If he is very ill, that is unfortunate. But in running a one-man operation, he should have at least ONE backup person to handle any and all communications with his customers. With today's technology, even a person in a hospital can grab a smartphone and reply to his accumulating emails. OK, ICU may be a different matter altogether, but any sole-proprietorship needs constant attention to customers questions and/or a backup person to handle customer-support.
From the OP's point of view, he really needs to know the status of the repair and if there is a MAJOR delay for any reason whatsoever, I can understand getting a little peeved at being in the dark. Nikon's site will let you see at which stage of the repair the unit is at present, so that is something you don't get dealing with the shop in question.
Being laid up in a hospital is not a picnic so hope everything turns out alright.
Charles
DaveGrScr wrote:
Here is where i started.
http://www.copperhillimages.com/index.php?pr=Tutorials
Great tutorials, supplies the works. I bought their mega kit and after 2 years of cleaning my camera, my wife's as several friends, i still have more than half the supplies left. I believe your 60D takes a 14mm swab and the Eclipse formula now covers all newer Canon, Nikon, Sony, Leica etc. See their list
+1
Yep, I tried several other products and none of them beat the aforementioned copper hill system. Easy, safe and painless if you follow the directions and prepare properly.
Charles
CHOLLY wrote:
You shouldn't.
Cleaning is easy and safe and cheaper than sending it off.
SERIOUSLY.
Agree 100%.
I had a miserable time with the Eyeleed gel stick and will NEVER use an adhesive again.
Went back to the tried-and-true Copperhill system and that's where I'll stay. Once you get the hang of it, it really is simple and economical to boot. You're basically wrapping a swab with a pad, moistening it with Eclipse and wiping a piece of optical-glass. Baffles me why some are scared to death to even consider it.
http://www.copperhillimages.com/index.php?pr=Copper_Hill_Products
In my research of sensor cleaning tools on the internet, the couple of instances of damaged sensors with wet cleaning was more than likely pilot-error, they did not follow the directions precisely or carefully.
Another pitfall of the gel is that it really should not be used in extremely hot environs, e.g. Florida, because it tends to soften and leave even more residue.
I guess we all should stick with what works for us. Wet cleaning for me is easy and actually fun ;-). Good luck!
Charles
Rich1939 wrote:
Use the blower first with the camera pointing down. Be sure not to touch the sensor with the tip of the blower.
PLEASE do not use a Q-tip!! There are special swabs available from reputable camera stores for the purpose. Saving a few dollars while putting a couple of hundred dollar sensor at risk just isn't worth it. There are videos on you Tube that show the proper procedure. I'll track one down and post the URL for you.
Yes, do NOT use a Q-tip. Here's a video:
http://www.moosepeterson.com/blog/2012/06/11/sensor-cleaning-with-copperhill/
Charles
Rich1939 wrote:
Be sure to use a Rocket blower first B4 getting too nervous about the dust. As far as the camera itself, where did you buy it? was it from an authorized dealer and who refurbished it?
I'm going to say something now that will scare you but but for the good of all UHH readers be careful who you by a refurbished D610 from. I haven't seen this yet but having been around for 3/4 of a century and a good part of that in the photography retail field I wouldn't be shocked to learn that used D600's, which are going to be hard for merchants to unload, are being re-badged as D610's and sold as refurbished.
Be sure to use a Rocket blower first B4 getting to... (
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Rich,
That was my first thought, too. It would be near impossible and unheard of for Nikon to sell a counterfeit refurb, but I wouldn't put it past a shady dealer.
Charles
b2bjacks wrote:
I thought I was safe from getting an oil problem on a D610. I read enough, where I knew to stay away from the D600. I only see two or three in normal viewing in Lightroom. But when I click on the magnified version, there had to be 30 to 35 spots to deal with. Have to take the real good shots and clean em up in photoshop. But I'm thinking if it's oil, they will have to be removed with a brush.
Off to shoot the sunrise on a beautiful west coast morning... we'll see if the self cleaning helped at all.
I thought I was safe from getting an oil problem o... (
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It's a very unusual situation you have there, a D610 with a D600 problem.
Do not use a brush on the sensor before having it wet cleaned to remove the lubricant. You'll wind up dragging the oil across the sensor and then you'll have dark lines where you've just brushed.
Go out and shoot and use the in-camera cleaning as planned. Before you return home, take a shot of that beautiful sky stopped at f/22 to see every last dust bunny and/or oil. Enjoy your weather, it was 20 degrees here this morning.
Charles
jerryc41 wrote:
Of course, on the sensor itself, the spots are upside down from where they appear on the sensor.
Right Jerry, it's one vertical flip from where you see it in the image to where the dust is on the sensor as you look into the chamber. The D600 owners learned this orientation well as the problem was lubricant in the lower left of the sensor showing up in the upper left of their images. I don't believe there have been any reports like the OP with the D610, or I may have missed them.
