Is this spot fungus in my lens, or is the image spot actually sensor dust?
Asked 12/17/2018
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2 answers
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I noticed a round spot inside or on my Olympus Zuiko 12-40mm lens, along with some other small particles. In photos, I only see a noticeable dark spot at smaller apertures like f/8 to f/22, especially against a plain blue background. The spot wasn’t there last week, so I’m worried it could be fungus or mold. It doesn’t look like a spiderweb or snowflake pattern—just a round mark with a small hole in the middle. Could this be fungus in the lens, or is it more likely dust somewhere else?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
3
Things on the back of a lens can cast shadows, but they have to be pretty big before they're noticeable. To see just how big, please take a look at Roger Cicala's lensrentals.com blog entry: The Apocalypse of Lens Dust
Whatever is on the rear element of your lens is not the right size to cause what your example image is showing. That's almost certainly caused by dust on the front of the sensor stack.
But it can be mold tho,im not concered about the image im concered about the mold
You'll need to post much higher quality (clearer and higher magnification) images for any of us to have any chance to tell what, exactly, it is or is not. To my eye it looks like it might be residue left behind by a water spot, but it is hard to tell from the images you have posted. Water spots are fairly easy to clean when using the proper methods. Trying to remove them with dry cleaning cloths can scratch your lens coatings.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
7y ago
0
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The visible spot in your photos is much more likely to be dust or debris on the camera’s sensor cover glass, not the lens. Spots that show up mostly at small apertures like f/8–f/22 are a classic sign of sensor dust.
Dust or marks in a lens usually have to be very large and in the right place to show clearly in an image, and the spot you describe doesn’t match that well. The mark you see in the lens photos is hard to identify from the images provided—it could be dust, residue, or possibly something else—but the image artifact itself points to the sensor, not the lens.
If your concern is image quality, check your camera’s sensor cleaning procedure in the manual and clean the sensor safely. If your concern is whether the lens has fungus, you’d need much clearer, close-up images for anyone to judge it reliably. Fungus often shows branching or web-like growth, which you say this does not.
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