Possible to remove sensor dust on compact camera?

NotAGolf · 6 Apr 2014 at 09:22

I've just got back from honeymoon only to find nearly all my pictures have a nice dark 'smear' in the corner of the shot :mad:

. After some googling it sounds like I have some dust on the sensor. It's not a mark on the lens itself.

The problem here is that it's a compact camera (Fuji f50fd). All the guides I've seen online relate to DSLR's. Is it possible to clean the sensor on a compact? If so how?

I've seen a couple of dodgy looking clips on youtube that involve dropping it (gently) and using a vacuum over the lens, but I don't want to try anything potentially damaging as I have an underwater housing for the camera which I would like to carry on using. The dust spot doesn't really affect underwater shots since it's rarely a nice uniform background so you can't see it.

Thanks for any help.

Raymond Lin · 6 Apr 2014 at 09:27

You can technically clean any sensor dust but obviously the problem is getting to it. In this case a (partial) disassembly would probably be required.

englishpremier · 6 Apr 2014 at 12:30

Are you sure it's dust?

Take a dust reference photo or post something up here.

NotAGolf · 6 Apr 2014 at 13:57

englishpremier said:
Are you sure it's dust?

Take a dust reference photo or post something up here.

Here's a photo with the spot visible in the top left corner:

King4aDay · 6 Apr 2014 at 14:01

This is beyond my ken really, but you might try contacting Fuji for a goodwill repair/clean (I'm assuming its out of warranty). It's not too enormous a spot so you should be able to clean up most of the photos fairly successfully I would say. Not sure if you've got any photo editing software but something free like Gimp should have a repair/clone tool which will very quickly deal with a little blobs like that.

englishpremier · 6 Apr 2014 at 14:08

Certainly looks like dust. I wasn't sure based on your initial description of a 'smear' but yep that's dust.

Fortunately in pictures like the one you posted it can easily be cloned out (in gimp, photoshop, lightroom etc..) but I imagine there's photos that have detail in the affected area.

Your options are to send it off and pay whatever the servicing fee is (as an example it's usually around £100 for DSLR lenses), of void your warranty (if it is still in warranty) and take it apart and clean it yourself.

P.S - Beautiful honeymoon location.

NotAGolf · 6 Apr 2014 at 16:22

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll give Fuji a shout but it's over 5 years old now so I doubt they'd touch it. The cost of servicing it will probably be close to the cost of a new camera.

I can tidy up the images using photoshop but it's a bit of a pain to do that every time I take some photos.

I think I'll just bite the bullet and buy a new camera. Any suggestion for a compact for around the £100 mark? I've had a quick look and got 4 contenders at the minute:

- Samsung WB250F
- Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ35EB
- Sony DSCWX200
- Nikon COOLPIX S3500

I know it's only a compact, but I need to save for a new kitchen and a car so the DSLR will have to wait for a year or two!

King4aDay · 6 Apr 2014 at 19:01

If you can live with 'only' a 4x zoom then the Fuji XF1 is pretty natty by all accounts.

Heck, you could probably get a Panasonic GX1 (or one of the older Olympus E-PL or Panasonic GF seriesbodies) plus kit lens for ~£150 if you look hard enough, which then gives you a proper interchangeable system to invest in down the road when you have some spare cash. There's a GF5 body on avforums for £95 at the mo, and ebay is flooded with cheap kit lens options for m43.

SickAsAParrot · 6 Apr 2014 at 23:25

I have a Lumix TZ08 and it's notorious for sucking in dust onto the sensor everytime the lens unravels. Fortunately there is a pretty good video on YT on how to get the sensor out and clean it and it's a reasonably straightforward operation involving taking the back panel off, removing a shield plate and removing the sensor plate through the back of the camera.

Dunno if all compacts are built the same way.

a1ex2001 · 8 Apr 2014 at 10:01

for £100 I'd go second hand and look at a canon s95/s100

Dup · 8 Apr 2014 at 15:06

I took apart my mums TZ10. Once to clean the dust sensor and then again to clean the zoom mechanism as she dropped it in sand. Works perfectly.

If you're committing yourself to a new camera, you might as well give it a go. It took me a couple hours with no idea what I was doing. I just took my time and made sure I remembered/noted what goes back where. The hardest part is ribbon cables and handling those.