FZ20 Dead Pixel

[deadrise]

I have had great luck with my FZ20 until reviewing my photos from this past weekend. On some of the photos I noticed a stuck red pixel in the same position. At first I thought it might be my LCD Monitor on my new iMac (thankfully not), but as I moved the pictured so went the dead pixel. I also burned the photos to a disc and checked them on another monitor and there is the dead red pixel. Any ideas on how to fix this or am I stuck with this? Could it be an error with the memory card?

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

[LoveLife]

I have had great luck with my FZ20 until reviewing my photos from this past weekend. On some of the photos I noticed a stuck red pixel in the same position. At first I thought it might be my LCD Monitor on my new iMac (thankfully not), but as I moved the pictured so went the dead pixel. I also burned the photos to a disc and checked them on another monitor and there is the dead red pixel. Any ideas on how to fix this or am I stuck with this? Could it be an error with the memory card?

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Send it in for repair to Panasonic.

[deadrise]

Thanks for the reply. That is what I thought my only option would be but was hoping against hope for a more immediate solution. In your experience does Panasonic cover these issues under the one year warranty or are they difficult to work with?

[emalvick]

I have had great luck with my FZ20 until reviewing my photos from this past weekend. On some of the photos I noticed a stuck red pixel in the same position. At first I thought it might be my LCD Monitor on my new iMac (thankfully not), but as I moved the pictured so went the dead pixel. I also burned the photos to a disc and checked them on another monitor and there is the dead red pixel. Any ideas on how to fix this or am I stuck with this? Could it be an error with the memory card?

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Things to check and help eliminate or isolate possibilities.

1. Does the dead red pixel show up in all photos? If it doesn't, then it is probably an isolated incident. If it does, then you need to check the card(s).

2. If you switch cards, does the red spot show up on new photos with the different card? If the answer is no, then perhaps the card is bad.

However, I suspect that if the red spot is in the same place on all photos, that the sensor itself may have a problem, and you will need to get the camera repaired as previously suggested. A card problem shouldn't cause a consistent red spot in all photos. In fact, a card problem will usually corrupt photos, and the errors would probably be more random and/or severe.

If the spot is just in one photo or even a few, perhaps there was something about the situation you were shooting in that caused the "error". I'm still not sure that would cause the same pixel on multiple photos to have problems, but I'm sure stranger things could happen.

Another idea: try the camera in black and white mode and see what happens. I'm not sure that really shows anything, but it could. Better yet, you could take a photo with the lens cap on.

Erik

[hobb3]

There is a utility Dead Pixel Test that checks the photos for dead/hot pixels. Take a TIFF image with the lens cap on and the shutter speed set to 8 sec. Then run the utility.

Here is the link to the site:
http://www.starzen.com/imaging/deadpixeltest.htm

And the direct link to download the utility:
http://www.starzen.com/imaging/downloads/deadpixeltest.zip

Hobb

[Locozodiac]

Had the same experience on an Olympus C-2100UZ, but it was a green dead pixel dot, made a perfect lens clean with a lens cleaning solution, did the lens cap on shot, different settings experiments , the same green dot in the same place and in all resolution shots.

But when I started to zoom all the way out with the lens cap on to produce a black image connected to a big TV screen, the green dot begun to travel outwards to total dissapeared from the frame. Conclusion, my sensor is ok, must have a tiny dot of something (debris, fungus or whatever) that travels as the barrel inside lenses travels, the Olympus service is so expensive that I have preffer to eliminate this minor problem using photoshop.

Would suggest using the TV Lens Cap On Zooming Testing Method to have a more precise technical opinion to conclude weather it's a optical or sensor problem.

Regards,
Luis :)