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D600 - the oil spots are the best investment ever.
May 10, 2013 19:08:27   #
JPL
 
I bought my Nikon D600 in December at a local store offer that was $370 under todays price. In December it was an even better deal. Anyway, the camera sales suffered from the much talked about oil spots. I took my chance and bought one as this camera seemed to be the perfect choice for me given the oil spot issue would not destroy the pics taken with the camera.

I have been happy with my D600. In fact, the oil spots are there, but only when shooting at f8-f11 or smaller aperture so it is not on every picture. In my case I had a "bit of luck" cause the spots were less than 20 so I decided to do nothing about them on the sensor and fix them in Lightroom as needed.

Soon after I bought my camera I started to see articles about that the oil spots stop to add up after about 3000 frames, so I decided to be lazy a bit longer and do nothing until I had at least 3000 frames shot. Now I have about 3900 frames on my D600 so today I decided to clean the sensor. Fully loaded the battery, lifted the mirror and did the job in few minutes. Took a test shot and did clean again. Now it is perfectly clean and the whole process only took about 15 minutes.
I think I got a good camera at bargain prices for those 15 minutes of my time. But I also admit that I was a bit stupid waiting so long to clean the sensor as most or all the oil spots were there already after the first 4-500 frames. I should have done this cleaning more than 3000 frames ago.

For me the oil spots are maybe the best investment ever, because of them the camera was available at huge discount making it affordable for me at that time and the price I had to pay for this deal is a little extra Lightroom work on a few pics plus 15 minutes of my own time to clean the sensor.

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May 11, 2013 00:35:40   #
Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA
 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory?

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May 11, 2013 03:34:37   #
wierdphotoguy Loc: the snow belt in Michigan
 
Just Plain Lucky?

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May 11, 2013 10:08:21   #
MichaelG Loc: Minneapolis, MN
 
What method did you use to clean the Nikon D600 sensor? Thanks.

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May 11, 2013 10:28:25   #
rodee5430
 
I would love to know how you cleaned the sensor and got rid of the spots. My first D600 developed the oil spots and the camera store where I purchased it replaced it with a new camera. However the new 600 is having the spot problem, the more pictures I take the more the more spots I get.
You are right, it starts developing after about 3000 exposures.
thanks

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May 11, 2013 14:00:02   #
dubach
 
where do the oil spots come from? anyone know. why does the 600 have this problem because i want one.

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May 11, 2013 22:59:29   #
64418 Loc: Vallejo, Ca
 
The oil spots come from the shutter. I have now owned three d600's since November and they all had this issue. After the first two where returned to back me from Nikon having only been cleaned I exchanged them for new ones because they still had the issue. With the third one I was assured that Nikon had just come up with a new solution to the problem. The solution was to replace the shutter that was causing the problem. The camera seems now to be working, but I've only just gotten it back. I really hope I don't see any more oil cause if I do, even as good as this camera is I'll be shooting with something else.

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May 11, 2013 23:33:29   #
Mormorazzi Loc: Temple, Texas
 
From what I've read, the spots STOP appearing after 3,000 actuations. I'm about there and plan to clean my sensor this month. Honestly, I haven't noticed any spots in my photos. If I shoot into a clear blue sky at f22 and zoom all the way in, I see some on the perimeter, but that's the only time I see them. To the original poster, I'm also curious as to what cleaning method/kit you used. I absolutely love my D600, too!
rodee5430 wrote:
I would love to know how you cleaned the sensor and got rid of the spots. My first D600 developed the oil spots and the camera store where I purchased it replaced it with a new camera. However the new 600 is having the spot problem, the more pictures I take the more the more spots I get.
You are right, it starts developing after about 3000 exposures.
thanks

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May 12, 2013 01:01:07   #
Gobuster Loc: South Florida
 
I got my D 600 back in December, knowing about the potential oil spots. It was a great deal at $1, 450 and I've not seen it that low again since. Oil spots are appearing but I can only see them on images of clear blue sky and they are easily fixed in Lightroom or PSE. After a few more shutter acuations I'll clean the sensor. This minor problem is an annoyance but does not hinder my enjoyment of the camera and the fine image quality it provides.

Like others, I'd like to know what method the OP used to clean the sensor.

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May 12, 2013 01:22:30   #
parks333 Loc: Chicago
 
I'd would also like to know the quick cleaning method. Wet or dry cleaning? What products did you use?

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May 12, 2013 05:43:37   #
JPL
 
To clean the sensor I used a kit from Dust-aid.com. It is a liquid and swab and easy to use. The reason I had to repeat the cleaning was I got a big dust spot on the sensor after the first cleaning that did not fall off when I used the "in camera sensor cleaning setting".
The product I used is the $40 Dust-Wand kit see here http://dust-aid.com/shoponline.html. Maybe there are other products as good or better available, this is the only one I have used so I have no comparison.
I have used this kit for my others cameras also and it always does the job. But usually I have to clean 2-3 times before I have a clean sensor, some dust particles tend to go back to the sensor;-). I guess a better cleaning method would be to have a rocket blower also to remove loose dust particles after you use the wet kit to remove the oil spots.

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