Is this CCD dust or something else?

[jwalitm]

Hello folks,

I purchased the Fuji F30 a couple of weeks back and was very happy with the camera, esp. in low light....

yesterday I took a few shots using a flash outdoors where the subject was at some distance. I observed several hexagonal blotches (hexagonal I guess because of the arrangement of the sensors on the CCD...) as seen in the attached pic. I had observed similar problems with an older Kodak point-n-shoot.

There isn't any dust observable on the lenses.... Wonder what is the problem....

On regular daylight shot without a flash things look great. No blotches or anything else....

Diagnosis?

[nesbitt_bub1]

those blotches are too big to be dust on the ccd.... ccd dust tends to be small spots with very clear edges. This is beacuse the dust is up against the ccd so it masks a very particular area.

The edges on those blotches are out of focus, this means there not on the ccd. More than likeley there on the lens. Have you tried to clean the lens wth anything? Or has the camara out in the rain? If you want to clean it you can buy wipes from most camera shops, Or use a soft lint free cloth. I'm not going to recomend any chemicals as i don't know what coatings your lens has!

It could aslo be dirt on thie inside of the lens... this is the worst case scenario, and would probably require you sending the camera back to be professionally cleaned. My money would be on dirt on the oustide of the lens tho!

[Riley]

The hexagonal ghosts in the photo are caused by direct light from the source at upper left hitting the lens and reflecting in the elements. The shape is a natural effect caused by the blades of the camera aperture. There are a lot of them because the 'ghosts' are reflected among the lens elements.

you can shade the lens with a free hand to avoid this

[jwalitm]

Thanks guys, I appreciate your help.

True, I tried googling for how CCD dust looks like on an image. I found only one image and that looks nothing like this. The other relatively irreparable problem would dust in the lense assembly.

But I'd rather be optimistic since this is a fairly new camera and assume that this is some play of light. As long as this problem remains trivial, I'm fine.

thx again...

[Cozmo]

These are dust particles in the air reflected by the flash on your camera.
That is because on compact cameras flash is to close to the lens so if you have enough dirt or dust in the air it will be reflected by the flash and it will look like white botches on your pictures.

Nothing to worry about, on all compact cameras it will be the same if you shoot with flash in dirt, dusty enviroments.