Camera cleaning

Blobs in the sky

I took over Cees’ old camera (Nikon D50) when he upgraded a few years ago. I have used it on and off (more off than on if the truth be told) until I joined a photo group back in January. Since then I have learned a lot about taking pictures, about composition, about apertures and exposures and how to combine them to give different effects, not to mention learning about some fun things to do with Photoshop. So since then I have become quite attached to my camera. I may not be very good at making photographs, but I am having fun.

No, they are not UFOs, I've just marked where the blobs are

A few weeks ago, when I was photographing something with a predominantly blue sky, I spotted some marks on the photo. Any decent editor can get rid of those marks, but it is the sign that the sensor in the camera has dirt on it, so I took it off to be cleaned. Cees had it done a number of years ago, so it is no big deal.

Into Darty, near Mâcon, and as we always go there during lunch hour when virtually no one else goes into the shop, we had the sole attention of two very friendly and competent young men who decided to try and clean the camera themselves, for free. Filter off, clean the lens, lens off, clean the inside, on and on they went, with me popping in and out of the shop to take pictures of the sky to see if the blobs had gone. They finally admitted defeat and agreed to send it off to the service centre for cleaning.

I had to pay 40 Euros up front, then it will take a month to prepare a cost estimate for the cleaning. I would be contacted, to agree the price of the work and then it could be another two to three weeks to do the work. I would receive the difference back or pay the extra when the camera came back to the shop, but I was going to be without my new found friend for possibly two months!

Darty - Crêches-sur-Saône

Having said that Darty are always very pessimistic with their timing and things usually go a lot quicker. They did go a lot quicker, within a week I had a phone call from the service centre. From the story he had to tell me, the camera was full of broken bits and Nikon no longer support such an old model so spare parts were not available - bye bye camera. I was stunned, I had only sent it in for a clean! I managed to persuade the guy to clean it while he had his hands on it, which he reluctantly agreed to do, saying it would do no good. The only bonus was that he would only charge me ten Euros, so I would get a thirty Euro refund.

I was so upset by the conversation that I forgot to ask what was wrong with the camera, so I had no idea what to expect when I went to collect it from the shop two days later. In the shop, they had no idea either what was wrong with it as the only comments from the service centre were that spare parts were not available, so I got my refund.

Blobs gone!

I carefully unwrapped by "dead" little friend, steeling myself for what I might find, but it looked OK to me. I went outside and took a photo of the sky, low and behold the camera worked just as always and what’s more, the spots had gone!

That was several weeks and many hundreds of photos ago and it is still working. So thank you Mr Darty a camera clean for only 10 Euros! I am keeping my fingers crossed it will stay working for many more photos to come. I suppose I will have to face the inevitable one day - just not yet I hope.

For holiday accommodation where the skies are (almost) always blue click here.