[rameshbalda]

Hi,

I am having trouble with my K-5 , having two dark spots on right side of image . Are these sensor stains or dust on sensor ?? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

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[mrNewt]

Looks like dust spots... time to blow your K-5's sensor

[crewl1]

Use one of these. Giottos Rocket Air Blower - (Large) 7.5" AA1900 B&H Photo
No canned air, it will spray gunk on your sensor.

[sterretje]

Nothing to worry about by the looks of it. The sensor stains that I have seen on the web (and experienced myself ) show themselves as a string of string (often called a 'string of pearls').

[jatrax]

Dust. Do you have the dust removal system turned on?

Dust removal procedure in order:

1. Use the camera dust removal system. There is a menu setting to turn on/off. If you have dust run this several times in a row and then check for dust again. I leave mine on "run on startup" and I think that is best so you don't have to worry about it.
2. Use a 'rocket blower' or equivalent to blow off anything the shaker will not get rid of. Do not use compressed air or canned air. Some folks report it is OK to use canned air if you are careful, personally I'm not taking any chances but YMMV.
3. Use a wet cleaning kit. This is the last resort, and on two cameras with over 25,000 actuations in all kinds of environments I've never had to use one yet. Get this if all else fails but don't go there unless you are sure you need it.
4. Send in for professional cleaning. Pentax extended warranty (in the US) includes one 'free' cleaning. Not sure about anywhere else.

Easiest way to check for dust is to set your aperture to f/22 or so and take an image of the sky. Dust on the sensor is more visible at smaller apertures.

[Canada_Rockies]

I've only had to use the wet treatment once on my K10d, which is somewhere over 20,000 exposures. I have it set to shake on startup as jatrax mentions.

[rameshbalda]

Thank you guys .. this was a relief ... I'll get it cleaned

[VisualDarkness]

Yeah, every person that changes lenses in the field will face that problem, way worse than that!

[thechumpen]

A tip for the rocket blower - give it a few good squeezes first. I have heard reports of people getting one and using it on the camera right away and getting little rubber bits blown all over the sensor.

[Kerrowdown]

Are these sensor stains or dust

Look like dust to me, happy days getting blowing.

[Na Horuk]

Just be careful what you use to blow on it! Using your mouth or a vacuum is a bad idea. You don't want to contaminate it even more, and you really dont want to cause condensation or mechanical damage.
The rocket blower should be pretty safe, lots of us are using it. That, and photoshop to remove the spots.

[xiaobaoxiong]

i'm still learning

[interested_observer]

I don't think that you need to go to the extreme of taking it somewhere and having it professionally cleaned. Most of the time its not necessary and it can get expensive at probably $50-$60 a whack. As everyone has indicated a rocket blower (about$10 mail order) is a good solution and it takes 2 minutes with really no skill involved. Just go to the cleaning menu - which lifts the mirror and opens the shutter (until you press the shutter release a second time) and use the blower to blow the dust off the sensor, without touching the sensor. Depress the shutter release again and you are all done. Tipping up the camera body and doing it upside down provides a path for the dust bunny to fall out of the camera will also help. That should solve 90% of the problem.

[goubejp]

Nothing to worry about by the looks of it. The sensor stains that I have seen on the web (and experienced myself ) show themselves as a string of string (often called a 'string of pearls').

And are located near the center of the sensor

[goubejp]

Try to activate sensor cleaning at camera startup. It is located somewhere in the menus, I activated it and had never to clean sensor for 2 years - and I change lens frequently. It is not activated by default