What is wrong with my lens or camera?

Hi,


I recently found out there are some marks on all the photo I'd taken but I could not get rid of them even I had wiped the lens and blow the camera sensors area with a blower. The marks are just like those formed if you have some water droplets on your lens /
lens filter, like when taking photo in the rain.





1. Could that due to fungus in the lens?


2. What should I do to remove it?


3. Is sending it to Canon service center able to remove it?


4. Will the removal process affect the quality and build of the camera and/or lens?


5. Is this kind of service common to camera? (just like car need to send in to workshop for maintenance service)


6. I also like to know if fungus posts serious problem to you guys with all the expensive Canon lenses? My camera & lens will always be in the drybox when I am not traveling. I had only taken out my camera from my drybox for 2 weeks while I was in Vietnam. 2 weeks later I brought it along to Singapore for 1 week, and I got the spots... :(


If it is so easy to get fungus on the lens, what is the point of spending money on expensive L lenses as fungus will easily ruin the quality of the image later? Is this only happen to camera owners in Asian countries due to the weather? (then you guys in other parts of the world are so lucky...)


7. Also, I noticed that while I was in Vietnam, due to the hot and humid weather, my camera and lens were blurred for 5 minutes or so when I went outdoor into the hot sun after I visited some shopping malls with air conditioning. How to prevent this kind of lens blur? Is it harmful to lens and camera?

Hi, sorry to hear about these problems...


Perhaps you could post a picture with an example of these "marks", that would make it easier to perhaps determine the cause.


(Fortunately I haven't got any experience with fungus on the lens, but others might recognise the marks from a picture.)


Ciao, Colin

What lens does this happen a lot too. If it's your kit lens then there's not much to do about it. I've had my 18-55 replaced twice because of something physically attached to one of the internal pieces of glass and got a new one, and still noticed the same problem. I gave up because I never use it, but there goes $100 I could have gotten for it...

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Originally Posted by csphua

7. Also, I noticed that while I was in Vietnam, due to the hot and humid weather, my camera and lens were blurred for 5 minutes or so when I went outdoor into the hot sun after I visited some shopping malls with air conditioning. How to prevent this kind of lens blur? Is it harmful to lens and camera?
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This happens all the time. The best way to do this is to normalize the temperature of the camera gradually. If you have a bag, keep it in the bag for at least 10minutes during your transition from cool indoors to hot outdoors. I have this problem all the time with broadcast cameras and get thoroughly ticked by it when I'm in a hurry but unfortunately it's something we have to live with. Another way is to try and keep it in the same conditions that you'll spend the majority of time in. E.g. If you're outside more often in the hot weather then keep the camera out and about, (the condensation problem doesn't happen when you go from warm to cold) but if you're inside more often in the cool temperatures then keep your camera out inside and before you go outside put your camera in your bag (if you have a lowepro with the AW cover then put that on so as to counter the heat being attracted to the black material) and give it about 10min to slowly equalize.

Here are 2 photos I taken from Singapore, you can clearly see the spots near the top of the photos (the sky). Anybody can confirm whether those spots are resulted from fungus? Will condensation accelerates the growing of fungus?


Thanks.


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It does look alarming because they clearly look bigger in the 2nd one than they do in the 1st one. If it is on the inside elements thats very weird because unless you pretty much got devoured by a wave I can't seem to figure out how it would have got inside in the first place...

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Originally Posted by mikehillman89

It does look alarming because they clearly look bigger in the 2nd one than they do in the 1st one.

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The difference is likely due to a different aperture between shots.



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Originally Posted by csphua

Could that due to fungus in the lens?

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Look through the lens (not mounted on the camera), held up to a light - do you see anything in there? If there's internal fungus, you'll see it.


Do you have more than one lens? If so, take a picture of something featureless (a clear blue sky, a flat white wall, etc.) with each lens, in both cases at the narrowest aperture (largest f-number, e.g. f/22). If the spots are in the same place, it's a dirty sensor. To me, what you're seeing looks like a dirty sensor. Just blowing off the sensor is not enough, sometimes. Wet cleaning might be required, and you may want to have that professionally done (to see what's involved, you can read Bryan's tip on Sensor Cleaning).
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Originally Posted by neuroanatomist

The difference is likely due to a different aperture between shots.

