Blemishes

 Hi all you techy folk , a bit of advice please- my TZ25 has started to show a few dots on images. They are almost invisible at the short end of the zoom range and much more pronounced at long end, they are soft edged but enough to be intrusive. I thought maybe a speck or two on the lens but cannot see anything and have cleaned the lens anyway but it is still there and it is visible on the image taken and on the camera screen when composing. If it was a dslr I would have thought rougue dust but this is a fixed but zooming lens on a compact camera- to me it has to be lens and not sensor as it is harsher when zoomed out to max. there is one major spot plus a couple of fainter ones. They are most evident on the shots taken yesterday of the parakeet as the backgroung is mostly a solid blue sky.

             Well is it doom as I bet the cost of having it cleaned would be prohibative or just a case of talking myself into an upgrade which I should not really be doing? 

Hi Vince. Noticing blemishes on a uniform blue sky does sound like dust on the sensor. Unfortunately, Digital Compact Cameras are not immune from dust on the sensor, and there is a video on the web showing how to disassemble a Lumix DCC and clean the sensor, but I would not recommend this course of action unless you are confident in working with small mechanisms.

Zoom lenses are notorious for 'hoovering up' dust and this will inevitably get through to the sensor eventually. Dust within the lens, unless it is really bad, is unlikely to cause noticeable blotches on the image.

If the blotches are not too bad, then maybe some post processing with the clone brush might fix the problem. 

 Greetings Edward and thank you for your reply. I spent most of yesterday evening reading up on this subject was surrised that this is such a problem having not come across it before. Seems as the telescopic lens comes to life as the camera turns on there is a vacumn effect inside the camera which is equalised by air passing through the joints in the lens and oh dear small dust particles as well. 

        Edward, I did see that video of pulling a Pany to bits - not a job for the likes of me I am afraid and I did notice a new drop of dust today so not healthy news. I did hear some folk have fixed the prob by sticking the lens up a hoover hose - I have my doubts.

It seems like you have done your homework thoroughly, Vince, and you can see the problems.

Dust has always been lurking to spoil an image. Even with film processing, there were plenty of opportunities for dust to cause problems. Unfortunately, as you become more critical of your own work, you are more likely to notice these blemishes.  

Professional cameras and  lenses will have much better dust sealing, but this is one of the reasons why they are so expensive. 

I agree with you, Ruth, that it is probably inadvisable to put the lens down the Hoover hose, but vacuuming around the front of the camera (where the lens telescopes in and out) might be enough to dislodge the dust from the surface of the sensor. This is likely to be a temporary fix only, the only real solution is a strip-down job.

Incidentally, many DSLRs have a built-in Dust Removal feature which shakes the sensor ultrasonically every time the camera is switched on and off, but I don't think many (or any) DCCs have this feature. The sensors on some cameras also have an 'anti-stick' coating.