Dirty Sensor on Nikon D600

The image below is the upper left corner of a photo that I took yesterday. During post-processing, I noticed lots of spots on the image. I examined the image at 100%. There are spots over much of the image, with the largest concentration in the upper left corner. Tonemapping can really emphasize any dust or spots.

I read about the Nikon dirty sensor problem on the D600 model before I purchased it. Some sources said that the problem only existed on early units. A camera-store professional told me that reconditioned D600 units were repaired by the Nikon factory on Long Island and that the oil spot problem was corrected during repair.

Others noted that the upcoming Nikon D610 was a redesigned D600 that corrects the problem. Some said the D610 was just for marketing, since the problem had been corrected in current D600 units.

Your DSLR has a sensor cleaning menu function. My Canon is set to "clean" the sensor on power on/off. This involves an ultrasonic shaking of the sensor. Some dust might shake off, but oil spots will not. The official Canon sensor cleaning recommendation is to use a dust blower only. Nikon has dire warnings about damaging the filters that cover the sensor. It might be best to leave sensor cleaning to professionals.

The image below shows a problem that goes far beyond a few dust specks. I'll be returning my reconditioned D600 to B&H.

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography