How to check for dust specs on the image sensor

IMPORTANT: If model-specific information is needed to complete any of these steps, check the specifications or supplied operations guide.

To check whether your camera has dust specs, which will appear in the image as dark spots, follow the steps below.

1. Turn on the camera.
2. Set the camera to the Aperture Priority mode (A).
3. Set the ISO to 100 or 200 whichever is the lowest setting available on your camera.
4. Set the focus mode on the camera (and lens if applicable) to Manual Focus (MF).
5. Set the aperture (f-stop) value to approximately F11. 
6. Do one of the following:
   • If you are outside, point the camera at a clear, blue patch of sky.
   • If you are inside, point the camera at a plain white piece of paper.
7. Zoom in the lens so the sky or paper takes up the whole frame.
8. Take a picture.
9. Set the camera to the playback mode.
10. View the image on the LCD screen of the camera.
11. Use the zoom function of the camera to zoom in the picture.
12. Scroll left to right and top to bottom to examine each section of the image.

To clean dust from the image sensor, select Cleaning Mode in the camera menu.

Cleaning also can be done manually by detaching the lens and using a hand-held camera cleaning blower to blow away any dust particles from the surface of the image sensor.

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