SD450 Dropping Pixels??

[Kupe]

Hey gang-

Has anyone seen this before? I have a 2-year old 5 meg Canon SD450 Digital Elph. When viewing some pictures I took this week, I noticed a small, bright spot on each picture. I was afraid that I had suddenly developed a dead screen pixel on my new 24" iMac. But I observed that the spot moved when the picture moved, so I thankfully ruled that out.

Anyhow, I then downloaded the pictures to a different computer, but observed the same problem. Sooo, I used lens cleaner and lens sheets and cleaned the lens. Took some new pictures- but same spot is there!

Anyhow, the spot is centered at pixel 1803x916, on my photos of resolution 2592x1944. Magnified it is basically a white square with black border. The entire square is about 3 pixels by 3 pixels.

Does this sound like- and I hate to ask- the CCD is going bad in the camera? Anything to check to try to fix this? I tried a different SD card, but no help.

Thanks gang!

Kupe

[David Metsky]

You have a hot (always on) or dead(always off) pixel; I forget which one is a white spot and which is a black spot. It's a flaw in the CCD, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it is going to get worse. Some cameras have the ability to map those pixels and eliminate them, I don't think the Canon SD450 has that feature.

It's easy to fix in photoshop, but probably not something you want to do on every photo.

[Kupe]

Thanks David. From what I've been able to read online, the SD450 does not do remapping on its own. I've read of some utilities out there that do it, but none that state they work with Canons. And you're right, Photoshoping every image definitely won't work.

Does anyone know if Canon or an authorized service center can do a remap?

Thanks!

Kupe