Hot pixels

As a newcomer to the world of digital capture I'm wondering how common hot pixels are, & how much of a problem they're seen as? I ask as I've noticed one on my K100D, & I don't know whether it's worth getting the camera replaced, or if it's a problem I'm likely to encounter again on the replacement camera?

Jonathan

When do you see them? with long exposures and noise reduction off or do you see them allways?

Nearly always - just one, in the same place each time, though strangely it's not there on about 10% of my shots. But, in the main it's there always, whether shooting RAW or JPEG.

By the way, thanks for the quick reply.

Jonathan

Stuck pixels are pretty common. If it's only one, then there's not too much to worry about. I have three on my *ist-D, and more when using high ISO and long exposure. You'll probably get more as it gets older.

Although you could ask for a replacement (dealers have differing views), you'll could end up with more!

Shooting RAW is fine because in Capture One and Silkypix they automatically detect stuck pixels and map them out. If you shoot JPG, or use other RAW conversion software then the healing brush or healing patch tools in Photoshop help out.

It's no worse than dealing with dust spots

Matt

thats interesting, suddenly I'm more inclined to get to grips with real silkypix....

Thanks for the advice - I think I'll live with it. Obviously it's nothing compared to spotting scans, which I'm well used to doing! Plus it's good to know that a decent RAW convertor will sort that out automatically.

Thanks again,

Jonathan

Hot pixels will change colour slightly depending upon exposure time a way of overcoming this without clogging the pc with yet more software is:-
After taking an original image replace the lense cap and take another image at exactly the same settings and duration and the first - this gives you a black frame with the same hot pixels.
In Photoshop open both images and overlay the black frame on the main image.
Now change the blending mode of the black layer to Difference and adjust its opacity to suit your needs.
The hot pixels are now gone.

What are Hot Pixels

"A hot pixel is created by an element with a higher rate of charge leakage than its neighbors which, on a long exposure, may cross the threshold of an exposed value. Many digicams don't permit exposures longer than a quarter second, which effectively eliminates the chance that any element with a dark current, so to speak, will consistently report an exposure value."

according to http://www.imaging-resource.com/ARTS/HOT/HOT.HTM which explaines it far better than I can!