SD750/IXUS75 - Dead Pixels on LCD and spots in the Image

[pjpeter]

Hi all,

First post just wanted to ask. I've gone through 2 exchanges so far of my SD750. I'm happy with the camera and did a lot of research before buying it and had never heard of what I experienced...so I thought I should post and see if it is just me.

I bought the camera 2 days ago with a price match from my local Best Buy, came out to save me $90 off the original price w/taxes (though it went down $30 today, go figure). I didn't touch it for a day and then I just had to take some pics so I got it out booted it up and took them at 5am. 3 of them came out quite well, the rest were just dark or blurry...but anyway what I found is a stuck white pixel on my LCD display. Very visible on black, somewhat visible on blue, but not at all on red or green. Then I noticed a white spot on every pic I took, about 2/3 of the way down and in the middle of every frame. Very visible on black. This was on the computer in Paint Shop Pro or Windows Viewer and even Paint...

So I had a stuck pixel and an error in the sensor on the same camera...I took it back and the next one had the same sort of error on the camera - a blue spot that was blue in the same spot in every picture. It was larger than one pixel. The LCD on that camera looked fine, but this artifact was driving me nuts. I hadn't left the store so I showed someone and they got me another exchange, and after 20 mins of checking this one looked ok on the LCD and the pics I took.

So my question is did I have amazingly bad luck or is this something normal (Either problem, especially the spots on the final pics...which were not dust on the lens), or if I look hard enough will I end up seeing them on my new replacement? Will this sort of thing develop on the average camera over time, and is there some way to fix it? This is my first digicam of my own, though I have borrowed 3 or 4 in the past and never had these many problems - I'm a noob so that's why I'm asking for some wisdom from you all :)

Thanks,
Peter

Here is regular size and a zoom of the dead spots from camera #1:
www.cczclan.com/DeadPixel1.jpg
www.cczclan.com/DeadPixel2.jpg

[pjpeter]

Crud, my new one also has a stuck pixel in the display :(

It's a white one, quite bright towards the edge of the display about 1/2 of a cm diagonally from the lower left hand corner. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get rid of it?

Thanks any replies are greatly appreciated,
Peter

[griptape]

I don't think you have any option except for another exchange/return. Sometimes you can get dead/stuck pixels out of monitors, but they don't have the hard plastic coating over them like a camera LCD does, so you basically have no chance of massaging it out.

[hokeyguy]

Those are pretty bad odds, I wonder if they are from a group of refurbs or exchanges?

[pjpeter]

Ya, might be. One of them had the string w/features, the other 2 did not and the last one I got had a sort of stuck on thing, like bbq sauce or something which I got off and the coating under was ok...but I don't think it's new.

I'll go to another location - thanks :)

Hoping for a good one at #3

Peter

[pjpeter]

Ok, I replaced the thing twice more, and took a look at 7 of them while in BB stores over the past 5 days since my last post. I finally decided to just stick with the one I got, the last one my nearest BB had in stock - it had 2 stuck green pixels, but they were faint and almost impossible to see straight on and not very visible from an angle. I didn't check the pictures though zoomed in at any amount until today though...that was a big mistake. It has the same picture artifact problems my first two had :(.

I have 3 days left on the BB 14 day return policy and I've come to the conclusion that no SD750/IXUS75 is without these problems...not in Toronto anyway :(. Here are some sample pictures I took while playing around with the camera. They all show the problems...

http://www.cczclan.com/camera/IMG_0401-2-Editted.JPG <-- Pic I took and then added circles around the problems, none of the others were editted in anyway.

Links to other pics showing the problem, none editted and most more interesting then just black:

http://www.cczclan.com/camera/274_IMG.jpg

http://www.cczclan.com/camera/395_IMG.jpg

http://www.cczclan.com/camera/400_IMG.jpg

http://www.cczclan.com/camera/401_IMG.jpg

http://www.cczclan.com/camera/411_IMG.jpg

Is there any way to fix this without remapping? Is this sort of thing normal, does it mean my lens is dirty or that I did something wrong?

Thanks very much for any replies,
Peter

[griptape]

You should be able to tell if the lens is dirty by looking at it. Lens papers can be found for around $2 for a box of 50. But I have to say, the only one I saw the artifact on was your first picture where you circled it.

No one is going to take the time to search for two slightly off pixels in a picture anyway.

[pjpeter]

Thanks for replying, I thought that Canon had some guarentee about this and I could expect it to be perfect. Good to learn this - I have a microfiber clothe I use to clean it and it looks ok to me... but I keep having these so. The white one in the corner I thought might be more of a problem.

Thanks,
Peter

[griptape]

You do have a right to get a perfect camera in my opionin, as you paid for one.

But 2 out of 7 million pixels... I would honestly never look at my pictures close enough to notice.

[pjpeter]

If I open it up in PaintShop Pro, especially depending on the size and default zoom the yellow one is very visible right off the bat and really stands out even in daytime photography if there is any shadows...the 2 blue ones are harder to notice though. I suppose I'll go back and leave happy if I can get one without a white pixel.I wonder though if I took a bright white shot if it would have other spots too.

Thanks,
Peter

[pjpeter]

Well, I took it back one last time and I'm quite happy with what I got now :). I tried out 2 in store, first one had a bunch of blue dots, the second though looks clean and has no hot pixels above 9 luminocity - which could just be a mistake by me not taking the shot in complete darkness (no lens cap).

It has a couple of green stuck pixels on the LCD, but is otherwise perfect and they are hard to notice, especially with the screen cover I put on it. They might go away with use as well. A clean sensor though is great to have so I won't have to clena the pics from day one :).

So I'm happy with it :) - Thanks to all who replied.

Peter

http://www.cczclan.com/Img_0520-resized.jpg