About two weeks ago, I started to notice dust spots on the sensor of my G9.

To my dismay, I knew exactly what they were, because my 20d, 30d, and 5d have always accumulated some after a couple of weeks of normal shooting. It wasn’t a big deal on those cameras – it was expected, and I could clean the sensor pretty easily. (I’ll add that my 1DmkIII has been spot free for months – the automatic sensor cleaning seems to do an awesome job)

But now I had a point and shoot camera with a sensor that I couldn’t clean, with 5 or 6 dark dust bunnies evident on every image. What to do? Live with it? Clone out all the spots on every image? I was the proud owner of a two month old camera that with every shot, even at f/2.8 – was showing some sign of dust.

After some googling and forum reading, it turns out I wasn’t alone. Looks like quite a few folks with the G7 and the G9 have had dust issues. It was suggested that I send it back to Canon to be cleaned, so I did, listing “excessive dust on sensor” as the problem.

While reading a few forum posts, I came across several arguments about whether or not point and shoots were “sealed” and whether or not to expect dust. Many argued that P&S cameras are sealed, and dust should never show up inside them, since you can’t reach the sensor to clean it. If dust does show up, there’s a defect of some kind. Others argued that P&S cameras are not sealed and will eventually show signs of dust, usually creeping in through the lens. I’m not sure what to believe.

I know it’s inevitable that given enough time, dust can (and will) creep in through any micron-sized opening in just about anything… it’s just what dust does. My concern is that a pretty good amount of it happened to make its way into the G9 within 60 days of using it (under what I would consider normal conditions – carrying it in pants pockets, jacket pockets and a domke camera bag). And will this situation continue to occur again and again in the future if I don’t somehow hermetically seal the entire camera in a ziploc bag or waterproof housing of some kind? I’ve owned a Canon SD400, and an SD800is, both of which had retractable lenses similar to the G9. Neither showed any signs of dust after living happily for years in and out of coat pockets, bags and backpacks. I’ve also owned a Sony F707, a Sony F828 and a Fuji Finepix 4900 zoom. None of them had any internal dust issues, even after years of use.

Perhaps I was lucky with those cameras, or perhaps the achilles heel of the G9 is that its lens design is just more prone to dust. Or maybe I just got a bum camera with a bad o-ring or loose tolerances. Who knows. I guess it really doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, my G9 has dust in it. I’ll have to wait and see what the folks at the Canon service center have to say.

Update Sunday, November 25th, 2007 at 2:28 pm:

It’s been almost a week since I sent the G9 back to the Canon Factory Service Center in Illinois. Still no word. Understandable though, because of Thanksgiving.

Update Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 3:01 pm:

“We have received your equipment for evaluation and repair. Based on our initial examination, we will start the necessary repairs at no charge to you. You can expect the repair to be completed and returned back to you within approximately 7 business days* from the date shown above. There is no need to respond to this notice.”

Update Saturday, Dec 1st, 2007 at 10:16 am:

“We are pleased to confirm that the service you requested on your POWER SHOT G9 has been completed and your equipment has been shipped to you on 30-NOV-07 . The tracking number for your package is 951510151276.”

Looks like it should be delivered by Dec 4th.

Update Wednesday, Dec 5th, 2007 at 10:33 pm:

The G9 is back and clean. They did a pretty good job getting all the dust out. But it did, however, come back with a single blown pixel, which is weird, because the report from Canon was the following:

“We have examined the product according to your request, and, it was found that the optical assembly was inoperative causing missing pixels in the CCD. The optical assembly was replaced. Other electrical adjustments and inspection and cleaning were carried out.”

There’s no doubt that the hot pixel sucks, but I’m not going to lose my mind because it’s not mission critical. My G9 is just a point and shoot camera… and, more than anything, I don’t feel like going through the rigamarole of sending it back to Canon again. I’ll live. One spot can be cloned out – i’m just glad all the dust is gone.