Can someone tell me if this is dirt on my image sensor? They show up in the same place in other images.
This photo is a bit clearer — taken at f22 manual focus at the sky and in the exacly same place.
Thanks for all the answers! i'm not going to continue worrying about it
it's almost invisible :)
Perhaps. Your supplied example doesn't show obvious dust. You can get a 'clearer' view by stopping down to f22 and taking an out-of-focus shot of a featureless wall or clear sky. Shutter speed doesn't matter. Any debris on the sensor will show up nicely. Note that debris on the rear lens surface -may- also show up, albeit softer...
Assuming your sample images are of the camera's entire frame, then your spots are a bit larger and softer than typical dust on the front of the sensor stack would look at f/22. Check the rear element of your lens for dust or maybe even water condensation spots. If you don't find anything there, keep moving forward. The further forward you go in the lens, the less distinct the influence of dust and other surface defects will be. By the time you get to the lens' front element it takes a substantial amount of something to be very noticeable.
Roger Cicala, founder and lens guru at lensrentals.com, did a blog entry a while back that showed just how much "stuff" could be in the light path before it made much of a difference.
