step.  If you just look at that image, it's hard to see the dirt.  If however you run the image through something like Elements and invert the colors, the dirt leaps out in the picture.  I think the command in Elements is F12, but don't remember for sure.

R2D2 wrote:

deanimator wrote:

A tip:

As noted, you can take a picture of the sky or a piece of blank paper to see the spots on the sensor. However a lot of instructions leave out a step. If you just look at that image, it's hard to see the dirt. If however you run the image through something like Elements and invert the colors, the dirt leaps out in the picture. I think the command in Elements is F12, but don't remember for sure.

+1 Set a small aperture like f/22 (and don't overexpose).

Then do an "Auto Contrast." (or increase contrast greatly yourself).

If you haven't cleaned your sensor in a while, plan to get ill.

From another macro shooter,

R2

I bought my T4i used from Adorama.

While it was just about mechanically perfect, as I discovered later, the sensor was FILTHY.  I probably never would have noticed if I didn't do focus stacking at greater than 1:1.