I’ve got a shadow that appears on images taken with my Panasonic Lumix TZ19. It only really shows itself when a picture has been taken using the zoom.

I’ve had a look at the outside of the lens and it appears to be clean which implies that there is some crap inside it somewhere.

I’m not confident enough to pull the thing apart so who would you recommend to clean it and how much would you expect to pay?

Narrow aperture and taking a pic of bright background (eg sky or white clouds) and it looks like a smudge in every pic? Think that’d be muck on the sensor.

I’m guessing sensor muck too. 😕

Try holding a vibrator against the casing. That might dislodge it. An electric toothbrush might work too 🙂

Try holding a vibrator against the casing

😯

If only my life was that exciting. 😐

I’ll try it on the washing machine.

Give Pennine Cameras in Rochdale a bell.

Very helpful & down to earth.

01706 524965.

Thanks Pete.

I’m a photographer and clean my sensor myself aprroximately every month (more if I’m changing the lenses all the time).

It’s dead easy and more of a confidence thing than a black art.

Have a look here for the swabs/liquids needed etc – Camera sensor cleaning equipment

and then youtube “Digital camera sensor cleaning” putting your camera make/model in the search criteria too.

TZ19 is a compact though?

TZ19 is a compact though?

It is.

Just been quoted £150 to have it cleaned… which is 1p more than I paid for it. 🙄

Going to give it a blast with one of those air can thingies.

Hence my vibrator suggestion! You may be able to shake the dust off the sensor without taking the thing apart (some cameras have a shaker built in).

I’ve asked my mum if she has an electric toothbrush (the wife doesn’t). Not going to take it any further than that.

Jet wash at the garage, just avoid the bearings and you will be fine.

Vibrator is a good option!! I know my dSLR vibrates when you turn it on to remove any dust that might be on the sensor.

Found it on youtube. I just need to get the smallest screwdriver in all of space and time to take the back off it.

Update :

Had a wide range of quotes to clean it.

Jessops – Have to send it away – £25 to give a quote + whatever it costs to clean it. But they won’t quote me for that until I’ve paid my £25 and they’ve opened it up.

Camera shop #1 – Have to send it away – “oooohhh they’ll have to open it up £100+”

Camera shop#2 – Have to send it away – “oooohhh last time we did one of them it was £150” This is rubbish as nobody would spend £150 to clean a £149.99 camera.

Online camera repairer – £60 inc return P&P – Fair enough

Camera repairer in Oldham – Can do it on site. £35+VAT. Same day service. Only 10 miles from my house so I can take it in myself.

Guess which one I’m using.

The vibrating toothbrush?

I’m trusting it to a man with a set of small screwdrivers, a tiny brush and a low pressure air supply.

I will however be taping a vibrating toothbrush to the underside of my saddle. 😳

I took my Linux apart after killing it in the summer – I’d want more than £35 to ever do it again!

P.S. it’s still dead

Sorry for the hijack but YGM in profile harry

YGM

Did my Panasonic Lumix recently as it refused to focus on start up and would “crash”.

I followed a clip from Youtube but mine was different and I couldn’t break it down as far as indicated on the video.

I put it back together and it still didn’t work so I banged it hard on the table. Works fine now.