I was plagued with dust and oil spots and what appeared to be hair on the sensor of my 1Ds2.
The previous owner it seems, tried to use a Q-tip to clean it, and the Q-tip touched the inside walls depositing hundreds of strands of hair.
I bought an Arctic Butterfly and VDust Plus (Visible Dust cleaning swabs with their liquid cleaner).
First I used a blower on the sensor, then I used the Arctic Butterfly, and finally the VDust Plus.
Now it's clean as a whistle. I use the blower between lens swaps, and it's stayed pretty clean since using the wet swab.
The 1DX appears to have dust, but it's hard to tell if the big honking spots are oil or big dust bunnies.
When you get the camera back from Canon, ten bucks says you'll find dust. But I can understand your apprehension to clean the sensor yourself on the 1DX, and your disappointment that it there when you bought it.
I've found that Canon bodies that have the built in sensor-shaker
cleaning go about a year in normal use before needing a wet-manual cleaning.
If you are changing lenses a lot, not using a blower, or doing so in windy potentially dusty environs,
you will get there sooner.
For older FF bodies, like my 1DsMk2, I clean it about 3 times a year.
Not a biggee, pretty simple.
I ain't hermetically sealed
Probably a good reason to have CPS if you can afford it.
I bought a new car recently, and when I got home, the front had several bug splats. I contacted the dealer, and told them how it was unacceptable that a new car should have such a thing. They swapped it for a different vehicle, but strangely enough, that one too had a similar bug splatter after quite some time. After my 5th new car, I finally realized that I could effectively clean my car using soap and water.
nice Ben. But I guess the OPs complaint is more targeted into the direction, that the dust/oil was in his camera from the very beginning. If this is indeed the case, he is absolutely right. I do not have such a visible amount of dust in my 5D II after 3.5 years using it with changing lenses all the time.
I would be very disappointed if my new 1DX was delivered to me in that condition. That is not only an excessive amount of merely cosmetic soiling, that kind of sensor splatter degrades IQ as well.
Furthermore, dust may not be difficult to clean, but lubricant sprayed on the sensor is a different matter. A wet and more agressive cleaning method may be required which also carries an inherently higher risk of marring the sensor surface. If that were to happen, how much would Canon charge John for the sensor replacement ?
All in all, consumers are absolutely right to expect brand new merchandise to be delivered to them in an unsoiled condition, regardless of its price. However, the higher the price, the more exacting our expectations need to be regarding the condition in which our new equipment is delivered to us. In a mass produced 35mm dSLR which is priced very handsomely (for Canon, that is) at almost $7,000, there should be no room for sloppiness, corner cutting or negligence by the supplier.
If I were in John's shoes I'd probably return the camera, either for a replacement or a refund. I would also notify Canon Japan of the disgraceful condition in which their brand new flagship camera (Ser. No.) reached the buyer.
Thanks PetKal I am a bit nervous to wet clean this right now in case I do something to make it worse. I can see some dust on the sensor using a light and magnifier but can't see majority of it. I am careful when changing lenses on my bodies especially when I'm out at softball games but for the dust on the upper left and around the edges to not even budget at all using the rocket blower? Wish I hadn't posted this now after reading some of the comments but. On top of the dust I had to delete around 1070 pics that I took at a soccer game on Saturday that were OOF, used my 300 MKII with the 1.4 MKIII, so disappointed and that many images can't be user error, I hope. Only around 87 were usable and I used the same damn settings I used at the last soccer game where I had a ton of keepers
John P Mulgrew wrote:
Thanks PetKal I am a bit nervous to wet clean this right now in case I do something to make it worse. I can see some dust on the sensor using a light and magnifier but can't see majority of it. I am careful when changing lenses on my bodies especially when I'm out at softball games but for the dust on the upper left and around the edges to not even budget at all using the rocket blower? Wish I hadn't posted this now after reading some of the comments but. On top of the dust I had to delete around 1070 pics that I took at a soccer game on Saturday that were OOF, used my 300 MKII with the 1.4 MKIII, so disappointed and that many images can't be user error, I hope. Only around 87 were usable and I used the same damn settings I used at the last soccer game where I had a ton of keepers
I believe the image is reversed of the position on the sensor so dust/oil in one corner of the image is in the opposite corner on the sensor. Someone please correct me if I have that wrong.
PetKal wrote:
I would be very disappointed if my new 1DX was delivered to me in that condition. That is not only an excessive amount of merely cosmetic soiling, that kind of sensor splatter degrades IQ as well.
Valid point, but he already stated this is not a new body.
Honestly I don't see the problem in giving it a once over with a rocket blower and/or a light wet cleaning before sending it to Canon.
jerrykur wrote:
I believe the image is reversed of the position on the sensor so dust/oil in one corner of the image is in the opposite corner on the sensor. Someone please correct me if I have that wrong.
