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Dirty Sensor?? (1 Viewer)

JMomOhio

Well-known member
All of a sudden my pictures look like crap. I have a Canon 40D and have never had it serviced. I spend a lot of time in the woods and on dirt roads to get to them. I'm hoping this is just a dirty sensor. The camera has never been dropped or damaged anyway. Do most of you clean your sensors yourself or send it out?
 

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I cannot see any signs of dirt on the sensor myself as this usually shows as small dark splodges or circles. Also the 40D has a auto sensor cleaner when you switch on/off which keeps it reasonably clean.. Looks more like a focus issue to me. I assume you had IS switched on as you were at 1/80 sec and 300mm.
 
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Thanks for the reply. I keep my lenses clean and have never had problems with the blurring before. I can't seem to figure out what is causing this. My autozoom does a lot of hunting, but it seems like it's always done that. Could there be moisture on the sensor or something like that? I don't have a camera repair store anywhere close to me as I live in a rural area. Can anyone recommend a place I can send it for cleaning?? Thanks again! I'm perplexed! One day very clear sharp photos and now they are blurry/fuzzy looking! :(
 
I still think it's down to the slow shutter speed. 1/80 second is pretty slow to hold a lens at 300mm. Normal advice is minimum shutter speed should at least equal the focal length i.e. 1/300 sec for a 300mm lens.

Dust/dirt don't appear to be the issue, so I don't think having the sensor glass cleaned would achieve anything.

I'd be inclined to shoot a few more photos with a decent shutter speed and see how they look.
Over here heat haze can produce similar results especially if shooting over wet/marshy ground or on a warm day after rain.
 
I agree with Roy and Ian above . I would further add that it may be expecting a lot from autofucus to be accurate shooting through busy branches and contrasty flowers: even more difficult if there was the slightest breeze. You need to give your rig a proper test in good light.

If you show sample pics it is best to make them large and also to show a 1 to 1 crop.
 
Just a thought - if you want to test the sensor, attach a lens, stop it down to f11 or more and shoot against a blue sky, any dirt will be shown up as smudge in the image.
Worth a try although the problem seems to be more of what Roy said.
 
Thanks everyone! I'm pretty much a rookie with a DSLR!! For the most part I have stuck with the 'rookie' settings, but now I'm trying to play around with other modes in the creative range. I'm just learning about aperature and all that online wherever I can find info. I did take a pic against a blue sky and no spots. I let the battery drain all the way and now I'm waiting for it to charge. I suppose this is a good learning experience for me, but this camera is like attached to my hip at all times! lol! I'll figure it out sooner or later I guarantee it! :)
 
Thanks everyone! I'm pretty much a rookie with a DSLR!! For the most part I have stuck with the 'rookie' settings, but now I'm trying to play around with other modes in the creative range. I'm just learning about aperature and all that online wherever I can find info. I did take a pic against a blue sky and no spots. I let the battery drain all the way and now I'm waiting for it to charge. I suppose this is a good learning experience for me, but this camera is like attached to my hip at all times! lol! I'll figure it out sooner or later I guarantee it! :)
I suspect then that you may have been using all focus points in auto mode - if that was the case then mis focusing would have been quite frequent, when you use that the Camera focuses on what it thinks is the right target and not necessarily what you want! To rectify this use a single AF point (usually the centre one).
 
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