A row of malfunctioned pixels - any hope?

chickenwingprin

Please help!

I've a Canon S5 IS, about 2 years old. When taking picture, a row of strange-looking pixels appears. I can see the row of malfunctioning pixels even in my view finder when I half press on the capture button to auto-focus. The pixels are more noticeable in low lights (e.g. at night, indoors) and less so in bright lights.

Please see attached example. You can see the row quite clearly at the lower half of the pic.

Do you think it's something that can be fixed? Everything else works fine!!! :`-( Any idea of where to get it fixed?

Thank you for your help!!!

ricrick

i think there is something wrong with the sensor. its time for you to buy a new one. yeah

celeron_266

its not that noticable....

maanmo

a slightly defective canon , is a very mellow camera
still usable

if you are into perfect photography, a new one is worth considering
one of the newest model , successor tto this was on sale for $350 at broadway camera , last boxing day

maanmo

maanmo is interested in buying a mellow canon for $50

chickenwingprin

$50?! A bit to low bor, maanmo! I'm not into perfect photography but I am a perfectionist. If I take photos for memory, I expect all the pixels to work mah! Heehee...thinking of buying a G10.

maanmo

ok  lets price your camera
a new model of this line is $400 now, although it as on sale for $350
so how much should be  a s5 is in mint condition today.. $180
used but still in falultless condition ?  $100
so what is a tempation price for the camera in question.  for maanmo its $50
but naturally there are people who would buy it for $100 or more

it would be interesting to know the repair cost , probably over $100

maanmo my self has been using the olympus  740 , 3 megapixel  10 zoom for over 2 years now,
i bought it for $65,  without memory card, and the lens tube  has some of its edge
flacked off
when i bought this used camera  it was 3 years old
its the first 10x zoom camera to come under $500
its probably first bought for  $400 to $500 canadian

chickenwingprin

7# maanmo

Thanks for the detailed analysis. I know it's not worth much. Did I say that I'm getting rid of my camera? I still hope to get it fixed (if it makes sense). That's why I put up this post to begin with...

maanmo

certainly , it is interesting to know the service data base of all cameras
ideally,  you can find out on the web, the percentage of  a camera model  that needs
service, the type of problems involved and the cost
  i image the camera manufacturers  keep track of these data
  i image they would not want to share it with you

maanmo

if you are interested in fixing the canon
you might try talking to the salesperson who sold you the camera
you might get some helpful suggestions

here is a discussion  i found by googling  " canon s5 is, sensor , defect "
http://www.howtofixcomputers.com ... -how-fix-38643.html

> Yesterday my Canon Powershot A85 started malfuncitoning and I can't
> get rid of the effect so far... I started seeing a stack
> of stripes at the bottom and top borders...

A similar thing happemed to my A70. There's a Service Notice on the Canon
Web site describing a known problem with the CCD wiring:-

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/co...1&modelid=8776

It states that "regardless of warranty status, Canon will repair, free of
charge, the products listed above exhibiting the above-mentioned malfunction
if Canon determines that the malfunction is caused by the CCD image sensor".

I got in touch with Canon, they put me in touch with a local repair centre,
and the camera got fixed FOC.


++++++++++++
maanmo says , unfortunately  the canon link above about " repair, free of charge "
is not available
the link below has some interesting discussion  on hot canon pixels....

http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/digital-cameras/canon-powershot-s5is_question.html?qid=13081
I tested two canon S5 IS cameras within this last week. Both had sensor defects, the first one had 2 hot pixels, the second one had a vertical line on the right side of the image. Returned the last camera, and decided to wait for a better batch. In terms of picture quality - excellent exposure and colours, cannot complain about softness as images were actually quite sharp, better than on other powershots. The CCD sensor is very noisy, to the point that even at ISO 80 the grain was somewhat noticable when viewed at its full resolution. Images are not usable beyond ISO 400. Also, I was not very impressed with the noise reduction and processing as it left a lot of processing artifacts - overagressive, but I guess it was necessary to employ such processing to eliminate some of that terrible noise. Of course you'd have to view the image at full resolution and possibly even zoomed in to see all that, as most of my 8" by 10" came out great. The movie mode is excellent, as is the image stabilization. Very sensitive stereo microphones. My advice when you get one: test it very well, to make sure you didn't end up with a defective CCD.

To assess hot pixels you have to take some shots of a uniform background (ie: white or gray wall) in a uniform lighting condition, under various settings of the camera, usually varying the ISO settings. View the pictures on your computer monitor, in full resolution, and zooming in also helps.......