Grease Spots on Nikon D700

[Marko]

Hi there Leroy,

Although I have not had this problem, I have heard of it indeed. I have heard that it comes from the mirror mechanism in action and that action can cause 'splatter' in some cameras. I am not an expert at all in this, but the marks you point to, look like grease marks to me. good luck!

[leroylockwood]

Hi Marko,

Thank you for the input. I'm starting to get a little paranoid about looking for spots on my images. Sure hope Nikon took care of the problem, permanently!

Leroy

[Yisehaq]

Hi Leroy,
I am not an expert and probably you know this by now but it's better to avoid narrow apertures like f16 or f22 as this spot will be more elaborate on these f stops.

[leroylockwood]

Hi Yisehaq,

Yes, you are definitely correct. Thank you.

Leroy

[F8&Bthere]

My D700 is still quite new (bought March 2010) and I've already had to clean the sensor twice. I don't do many lens changes and when I do it's usually indoors with the body turned downward. I also have my auto cleaning set for every shutdown, and use the blower from time to time. The larger sensors just seem to attract more dust- I rarely had to clean my crop sensor bodies I've owned in the past (Pentax K100D, K10D and Nikon D70 and D300).

As for grease/oil yes I have read that this is usually more of a problem when the camera is new, and I have also read this is why your first cleaning should not be attempted with a lens brush (dry cleaning) because it will likely pick up the shutter oil from around the sides of the sensor and smear it onto the sensor (or something like that). One place I heard that was on Scott Bourne's photofocus podcast. I live out of town and didn't like the cost and inconvenience of professional cleaning so when blowers and dry cleaning weren't getting rid of the gazillions of spots on my D700 sensor a while back I braved my first wet cleaning. I went through like 5 sensor swabs to finally get it clean. They're not cheap either. It was a bit of a nerve-wracking experience, but I survived and so did my sensor (I think).

My theory FWIW is that if you have a full frame camera, change lenses, and shoot enough up around f11 - f16, and if you are firmly against the idea of cleaning the sensor yourself, you're going to either have to accept a lot of cloning/spot removal in post processing in your future, and/or spend a lot of money (and time without your camera) getting it cleaned....because they are dust magnets (I've heard the same about the Canon 5D)

P.S. I am surprised to hear that some shops are discontinuing the cleaning kits... wow!

[leroylockwood]

Thanks for the input. I was quite alarmed when it first happened since it never happened to my D70, D80, D90. This was the first time with the D700 for me. I'm hoping that since the Nikon Service Center checked it out, the problem has been taken care of.

As for stores not carrying the cleaning kits, that was only one store, Ritz at the Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo, CA. I was on vacation and my mode of transportation was limited to CalTrain that ran only once every hour so I didn't explorer the other shops. Besides, I was too keen on the idea of cleaning it for the first time while away from home and messing up. Anyway, I do most of my shopping online these days (if I'm home) so I'm not that concern.

Thanks again and cheers!