FS5 - Dust inside sensor compartment

[Nigel Davey]

I seem to have dust inside the sensor compartment on my FS5. To be precise, with the naked eye it looks like a very very tiny spec that seems to be on the sensor side of the glass covering the sensor.

I've tried various lenses and (in the right conditions) the blotch appears in the same place on each one and only moves when clear image zoom is applied.

I believe this problem has been there since the camera shipped back in Feb, but it only shows up in the right conditions. Certainly over the months it's made a handful of shots unusable and I've even referenced it a couple of times in this forum.

I'm assuming this problem will be covered under the warranty, so I've just written to my supplier.

Here's some short ungraded clips showing the issue:

Blob on sensor glass on Vimeo

I'm only raising it on here in case someone else runs into similar issues.

[Alister Chapman]

Assuming you registered the camera with Prime Support, just give Prime Support a ring and arrange to get it picked up. It won't be something the dealer can do, it's a prime support job.

[Nigel Davey]

Thanks Alister. I've been on to Prime Support (PS) and they've been very helpful. The only fly in the ointment is the issue might be a defect in the optical filter, requiring a new one, rather than dust trapped inside the sensor compartment. Obviously PS won't know until they get the camera in. However if it does need a new optical filter they can't tell me the lead time on getting it in until they actually place the order on their system.

As you are probably aware the earthquake in Japan is making some Sony parts quite hard to come by. On top of that the FS5 is relatively new and someone else on this board had to wait two months for a LCD bracket to turn up.

Anyway I've agreed with PS that I'll send the camera in and if it does need a new optical filter and the lead time is excessive, they'll send the camera back to me until the part turns up.

This isn't the normal procedure, but they accept it can't sit in their workshop waiting for a part when I could still be using it on projects.

I'll update in due course, if only to let folks see what the turn around might be on some FS5 parts.

[Doug Jensen]

I would try to get them to diagnose the problem immediately when they get it, and then if there is going to be a long wait for the the part to come in, send the camera back to you until the part arrives. That way you can keep using it while you wait. Better to have an imperfect camera than no camera at all. I'll bet you might not even see the flaw at all if you keep your iris at f/4 or larger. A wide open aperture can hide a lot of crap.