Charles
b2bjacks wrote:
Bought a refurbished D610 about a month ago. after about 500 exposures I have debris building on the sensor. Just realized their was a setting in the menu for clean when turned off and on. It's now activated. Will this cure my problem or do I need to lock the mirror up and "hand clean" the sensor. If so, how often? The upper left of the image is by far the worst. I didn't think the D610 had this problem. I thought it was only the D600.
Yes, that is very strange to have a build-up in the same area as the D600 sensor, the lower left corner of the sensor as you look at it. The D610 has a different shutter which should have solved the problem; I shoot a D610 and (lucky me) the dust is spread out uniformly.
When you say refurbished, did you buy it from Nikon or some other camera dealer? If you go ahead and clean the sensor and the problem persists, I would send it back to whoever you purchased it from.
A Rocket blower is the best way to start, but if that does little to nothing in the lower left corner of your sensor, it may be lubricant and it will need a wet cleaning. Others have posted good links to get you started, here is my recommendation:
http://www.copperhillimages.com/index.php?pr=Copper_Hill_Products
Charles
APB wrote:
My local dealer here in England warned me off 'rocket blowers' to clean the insides of your camera.
In his experience the manufacturers use a coating similar to talcum powder to ensure clean release from the moulds for the rubber and that this can cause problems as minute, residual particles are blown into the camera body.
Is this only a problem with the cheap and nasty products?
Well, your "local dealer" must be an expert on such products. And for a cheap and "nasty" product as you say, the Giottos Rocket blower has been used to blow off sensors as long as D-SLR's have been around. If it was actually spitting out minute particles into the chamber all of these years, how can tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of digital photographers not see their sensors contaminated by this material? I know I can't.
Anyone remember the old Ritz camera stores? I used to get a kick out of how the sales people would try to come across as camera/photography experts, most of whom probably didn't even own a camera. Take with a grain of salt people who say "a local dealer told me" or "a person who works in a camera store" told me. Just sayin'.
Charles
Here is another vote for:
http://www.copperhillimages.com/index.php?pr=Copper_Hill_Products .
I tried just about every other cleaning product but nothing beats the results I get with their products. The gel stick made an absolute mess of my sensor sorry to say, I believe they have some serious quality control issues in the manufacturing where some people get good ones and other people like myself get defective gels.
Good luck!
Charles
LaurenT wrote:
I am looking to have a couple of photos printed with a good processing company. Since I've only used Costco, I have no idea where to start looking. The internet has several, but again, I don't know who is good, average, or poor.
Input is more than welcome......
MPIX is very good as are these two:
http://www.hhcolorlab.com and http://www.whcc.com
I've been using the latter (White House Custom Color) for the past 8 years or so which should tell you how satisfied I am. If you click on "become a client", you can e-send them five 8"X10" photo-files to print for free just to see how close your calibration is to theirs. Their specialty papers are fantastic including "velvet" and "metallic".
Charles
Cdouthitt wrote:
Except that the em1 doesn't have an aa filter :-)
Duly noted, but it has to have a piece of optical glass covering the sensor array and therein lies the dust-shaker. The sensor doesn't shake or vibrate, just that component.
Charles
Cdouthitt wrote:
I've owned 5 olympus bodies since 2007...not one has ever had a dust problem...perhaps it's the built in dust reduction system taking care of all my bunnies...And I change lenses in the field all the time...including the beach.
Yep, my understanding is that the Olympus dust-shaker is the best one out there. It may also have something to do with the coating they use on the AA-filter. Nikon's shaker seems to work only for loose dust, once it gets "stuck" on the surface, you need to be more proactive.
Charles
PCity wrote:
I think for most of us, sensor spot problems are minimal, as they don't normally appear unless you are shooting at zoomed-in settings and at major closed aperatures. ie. 200mm @F32....and then mostly against a solid backgrounds.
If I can't see it, it aint broke.
Correct, but if I'm shooting a landscape with blue skies and white clouds or macro subjects, dust will be apparent even at f/8 or f/10. As I said, to each his own, sensor dust won't even show up if you're shooting wide open most of the time (f/2.8 to f/5.6).
Charles
Gene51 wrote:
The prime contributor to sensor dust is the rear element of the lens and the rear lens cap. I keep both of those scrupulously clean, in particular the cap. It is plastic and is a dust magnet. I can tolerate a bit of dust, but when it gets bad I either clean it or bring it in.
Gene,
Good tips to keep in mind. Telescoping zoom lenses will pump air w/dust in and out of the lens barrel then right onto the sensor when it gets charged. Also the body itself is not airtight allowing very fine dust to enter the chamber.
So it goes to follow that keeping the camera body and lenses as dirt and dust-free as you can will be a big help to minimize sensor dust.
As far as how often to clean, a lot depends on how much you're shooting. My outdoor shooting goes down in the winter (it's about 20F degrees as I type) so I'll probably wet clean once a month but I will use my static brush maybe every other day. When springtime comes I'll wet clean maybe twice a month.
To each his own in this department but some sensors seem to attract more dust than others. My D610 needs cleaning more than my D3200. These are the products I have been using for some time now:
http://www.copperhillimages.com/index.php?pr=Copper_Hill_Products
Charles