EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 Spots in outdoor photos

[MSchramp763]

I am an amateur photographer but busy photographer, taking a lot of photos for events in and around work and school. I notice that occasionally I will find spots on my photos when I use my EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 lens, especially when I have been taking outdoor photos for a while. They always appear in the upper half of my photo (and usually are of the sky). The spots either go away or are not noticeable when I start taking photos outside or take photos indoors. Any care or cleaning suggestions? Thanks in advance!

[FloridaDrafter]

Hello, MSchramp, and welcome to the forum!

It's just dust or some other debris on the AA filter that is part of your image sensor. It gets on there usually when you change or remove your lens but can also get sucked in when zooming, particularly on non weather sealed lenses.

You can minimize it by holding your camera face down when removing the lens. You can also use a Rocket blower, whenever you change your lens, and blow a few puffs of air into the sensor box (hold it face down when cleaning). Truth be told, those spots are probably in other places, but really are more obvious in the sky (lighter solid color). It [dust] will also be more visible with different apertures, so as your aperture changes, the spots will be less/more visible. The built in sensor cleaning feature will remove most and may be why you see it come and go as you turn your camera on and off, but sometimes you have to give it some help with a rocket blower. If you have stubborn spots, you may need a sensor brush or swab, but that is usually not needed.

Newton

[ebiggs1]

"The built in sensor cleaning feature will remove most and may be why you see it come and go as you turn your camera on and off, but sometimes you have to give it some help with a rocket blower."

The sensor cleaning function is not available on al Canon cameras which model do you have as it sound like a Rebel.

I have found the Rocket Blower to be most effective if you use it as soon as you notice dust. If you don't the dust seems to fix itself to the sensor and has to be manually cleaned off. If you intend on being a serious photographer sensor cleaning is just a fact of life. Also if you are or want to be a serious photographer you need to get Lightroom from Adobe. The spots are no problem for LR. I think  you may be a student, so I know money could be a n issue too. But don't despair, as Canon has you covered with their free editor, DPP4. You can d/l it from the web site. Free! Its not LR but it is very good.

[Afzal_BG_BR_UK]

If those dirt/dust marks still remain on captured images.
Then, consider cleaning your lenses - front glass and rear glass elements with a 'rocket-blower' and where necessary you may need to use 'spirit-alcohol' (available from chemists/pharmacists) to clean optics and techie stuff. You will need a 'lint-free' cloth / microfibre cloth to wipe the lenses thoroughly clean.
--
The culprit is most likely the Sensor as has been advised.
You can use 'Q'-tips dipped in 'spirit-alcohol' and gently wipe the Sensor with them. Make sure that you use the 'rocket-blower' first. They are powerful enough to remove most debris/particles.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

I'm going to caution against using straight alcohol and Q-tips on an image sensor.

[Stephen]

OMG ME TOO! 

Request a cleaning service. It's cheap and fast! Get started at https://canon.us/account 

[ebiggs1]

The others beat me to it. I advise all new folks even more experienced photographers to not put anything smaller than a football in the mirror box of a DSLR or any camera for that matter.

[Stephen]

Is that an American football or a football football? 😉

[ebiggs1]

As to spots or dust, anything that a Rocket blower will blow off is probably OFF and won’t affect the photo. I’m not saying don’t clean the front element but don’t expect it to eliminate those spots. Using a protecto filter is a good idea because you clean it and not the delicate front element.