As the title says, I found a recurring smudge in my photos when I was editing this one. You can see the smudge in the middle of the photo.

At first I thought it was on the outside of the lens, so I cleaned it off. Still there.

I ran the “clean image sensor” program on the camera. Still there.

So I detached the lens from my camera body and when looking through it with the aperture wide open, I could see the particle that was causing the smudges.

I then took a photo of a white wall with the flash on at the widest aperture setting I could (f/36) which I will be posting at the bottom of this post body. There the middle smudge and a smaller smudge in the lower left can be seen.

Is there anything I can do to resolve this? I can see there are 3 screws at the camera side of the lens that I might be able to unscrew, but I have no idea what’s inside or how complex it would be to pick apart. It wouldn’t surprise me if I just introduced more dirt by opening it up.

The smudge is very visible at any aperture setting greater than about f/6.

I appreciate any feedback.

Photo of a white wall:

  • hanke@feddit.nuOP
    1·
    3 years ago

    I took a look at the sensor for the first time ever. It did not look like what I expected it to. Nothing wrong, just not what I expected to see.

    What do I need to clean it? Is there any good guide I can follow?

      • hanke@feddit.nuOP
        1·
        3 years ago

        Aah, cool. I’ll look it up.

        I’m still convinced the error is in the lens though… Since it goeas away if i open up the apreture a lot.

          • hanke@feddit.nuOP
            1·
            3 years ago

            No, that’s the thing. I only have the one lens. I just got into photography and got this camera second hand. It is in really good shape except for this. But yeah, ony one lens this far.

            I’ve been wanting to get a zoom lens, but I don’t dare to buy anything since I don’t know what to look for yet. So my plan is to learn a lot about lenses and get a zoom lens when I know what to get.

              • hanke@feddit.nuOP
                1·
                3 years ago

                Here are 2 photos without the lens on.

                I can’t see any smudges this time. Dust in lens confirmed? Also, all smudges I could previously see in the viewfinder was gone as well.

                  • hanke@feddit.nuOP
                    1·
                    3 years ago

                    I did use a fresh piece of paper to clean both sides of the lens, so that is not the problem.

                    Also, I can see a particle of some sort suspended inside the lens.