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Good point. I didn't think about that.

Hi guys,


Unfortunately I do not have another lens to test. This is my kit lens, 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 IS, on my 50D.


I need to find a bright torchlight to check the lens.


Just curious since I only have 1 lens, and my lens is always mounted to my 50D. I never change lens. I wonder how and why my sensor will become dirty? Actually when i look at the sensor, I can see some white spots, like dirt on it. But I could not blow it away with my Giottos blower. I feel strange that the sensor are dirty without remove/change the lens. Is this something that could happen?

Those spots really look like dust on your sensor. What do you think about this for a possible explanation: You were shooting in an area of high heat and humidity. You say that you had condensation in your lense when you brought it indoors or outdoors. I bet that the temperature change also caused condensation to occur on your sensor surface. If you had gotten dust particles on your sensor before the condensation occurred, you can bet that simply blowing air on the sensor afterwards would not remove them. They are stuck on after the condensation dried off.


As a suggestion, I think you want to use one of those sensor swabs with the cleaning fluid to clean off your sensor. Alternatively, if you do think that you had a lot of condensation exposure to your camera, may be contact Canon to see what they would charge to have them clean your sensor for you and to inspect the internals for any other impacts of excessive humidity/condensation.

I guess that explained why the blower was unable to blow away the dust.

I held my lens up to a light and looked through it, I saw some fungus like stuff... all over the area... [:(]


I guess I have no choice but to send the lens back to Canon to get it clean asap and hope the fungus still not too serious until it has destroyed the coating of my lens.


Will camera body develop fungus? I normally hear people mention fungus in lens, will fungus grow inside camera body? In my case, will the fungus spread from my lens to my camera body? Also curious will fungus spread from one lens to another?

I concur that it is a dirty sensor. I had the same problems before myself. It doesn't matter that you've never taken the lens off b/c dust can get into all sorts of places regardless. I believe I ended up using a lenspen sensor cleaner and giottos rocket blower to get my sensor clean. good luck!

you have a very dirty sensor, and this is normal. Let me guess, the first image was shot at around f/16 to f/22 and the 2nd image was shot at around f/11 to f/16?. Try to shoot at largeraperture and you'll see a noticeble difference. As far as cleaning your sensor, sometimes blowing it with a blower will not eliminate the stubborn spots,hence you need to try other approaches like sending the camera to Canon for a cleaning or do-it-yourself cleaning. Just google sensor cleaning and you should find many tips. Also keep in mind that even though you never remove your lens from the camera, dust can be created by moving parts like mirrors and shutter. Another way is to use the dust deleting program that comes with your DPP software. Good luck and don't scrub![:D]

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Originally Posted by csphua

Will camera body develop fungus? I normally hear people mention fungus in lens, will fungus grow inside camera body? In my case, will the fungus spread from my lens to my camera body? Also curious will fungus spread from one lens to another?

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The reason why fungus grows on a lens is because it can utilize the lens coating for food. This may or may not be possible with fungus inside the body but I would be more concerned with corrosion inside the body with all that condensation. Especially with circuit boards and current from the battery.


It might be a good idea to contact Canon and see what they would recommend and how much it would cost.

As mentioned before, this looks like sensor dust.


To determine this is indeed the case you can take pictures of a even lit area (clear blue sky is best) with aperture 22, one fully zoomed out and one fully zoomed in or if you have a second lens take one with that one also. Download to your computer and see if the spots are on the same place.


If yes -&gt; sensor dust. To be cleaned with swabs and fluid or if you are not trusting yourself on this, have it cleaned at a shop. Do not mess around with this, you can do damage to your cam.


Cleaning your sensor is normal maintenance, sometimes have to
perform it daily. If I had to change lenses in bad conditions on my
5Dmk1


N.B. be aware that not all dust blowers produce dust free air and produce more specs on the sensor, better to use tools designed to clean your sensor like SensorBrush