Flash Generated Blemishes From a Compact Digital Camera - Advice Please?

looks like an internal reflection problem to me, i have heard it happen. John - what was the lens you used there?

It also could be particles of dust in the air

I'd ask for an exchange. Some photographs you will never have the opportunity to take again.

I agree with LTD's advice. I've never seen any camera with that effect and Nikon's reason sounds more like a excuse for some known design fault with that particular model of camera.

I wonder whether the effect is exacerbated by the small lens of this compact camera. As I said though, the phenomena is random and only occurs when using the integral flash.




I have also seen the phenomena produced by another compact digital camera.

John.

Doesn't look like any lens flare I've ever seen and that includes the halo effect of a Canon DO lens. It lacks the angular characteristics of the aperture blades.

My old Sony 2mp jobbie doesn't do this when there is a large speck of dust on lens (which by all accounts is tiny). May be a speck of dust INSIDE the camera that's doing it. This may explain the random nature of it, and why it appears so big in the picture.

Take it back. You'll be tearing your hair out when you start missing important shots.

John,

Something is not right, take it back.

Regards

George.

I have seen largeish white fluffy shapes on flash images that are not consistant in position or size and were taken in dusty cobditions. The dust is outside of the camera and perhaps very close to the lens and the flash and just floating in the air.

If the shape is a one off or very difficult to repeat then it is most likely to be outside the camera.

Derek,

I'm sure John won't mind me mentioning that some of his other pictures have what appears to be exactly the same shaped blotch for want of a better term.

I'm certainly no expert but I don't believe dust to be the cause unless of course this particular camera is susceptible to it. If that is the case then I would change it.

Dust normally produces small white dots as anyone who has developed their own monochrome prints will know. The 'blotch' appears to be flare or glare of some kind. I have taken many digital photo's and haven't experienced it. Maybe I've just been lucky.

Regards

George.

It looks like something from a pond in a photomicrograph.

I'd take it back before the dust settles.

George - you are referring to particles on the negative that give a white shape on the print.

Another thought - if it was internal to the camera I would expect you to be able to see the shape in the LCD viewer before taking the picture (if you can see the shape when you view the picture in the camera)

Time for a series of control tests I think

Derek,

Yes I am, and I thought it would be a similar problem if dust were the cause on John's pictures. I stand corrected if I've got it wrong.

In any event, I wouldn't want the hassle of checking every shot taken with the flash for that pesky thing, which I believe is too small to notice on the cameras LCD screen. So you get home, load the images onto the PC and there it is, not good.

Regards

George.

John,

Has the NBL shot been cropped? I seem to remember the 'blotch' was at the bottom of other affected pictures and roughly in the same area. Does altering the focal length of the lens make any difference?

Regards

George.

The blob is probably caused by dust in the air that is near to the camera, this phenomena occours more often in digital cameras when the flash is near to the lens and the CCD in the camera is small.

Paranormal investigators have called these 'orbs' and believe they are souls, or ghosts and some of the more dodgy ones offer tours to haunted places (dusty old houses) and provide the paying gullable with small digital cameras to photograph these orbs.

There was a TV program on a while back that investigated this and also explained how they occour.

See here for some more info
http://www.sgha.net/orbs.html

http://www.btinternet.com/~dr_paul_lee/orbs.htm

http://www.castleofspirits.com/orbs.html

quote:

Originally posted by J.N.:
I wonder whether the effect is exacerbated by the small lens of this compact camera. As I said though, the phenomena is random and only occurs when using the integral flash.




I have also seen the phenomena produced by another compact digital camera.

John.

"Spot" the difference (urk, sorry!)

cheers, Martin

Many thanks Stuart - lots of useful info there, which seems to confirm that the explanation for the phenomena stated in my Nikon manual is correct.

Interestingly; the orbs were quite prevalent in the series of shots from which I attached the example NBL shot, and we had just re-arranged the furniture and rug. I guess that's bound to stir up some dust.

More recently taken shots at home with flash do not exhibit the orb phenomena. I'm pretty happy now that air borne dust particles are the cause.

George - Mike used his Sony camera (same as yours) for some shots at the same time, and when he e-mailed them to me, I spotted orbs on those shots also. Admittedly not as obvious as with my camera, but they were clearly present. I'll e-mail you the evidence.

Thank you all for your contributions and suggestions.

John.