smudge on all my still photos for Mavic Pro but not on videos.

[harvest moon]

Recently I noticed a smudge spot in the middle of every still shot I take. It's towards the top and in the middle so I usually can crop it out. But I don't see it when videoing at all. I don't see anything on the lens but just bought a lens pen I am going to try to use to see if that gets rid of it. Has anyone ever had this issue before?

 

[BD0G]

Could be trapped dust on the inside of the lens that they missed during assembly / quality control. If there is anything between the sensor and the inside of the lens it can cause that type of distortion.

 

[4wd]

Your video will be cropped top and bottom to get 16:9 and the stills maybe are 3:2 that is a more square format using the whole sensor.
Often these specks are only held by static, you can't realistically open it up to clean, but sometimes a few sharp taps with something like a pencil will dislodge it.

 

[harvest moon]

I've had it since May 2017 and the spot just appeared one day in early December. So something must have gotten in there. I tried blowing on it as some one suggested. But that didn't work. There is some kind of air blower I've seen people suggest using. I may try that. Its such a bummer having it in every still shot. I have to crop it out, which is usually up in the sky so not bad but other times I can't crop it out.

 

[BD0G]

Rub a piece of silk on the outside of the camera lens and see if you can generate some static electricity to attract the particles (s). Then try and shift them to another spot off camera.