[theo cupier]

Just got back from a week of holiday, enjoying the rain in North Norfolk!

Actually managed to get a decent number of "keeper" photos from this holiday with my D80, but lots of them are blighted by dirt on the images.

Initially I just had a couple of fairly central dust spots, so I took the lens off and cleaned the front and rear glass with a microfibre cloth and had a huff around the internals of the camera body with my old blower brush.

The result is that I've now got lots more, larger dust spots and some random straggly bits in my photos too! ARGH!

So, I've had a read through Thom Hogan's guide to cleaning the sensors (HERE) and it sounds a little intmidating.

My questions:

Are the bits of dirt likely to be on the sensor or other bits of the internals/lens - in other words, should I concentrate on "properly" cleaning other bits of the camera/lens before tackling this and if so what/how?

Can I just poke around inside the camera body with a microfibre lens cloth without doing harm, for example?

Is the cleaning process Thom describes safe and straightforward? Are there any good, cheap and quick ways of getting this done by someone more competent (and fundamentally INSURED) than me?

I'll post a couple of my dirty holiday photos (I'm sure I could word that better ) to illustrate the problem, shortly.

[jomike]

The reason that it got worse when you used your blower brush is because the brush part collects dust, which you then blow onto the sensor. The blower you need is one without a brush like this


If that does not shift it, you can try a wet clean with these, as described on Thom Hogan's site.

I have wet cleaned my D50's sensor a few times now, with good results. You just have to take a reasonable amount of care and follow instructions. Essentially what you are doing is blowing and/or wiping dust off a coated glass surface.

[Boldonion]

Cleaning the sensor sounds intimidating but it's not. There's not a lot that can go wrong as long as you use the right equipment. Buy some sensor swabs and some Eclipse fluid and you will clean things up I gurantee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67vLGotCFd0

[johnaalex]

Do what I do - go to a proper Nikon dealer and get them to clean it for you. I paid 20 quid at Chiswick Cameras abd thought well worth the money. Glad to see the camera is serving you well