kanuck said:
If I were you I'd just take it in and get a cleaning. Looks like a spot like that needs a "wet clean" I take my D700 in usually around the end of each month or so or every 1500-3000 actuations. Nothing worse than using the Clone stamp in photoshop to remove a bunch of spots especially on a light blue sky where they really stand out...

I agree. PS has the tools to retouch it OK at least for now.

Was shooting some lightning a week ago and there were some L O N G exposures, so I guess a dust speck might have got in there... Oh well.

By the way, don't you just LOVE the fringing? That example I posted is about the far left 5% of the shot :)

If I were you I'd just take it in and get a cleaning. Looks like a spot like that needs a "wet clean" I take my D700 in usually around the end of each month or so or every 1500-3000 actuations. Nothing worse than using the Clone stamp in photoshop to remove a bunch of spots especially on a light blue sky where they really stand out...

Wow, that is a big spot.. an elephant maybe?.

Now seriously, if you try to do the "dry" cleaning method, use a good blower (e.g. a Giotto rocket blower), and not a cheap one that may be throwing rubber pieces. Also do not use compressed air that may contain oil as well!. Another important topic is to use a fully charged battery before locking the mirror for cleaning... (Not all cameras will prevent you to open the mirror if the battery is not charged enough).. one of the common accidents is that while you are blowing, the mirror closes and the spring gets wrong and you need to send your camera for fixing it :(

The "wet" is more dangerous, but may clean your sensor as required.. (Search for "Copperhill CCD/CMOS Cleaning").

Disclaimer: Clean the sensor on your own risk!, I do not take responsibility if something goes wrong... I just wanted to give advice, it is up to you to decide to take it or not.

Good Luck!

Why not? Give it a shot.

Using a blower's the least likely to damage your sensor as long as you don't touch the blower bulb on anything on the inside.

I've had this feeling for a week now that there is a dust spot on my sensor, that the built in cleaning options isn't shifting.

I noticed it in a shot with a lot of sky but it was very subtle, so I went onto worrying about other stuff. Well, now with a day of nothing much (except changing a popped out headlight bulb in my car), I've looked closer.

In normal use, it is ALMOST invisible and it's easy to use the healing brush in PS to fix it, but I shouldn't have to; should I? Here is an example of it greatly enlarged:

Anyway... I went in and took a small portion (again, greatly enlarged) of the shot and upped the contrast way too much so the spot is visible, and here it is:

Larger version here: http://postimage.org/image/2yt8upq5g/

What do you think, lock up the mirror and use my blower on it?