Since you are looking at the sensor from the front when cleaning, dust is merely upside down. If you see a dust spot in the upper right corner, you'll need to look in the lower right corner. If we were viewing from the back (like the ground glass on a large format camera) we would also need to flip left and right.
I have owned a 5D which was a dust magnet, but never saw something this bad - EVER. I have wet cleaned mine a few times and my current 5D3, which stays much, much cleaner.
Yours is an expensive camera - send it in.
I bet this will require a wet cleaning to get it done - no anti-static brushes or blowers to get these off. I'm also guessing that there may be a problem with your Auto Sensor Cleaner in the body - have them check that out too.
I have the same on my 1DsII regulary, even if not as much. I guess it is oil from shutter and mirror box.
Blow it, and clean it with liquid and pecpad. Remember that the image is inverse, a dust on the bottom of the image is on top of the sensor, same for left/right.
This from Canon Technician "Your product has been examined and it was found that there was a foreign object in the imaging sensor assembly "
I emailed CPS about this asking a question and their response was
"I think they wording of the note might tell us what happened here. The technician's note specifically states that there was "...a foreign object in the imaging sensor assembly..." (emphasis mine) so I can only assume that this means it was caught in between the cleaning unit and the sensor. This would definitely explain why you would not have been able to blow the dust free, and why the cleaning unit was unable to vibrate the dust off either. Of course, this is an assumption that I am making based on the technician's notes, but it definitely fits the symptoms you were seeing. "
Once again I want to thank those that actually tried to help me and for the others, well........ next time keep it to yourself ok? So hopefully it will be the end of this problem and I can do normal cleaning when it needs it
I recently did some architectural style photos with the 1DX, mostly in the f/11 range, and noticed a fair amount of dust. Using a blower does not appear to have improved the situation... The dust looks very similar to what you posted in your sample image John.
I also mostly use the camera for sports and usually shoot pretty much wide open, so never noticed this until now. Maybe I'll take it in to Canon for a cleaning, but first will do a controlled pre-cleaning image to see if there is a significant difference after I get it back...
I had a couple of spots like the bigger ones that appear on yours on my 5DII, a month or so after I bought mine brand new. I was told it is oil from inside the camera!!??
From the pictures you have attached, they appear to be very similar to mine although you have way too many of them. Take some pictures of an ideally cloudless sky. Then use your air rocket blower and clean the sensor with some air and take some more pictures of the same cloudless sky with nothing else in the frame and post them. lets see if the spots appear at the same location or not. If after air cleaning you see them at the same place, I'd send it to CPS as I would not like to smudge oil on an $8000 camera's sensor. The bigger spots currently appear at around 11:30, 12:00, 2:30 4:30 and 6:00 p.m. on your first image. Your second image is not the appropriate type for detecting these spots. In your third image, spots seem to have moved!!! If that image is a good reflection of the situation, you may have a combination of dust and oil. I have everything I needed to have it cleaned myself but I was not happy with was happening and was worrying about the source/cause of it--so I sent it in and came back from Canon in perfectly clean shape.
John, the more I look at your images, the more I am thinking of oil from inside the camera. The idea of an external object getting in causing this uniformly distributed pattern does NOT make any sense to me.
John P Mulgrew wrote:
Oh I just emailed them about this. I didn't buy this to send it in to be cleaned though and if it were just dust then I would just clean it myself but this isn't dust. I wonder if anyone else has these issues.
Oh my. I have never seen anything like that. That is a LOT of spots. I have purchased new the following DSLRs: Fuji S2 Pro-->Canon 10D-->Canon 1D2-->Canon 5D-->Canon 1DS3-->Canon 5D3. None have shown that amount of spots. ever.
It was crap that the technicians had to remove and no way I could do it. "...a foreign object in the imaging sensor assembly..."
I've cleaned dust off of sensors before, not going to send into Canon each time but this time that dust would not budge at all. Try blowing it and if doesn't move then you know you'll have to send it in. Dust cleaning unit was working but it couldn't shake this stuff. I wanted to know exactly what they had to do but as usual they didn't say. I'm just glad to have it back, love this body!
nice Ben. But I guess the OPs complaint is more targeted into the direction, that the dust/oil was in his camera from the very beginning. If this is indeed the case, he is absolutely right. I do not have such a visible amount of dust in my 5D II after 3.5 years using it with changing lenses all the time.
next time keep it to yourself ok? So hopefully it will be the end of this problem and I can do normal cleaning when it needs it 
If that image is a good reflection of the situation, you may have a combination of dust and oil. I have everything I needed to have it cleaned myself but I was not happy with was happening and was worrying about the source/cause of it--so I sent it in and came back from Canon in perfectly clean shape.
Scott did you even read the posts about this?