Will you mind the slightly scratch on sensor？

[Viktor Long]

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This may sound like an overly anxious person expressing his troubles... The case is that i have a Leica M8, bought in 2023, and use it for almost two years, I love this old digital camera. But in fact, there is a scratch below the edge of its sensor, which cannot be removed. If you look closely, it is a hair-like bright mark, which is shown as a short and thin black line in the photo, and there is a slight light leakage around the black line. I suspect that it may be a scratch that I accidentally made when I cleaned it, or it may have happened before I bought it.

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As a perfectionist, the scratches of the sensor are a frustrating tragedy. Although I have been using it for more than two years, I have taken it to many unforgettable places and taken a lot of excellent photos.

As far as I know, the protective glass of the Leica m8 sensor is quite thin. In the past, the maintenance policy was often to replace the whole sensor instead of replacing the glass alone. To this day, I believe that the sensor of Leica m8 is no longer available, so the cost of trying to repair or replace this small scratch may be huge, and I may not be able to afford it.

I often comfort myself: it's not a big deal. If you don't use f11 and don't shoot a large area of blue sky or white walls, it won't be visible. And even if there are no scratches, there are many dirty spots that are difficult to remove. But I still can't help thinking: if it could have been a perfect device...
 

Should it be a worry to me? Or I would better just use it? Will you mind the slightly scratch on sensor？

 

[otto.f]

I seldom  use F8 to F16, thus I seldom see dust or scratches. Anyway, dust and scratches can be repaired quite fast for a whole bunch of captures, and certainly for this little scratch. So I would accept this relatively small problem for an old camera with its own character of images.

[Viktor Long]

2 hours ago, otto.f said:

I seldom  use F8 to F16, thus I seldom see dust or scratches. Anyway, dust and scratches can be repaired quite fast for a whole bunch of captures, and certainly for this little scratch. So I would accept this relatively small problem for an old camera with its own character of images.

Thank you for your experience. It's true that it depends on how you view it. I just sometimes feel, "Oh, it's a pity, it's so good but not perfect!" What we need to do is to accept imperfections and avoid shortcomings.

[jaapv]

You can make an action in photoshop or Lightroom to remove this on pixel level with one click

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/web/edit-photos/apply-actions/edit-photos-with-quick-actions.html

[rogxwhit]

I suspect that in many or even most images, this will be unnoticeable, given 'normal' viewing parameters.  And easy to retouch in cases where it is.  And I might ask how often you produce a perfect image anyway?  I certainly don't.  I think the answer's just to roll with it, and get on with enjoying the hard-won prize of life ... 

[Tailwagger]

With so many spots, almost all appearing to be a single pixel, I wonder if these are dead pixel sites as opposed to scratches.  Dunno the year of your M8, but the sensor is nearly two decades old now.  For me, given the amount of defects currently, they are not a huge concern given they can be addressed in software.  I would be more worried, if indeed this is a sensor not a cover glass problem, that the problem will only grow worse over time. Perhaps its time to consider an M9?

[Viktor Long]

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15 minutes ago, Tailwagger said:

With so many spots, almost all appearing to be a single pixel, I wonder if these are dead pixel sites as opposed to scratches.  Dunno the year of your M8, but the sensor is nearly two decades old now.  For me, given the amount of defects currently, they are not a huge concern given they can be addressed in software.  I would be more worried, if indeed this is a sensor not a cover glass problem, that the problem will only grow worse over time. Perhaps its time to consider an M9?

Thank you for your careful observation. This blue sky was taken at f11 or f16, so many dirty spots on the sensor are displayed very clearly. I don't think this is similar to the corrosion of m9, because the surface of the sensor is clean and smooth with the naked eye.

This m8 has a lot of sensor stains since it was purchased. It's not just simple dust. I suspect that it is also mixed with oil from the shutter. I tried to use wet cleaning to wash it many times, but the result was that the large particles of dust were only crushed into small particles, and it was difficult to clean them all up. This is how these little black dots came from. Then I haven't done wet cleaning again for a year.

Worried about the corrosion of the m9, I may not feel the need to replace the m9. If the budget is sufficient in the future, maybe I will try m10.

 

[Viktor Long]

I will show you the scratches in this blue sky test chart. Ordinary dust is just a gray-black dot, and there is a slight light leak around the scratches, right? So I think this should be a slight scratch on the surface glass of the sensor, but not the sandwich dust between the cover glass and the CCD.

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[Viktor Long]

3 hours ago, rogxwhit said:

I suspect that in many or even most images, this will be unnoticeable, given 'normal' viewing parameters.  And easy to retouch in cases where it is.  And I might ask how often you produce a perfect image anyway?  I certainly don't.  I think the answer's just to roll with it, and get on with enjoying the hard-won prize of life ... 

Just enjoying the hard-won prize of life... Your words are very inspiring to me, thank you.^ - ^