Canon P&S Mystery Lens Dust

[bwesso]

Hey y’all— I recently noticed a white blob that appeared on some of my shots from my Canon S95. It only appears above f/5.6, but has a pretty substantial effect on the photos. Looking with a microscope ocular, it looks like a small collection of dust or fungus perfectly centered on either the first or second element of the lens.

Just curious if anyone had experienced something like this before. The placement is just unusual. I never store the camera lens down like that, so it doesn’t seem like dust would settle there. The only thing I could imagine is that it’s damage on a lens coating from sun/flash but I’ve never noticed it until today.

I know this is a digital camera, but it’s still lens talk, I think the forum applies.

Thanks!

 

[Dan Daniel]

Not sure what that is. I do know that most lens assemblies for camera like this are pretty well stand-alone units that you'd replace as a block. Not much chance of getting inside the lens elements to clean that off. You can try, of course. Those small zoom lenses do so many strange internal movements and create small vacuums and such all the time, maybe we should be surprised more gunk isn't all over the inside. Try blowing lots of air as you zoom around, focus around, etc.?

 

[koraks]

It looks more like fungus or even some kind of lens element separation or coating flaking than dust, to be honest.