oh damn, fungal bloom on my cmos sensor

sad face ...I recently pulled my EOS 350D out to grab some shots of some building that had occurred here at home. I downloaded the images to discover what looked like a little bunch of fine hairs in the bottom left side of all of the images.

Further research indicates it is a fungal bloom, and I can see it on the cmos sensor if I lock open the mirror for inspection. I have not been able to remove it.

I contacted Canon Repair center to try and find out how much it would cost to replace the cmos sensor ...here comes the shocking part ..."around $950".

I am now trying to decide on buying a new EOS 600D body, which I can get for around $970.

I have to ask why anyone would bother replacing a cmos sensor if you can get a new 600D body with new features, for $20 more than the repair cost of one's 350D body.

damn this exceptionally damp weather we have experieinced for the last few months...
damn stupid me for not getting dehumidified storage organised...

damn, damn, damn.

....the moral of this story - spend some small amount of cash on silica gel and/or dry storage to potentially save yourselves hundreds of dollars.

davidp

Damn - that's annoying.

But - good excuse to upgrade your camera.

(You could of course go full frame and get a used 5D Classic probably for less than that)

:( I am pretty gutted by this. After spending money to have renovations done, finding a spare thousand is a tough call.

I am watching an ebay sale of a second hand 350D body. The cmos sensor in that offer has just been cleaned, and images through it look pretty good. If I can get it for around $200, I might just put in a bid.

This is what I am talking about, btw -
http://www.davidp-inter.net/fungus01.jpg

That's annoying.

Alternatively, there must be some way to save that pattern of mould in photoshop and run some sort of action on each pic to remove it?

Bit of a pain though

I never heard of fungus on a sensor!
Fungus on a lens is something we do not want but on a sensor it's disgusting!
I feel for you but like John said...go for full frame!

leave it in a damper place and take a pic every month, years from now someone will google that crazy guy's work with the moldy pics

Quote:

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Originally Posted by el-Ignoramus

leave it in a damper place and take a pic every month, years from now someone will google that crazy guy's work with the moldy pics

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I love a lateral thinker, and might even do what you suggest, it could really be interesting :D

...especially now that I was successful in my ebay purchase on the weekend of a second hand 350D body for $280. A much better outcome than $950 right now, and I can put off updating for a bit longer.

Yup. I say let that fungus keep growing! It's already beyond a reasonable repair so I'd be interested to see how much you can make it grow and what other sensor harm you can do to it :)

Nasty stuff. I recently discovered some horrible mould in the eyepieces of my expensive binoculars - I'm arguing with the company to get them replaced as they are supposed to be 100% sealed.

As for your camera - you could always block off the sides of the viewfinder/mirror/sensor - and have it as a camera to shoot pseudo medium format style images