Re Grey Dots

M

Mitchel

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May 4, 2007
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I have had my Leica M8 for two weeks and have noticed if I shoot a subject with a vivid blue sky in the background there will be small grey dots on the background of the sky. I have cleaned the lens and noticed this repeatedly with test shots. I am using the Leica M Summicron 35 mm lens. Does anyone have the same issue and do they know what causes these artifacts in the background? thanks
 
Its likely to be grease from the shutter mechanism on the sensor. Quite a common "problem", take it back to your dealer and ask them to clean it for you. Once the shutter settles down it apparantly stops doing it...
 
Sorry, it is a bit overdone to trot down to your camera dealer each time you have some dust or greasespots on your sensor. Look in this forum for one of the many threads on sensor cleaning. Look at the Visible Dust site for more information. It is no big deal to clean your sensor. http://www.visibledust.com/
 
I'd rather clean my sensor myself than have my dealer to it - at least I know I'll do it carefully.

BTW I just discovered my hurricane blower was the source of my grey dots!
 
The Giotto Rocket Blower is better. And blow the sensor clean with the camera "mouth" facing downwards, to prevent dust from resettling.
 
I was experiencing the same problems and I did some test shots in low light and bright ligh on a completly white background and could'nt replicate the dots.. I then tried some shots on a blu sky without my lens filter and the spots disappeared .. so are you using any filters on your lens???
 
The visibility of dustspots varies with the aperture and focus. So be sure that you used the same aperture and defocussed completely.
 
I have them as well with my new M8. I used the Visible dust (dry and wet) method and removed most of it after a few attempts (it took a few attempts though). There is still some left dust spots (greay dots) left but I'll just remove them in Lightroom if they bother me and show up in any pics. I wish the M8 was a little more dust free out of the box. I never had this problem with a new camera from Nikon or Canon.
 
One thing : The spots seem to stop appearing after a few hundred shots. It is just the shutter mechanism running in. (Apart from "normal"dust that is.)
 
FYI, to see how much dust you have...

set aperature to its smallest (i.e. f/16, f/21 etc), point to a white wall (or bright sky), shoot. dust will be nicely visible.

:)
 
even better, try it with a 15mm lens...then you really know how dusty your sensor is!
 
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