Can you diagnose this problem?

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Hi all,

I've posted this on the forums at dpreview as well, but have not gotten
much in the way of responses. I've also sent an example to Olympus' tech
support, but have not heard back.

I have an older camera (Oly C3040Z). Recently, I started noticing a small
colored spot towards the top left of any picture I take. An example can be
seen here:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y [...] tewall.jpg

The spot is at the top left of the image. This appears regardless of
whether I've used the flash, and is not sensitive to the zoom level.

Any thoughts?

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Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Looks like pink dust on the sensor! No really that looks like dust on
the sensor. Is it more visible at high f-stop number?

BNiizawa wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I've posted this on the forums at dpreview as well, but have not gotten
> much in the way of responses. I've also sent an example to Olympus' tech
> support, but have not heard back.
>
> I have an older camera (Oly C3040Z). Recently, I started noticing a small
> colored spot towards the top left of any picture I take. An example can be
> seen here:
>
> http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y [...] tewall.jpg
>
> The spot is at the top left of the image. This appears regardless of
> whether I've used the flash, and is not sensitive to the zoom level.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> ____________________________________________________________________
> : the next generation of web-newsreaders : http://www.recgroups.com
>

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"BNiizawa" <beandoggerel@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:8ps4k2xo3p.ln2@recgroups.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I've posted this on the forums at dpreview as well, but have not gotten
> much in the way of responses. I've also sent an example to Olympus' tech
> support, but have not heard back.
>
> I have an older camera (Oly C3040Z). Recently, I started noticing a small
> colored spot towards the top left of any picture I take. An example can be
> seen here:
>
> http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y [...] tewall.jpg
>
> The spot is at the top left of the image. This appears regardless of
> whether I've used the flash, and is not sensitive to the zoom level.
>
> Any thoughts?

could be (or of been) a spot of moisture on the IR filter infront of the CCD

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

BNiizawa wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I've posted this on the forums at dpreview as well, but have not gotten
> much in the way of responses. I've also sent an example to Olympus' tech
> support, but have not heard back.
>
> I have an older camera (Oly C3040Z). Recently, I started noticing a small
> colored spot towards the top left of any picture I take. An example can be
> seen here:
>
> http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y [...] tewall.jpg
>
> The spot is at the top left of the image. This appears regardless of
> whether I've used the flash, and is not sensitive to the zoom level.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> ____________________________________________________________________
> : the next generation of web-newsreaders : http://www.recgroups.com
>
This appears to be a flaw in the sensor. Can you determine when it
first appeared? Knowing what kind of pictures you were taking at that
time would help. As David Taylor wrote, exposure to the sun could
certainly do damage to the sensor, though I would expect it to be to the
CCD itself. The fact that it is colored suggests that if it were
damaged by light, the light could have been more blue-green, leaving
behind functioning pixels that result in a pink color when exposed to
white light. Are you ever around lasers, especially green laser
pointers? Alternatively,and more likely, the green-sensitive pixels are
in an absolute sense more sensitive to light and absorb more energy and
thus are damaged more effectively. In this case the sun was a likely
culprit.

It would be interesting to expose to uniform red, green,and blue pieces
of paper (best of all without changing the standard white balance). I
predict that on the green and/or blue paper exposures, the spot will be
much more pronounced, while it could be harder to see on the red paper.
It definitely is not anything to do with the lens or shutter, and if
it's software, it's incredibly bizarre. I suppose a transfer register
could be damaged, but the colored-paper test will rule that out. If the
colored paper test goes as I suggest, then I believe the only way you
could fix this is with a new sensor. That fix would cost more than a
new camera with more capability that this camera, assuming they would
even be be willing to fix it.

Hope this helps.

Joe

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"BNiizawa" <beandoggerel@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:8ps4k2xo3p.ln2@recgroups.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I've posted this on the forums at dpreview as well, but have not gotten
> much in the way of responses. I've also sent an example to Olympus' tech
> support, but have not heard back.
>
> I have an older camera (Oly C3040Z). Recently, I started noticing a small
> colored spot towards the top left of any picture I take. An example can be
> seen here:
>
> http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y [...] tewall.jpg

If you could please post a crop of that area of the photo at FULL
resolution, it would be possible to tell whether it's a sensor flaw vs.
something physically on your sensor.

That looks like a sensor flaw, but the 100% crop would help.

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Apr 27 2005 10:29 PM, Mark² wrote:


> If you could please post a crop of that area of the photo at FULL
> resolution, it would be possible to tell whether it's a sensor flaw vs.
> something physically on your sensor.
>
> That looks like a sensor flaw, but the 100% crop would help.

OK, here's another shot taken at max resolution and cropped:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y [...] 2/spot.jpg

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