Something on (or in) my lens?

[spork]

I've got a Powershot Elph 130 IS - and I appear to have something on or in my lens.  For lack of a better description it kind of looks like an eye-lash that appears in every photo.    I've tried cleaning the front of the lens - but no luck.  The foriegn body zooms with the lens zoom so I assume it's not on the sensor, but rather on or in the lens.  I've thought about trying to blow it out with compressed air.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I can post pics if that helps.

[spork]

Well - I tried blasting the lens, and everything else, with compressed air; but no luck. 

Also tried cleaing the front of the lens vigorously.  No luck there either.

I took pics of the wall at three zoom settings.  Wide(ish), Med, and Tele.  

I can't see the foriegn body in the wide pic.  I can see it in the medium pic, and can see it most clearly in the full tele pic.  Oddly enough it seems to come more into focus and move toward the optical center as I move toward tele.  I would normally expect it to move out of focus and further from optical center as I move toward tele.

[spork]

The pics can be seen here...

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vwbwb6ts0kz7mvl/AABTDPhT0f5RsYk9V5CJ0Rysa?dl=0

[John_]

When you zoom or go tele your using more of the phsical lens surface. Its not there on wide so whatever it is is near the edge of the lens. I assume you can see the artifact on the LCD also ?

By the looks of your shop your are probably a handy guy, you might have to open up the camera to get at the problem or to be able to blow the air in better.

You might be able to google how to take your camera apart too.

If you get into taking the lens off be sure to mark where it is as with reference marks just in case you turn a gear or move something....then it might need recalibration but Im not sure thus the reason to mark it somehow to put it back exactly the same way.

Also you might be able to find a new lens assembly on an auction site or online somewhere if it comes down to that. They usually are not to expensive for that model.

[spork]

Thanks very much for the reply.  You make a good point about the placement of the debris on the lens.

I did take the camera apart after that last post.  I got in pretty deep, but not all the way into the lens assembly.  There sure are some tiny screws.  Perhaps I'll take it apart again when I've got some compressed air handy.  This morning I hit it with compressed air from the outside and through all the holes (battery, SD card, USB port...) - but no luck.

Looking at this another way... how do you think the Canon PowerShot SX520 would compare in picture quality with my Elph 130 IS?    I kind of want a better camera at this point anyway.  I think the SX520 has the same sensor, but it would appear it has a lot more glass.

[John_]

lol oh boy Im probably not the person to ask that of, it's a very subjective question. It took me a month and a half to decide on a camera and then Canon released the SX50HS so I took another couple of weeks before I decided on buying that one!

What I will suggest is to look at the refurbished cameras Canon has I wound up buying a second SX50HS for $170 and my new one was hundreds more, Id have to look but it was about $500. I also purchased the 3 year extended warranty insurance with it.

[TCampbell]

It's not on the lens.  It is not actually possible to focus on something on the front of your lens.  I've actually cut a piece of "Post It" note to a tiny size, stuck it on the front of the lens, and took a photo to prove that you cannot see it in the photo.  If you were to take a piece of thread or string, and hold it right on the front of the camera while snapping a photo, you wont see it.

In order to see something in your photo, it has to be located at (or near) a focal plane in the image path.  That would mean this "hair" (or whatever it is) is inside the camera and likely very close to the sensor (perhaps just a millimeter or two in front of the sensor.)  If you know how to manually control the exposure on your camera, then you would also notice that the shadow of the "hair" is well-defined at a very high f-stop and very blurry at very low f-stops.

The inside of your camera needs to be cleaned.

[spork]

You've clearly got a good point about it not being on the front of my lens.  I would agree that it must be somewhere inside the camera or lens.  Because it moves as much as it does with zoom I would not think it could be quite so close to the sensor.  But who knows?

>> The inside of your camera needs to be cleaned.

Yup.  Do you have any tips on how to go about doing that?

Thanks