Sensor cleaning Polaroid X530 Foveon

My X530 had a nasty dust spot that was very annoying. Cloning was possible, but since the spot was really big, not always the cloning ended happily. If it were a DSLR or an EVIL with interchangeable lenses, this would'nt have been a trouble, but being a compact camera, the issue is quite different: to get to the sensor, the whole cam has to be disassembled.

Since it's an excellent cam with a Foveon sensor, I was really disappointed having it at the "hospital" box for long time. So I decided to open it this morning and try to clean its insides. Most of the compact cams are similar, so this can be a rough guide on how to do it. However I don't recommend it to anyone without some deep electrical/electronical/mechanical skills. It's better to send the cam to the customer service. They have tools and procedures that can guarantee the success. So my disclosure: This is just informative, and I will not accept any responsiblilities if someone decides to open his/her cam and ends with a camera corpse...

The first step is take out the battery and let the cam rest for one day to allow the capacitors to discharge and avoid any accidental damage by a short-circuit. Then start disassemblying it from the top and the bottom. Finally, remove the back.

Once opened, carefully disconnect all the cables and wires, writing  down all the details and shooting enough pictures to have a guide in case of doubts.

The sensor is located inside the camera body (in the picture top-left side) and fixed by four chromed flat head screws.

To reach the sensor is mandatory to take out those four screws:

So you can access the sensor and its housing:

At this point only remains to blow over the sensor and the housing to remove the dust, and assemble it back in reverse order.

And finally, test the succes of the operation by shooting a white area:

Hope this can be of interest for somebody.

SD14, SIGMA 70-300 zoom at 300mm

 

A nice sparrow against the sun. I really don't like zooms but this time I carried the 70-300 to save space.

SIGMA SD14, traveling to Galicia

 

The Carl Zeiss Flektogon, a 35mm f/2.8 lens on the SIGMA SD14 is giving a really nice colouring and sharpness.

Pentax K10D, superb at high ISO

When almost everybody is hurrying up to get the latest zillionmegapixel bogomips latest camera, I feel mine are plenty of capabilities and not feeling the need to change.
I keep the Canon 350D because the amount of adaptors for the nice Manual Focusing lenses. I got not long ago a second digital SLR body, a Pentax K10D that is still surpassing me.
Yesterday I went accidentally to the first basketball match of my son. This year all the team players are 18 or over, and this means age majority in Spain, (they can vote, drive cars and go to jail). So my responsibility as a supporter has (teorically) ended.
My son called me yesterday from the place they meet before leaving to outside matches, near to their training pavilion. They had not enough cars to move the team, so he requested my help "this time only". Since it was a little late to get to the match in time, I just picked the camera bag without caring which lens was in. (At the end it was the Pentax DA 16-45, not a fast lens...).
After one hour driving to an small village in the nearby of Manresa, we got really in the neck of the time, just a few minutes later and the match would not have been performed.
So I patiently sat without any hope of taking pictures. The place was dark as a wolf's mouth. After my experiences past year with the Canon 350D I didn't have much expectations, because the high ISOs.
I got really surprised when I came back home and saw the results. I didn't take too many pictures, just some samples, but the difference in noise at ISO 1600 against the Canon is huge.
Just as a sample, (not trying to show any artistic capability on the picture). It was shot at f/4.0 and ISO 1600. The lens wide open and the maximum ISO level. The stabilizer on, to try to help. The light meter was giving me measures that allowed for speeds between 1/180 and 1/350, that could be enough for the purpose.
Here you have an unretouched sample, just converted from RAW to JPG by Picassa (I know, I have to move to Lightroom :) ).

This seems promising to me. Next match I'll be ready with a faster lens, the 135mm Tammy that is 2.5...

And I have a camera for many years... :)

Jes.

Test shots with the refurbished CHINON 35EE

 

 

 

 

Helios 44M-6 test shots

 

 

 

Industar 50 shots

 

 

 

 

industar 50, test shots

 

 

 

 

VV Focus screen test shots