Stars or dust Particles

[gazza666]

Hi

I have just been trying my Nikon coolpix 990 camera at some pics of the stars I am going to buy a canon EOS 500d soon

Anyway I have took a few pictures and thought I have captured some stars but it turns out to be dust ,as I thought on the outside of the lens but I have cleaned the outside and I can still see it

The same dust spots appear in all pictures they don’t move

Its difficult to tell the dust from the stars I hope my new canon does not give me this trouble

Any advise please

These are dust particles somewhere

[dlp]

Hi Gazza. I'm not familiar with your camera, but I think it's a fixed lens compact. You didn't say what settings you are getting the problem at (shutter speed/ISO), and knowing this will help isolate the problem.

David

[Ags]

Could at least some of them be hot pixels instead of dust?

As you get the same spots in each image, you can subtract the spots in an image processing program - take a photo of darkness, then subtract the spots from your real images. I don't do imaging, so maybe I should shut up now! :-) Good luck anyway.

[geordieskies]

hi Gazza, I have a similar problem with my Canon Powershot G9. It started a couple of years ago with 2 tiny red dots on my pics. I now have 6 of them. I'm not sure if it's dust on the sensor or maybe 'dead pixels' on the sensor. They aren't usually a problem but with images of a dark sky they are more noticeable. Because they are red they are easily spotted and I just paint them out in Photoshop. I've just bought a 500D too, can't wait to try it on the scope. Cheers :-)

[gazza666]

Hi

Ive took various pics exposure setting from 1 to 8 sec is0 200 to 400 but all the same yes it is a fixed lens

[gazza666]

yes come to think of it now you must be right they are dead pixels

because they are Coloured

[dlp]

As others have already said - it's likely hot or dead pixels on your sensor. Could also be dust on the sensor, but seems unlikely as it's a fixed lens. If you give your image a wild stretch in Photoshop, you'll see a lot more, but I have to say some of it looks like dust. These can be removed in processing by taking 'darks' (search forum, loads of posts). Hope you're 500D will be a lot better, but most cameras have a few!

David