should I exchange the camera with retailer or keep it?

Hello

I have bought a new camera pentax k20d. A this is my first digital camera, I need your help to assess the quality issue (I have no experience with DSLR, so I need your help).
I made some pictures with the lense closed (black background) to check hot pixels and was shocked to see two very bright ones with exposure of 3 seconds. Please see these files to assess how bad the matrix is:

3 sec

dump.ru/file/1448516

1/3 sec

dump.ru/file/1448505

When I use Levels in Photoshop to increase the contrast on these images drastically, I cann see many more colour spots.

So, should I go to the retailer to get a new camera, or do I risk to get an even worse sample of the camera?

Please respond with advice.

1. Ensure firmware version 1.01 is installed to the camera.

2. Try the camera's pixel mapping function.

3. Consider using Silkypix for RAW shots. This automatically removes most hot pixels.

4. If still not happy, get the retailer to exchage the camera.

Cobra333 welcome to the forum, would you please fill in your location details in your profile. thanks.

I agree with iceblinker the first two tests are quick to do, if your still unhappy go for number 4

Hold the menue button in and turn K20D on Firmware version will be displayed.

I just updated my firmware and also ran the pixel mapping and decided to do the same as cobra did, took a 3sec pic with the lense closed with the cover and the results have surprised me. I am not sure if this is normal as I am new to DSLR but when I enlarge the images I just go to 100% and it shows quite odd spots. Very hard not to notice it. At first I thought it was showing only when I enlarged it extremely high but the last one I took after the firmware update I just had to put the image to 100% to see a lot of spots.
Can someone please help me out on this? Is this normal or am I doing something wrong while taking the picture with the lense shut?

Thanks for your help.

link

link

link

UPDATE: removed last link as it wasnt with 3sec exposure. The rest above are. 1412 and 1413 were taken before running pixel mapping, and the 1414 after pixel mapping

[quote:3496ace15f="aminstar"]I just updated my firmware and also ran the pixel mapping and decided to do the same as cobra did, took a 3sec pic with the lense closed with the cover and the results have surprised me. I am not sure if this is normal as I am new to DSLR but when I enlarge the images I just go to 100% and it shows quite odd spots. Very hard not to notice it. At first I thought it was showing only when I enlarged it extremely high but the last one I took after the firmware update I just had to put the image to 100% to see a lot of spots.
Can someone please help me out on this? Is this normal or am I doing something wrong while taking the picture with the lense shut?

Thanks for your help.

Link 1 is clear.
Link 2 one pix far right.
Link 3 is clear.
Link 4 is clear.

Stop worrying it's ok.

Terry

Thank you so much.
Phew!!! that is quite a relief. Almost felt like a hypocondriac going to see the doctor and being told not to worry everything is fine.

Link 1 was the one after updating the firmware and running the pixel mapping on the camera.

Thank you ever so much. Now I will stop worrying.

Amin

It funny!......something I would never have thought of doing when I got my K20D,I just wanted to get out and take photographs!........difference in people I suppose.......Havent checked mine yet as nothing shows up on my shots!....maybe I should...or maybe not!.......

aminstar,

I appreciate your post, and your links. Do I get it right - these are all shot with 3 sec exposure? I will se them at home in comfort, and if they are - I WILL RUN AND DASH TO EXCHANGE MY CAMERA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks.

Don't exchange your camera before trying what we suggested.

My guess is that with however many thousands of pixels stuffed into a small space the odd one will go wonky and this is quite normal. Unless it shows very badly I wouldn't worry about it. By the time you have converted your RAWs and sharpened and dust-spotted and all that jazz you will never see them.

Do as beginner says, take photos, have fun and stop worrying.

Cheers, Kris.

*EVERY* digital camera has some hot/stuck/unwilling pixels. 99% of the time they do not show up at all.
When you shoot RAW and use Silkypix for example the hot pixels are automatically removed.

There is nothing to worry about at all. After a couple of years you are bound to see a couple of hot pixels added...

I am not worried, I am happy . Just wanted some help with clarification, that's all. And after you all very kindly clarified the facts I am satisfied.

This of course is also because I am a beginner in the field so certain things do make me look again and if I do not understand it I get concerned. But you all have been extremely kind and patient to always help me out and explain the technicalities of photography.

What I actually had noticed and made me upload the images to ask for help from you more experienced in the field were not as much the odd pixels that I saw on the second link (actually there are a few more rather than just one on the far right end corner) but the fact that when I enlarged the images I was expecting the images to be totally pitch black, which obviously I could well be wrong and in photography things might not work that way, but instead I notice clusters of lighter shades of black scattered around the screen.

Now is it my screen problem which is not to the level to display the resolution? Or this is just normal and this is well expected as I enlarge further and further the image. At certain point I can really see shades of grey, but for that I obviously need to magnify the image to ridiculous proportions so i suspect that the answer for that is "no need to even go there" .

But any explanation about this would be really an eye opener.

Thank you very much

Amin

Cobra

In my links as Terry very kindly explained after checking it the image with the hot pixels was taken before I updated my firmware and also before running the pixel mapping by going through the menu.
It seems that after doing that it resolved the problem.

So if you follow the advice above like I did you might manage to resolve the problem.

People here have a huge amount of knowledge in photographic matters and my experience in this short period of time that I have started coming into the forum is that they are extremely helpful and they are spot on with things.

I am just a newbie and this has been a well of knowledge for me.

So do not panic and just follow the steps that they have advised you to do first.

Amin

Scott

I dont know what you mean by pixel mapping putting 6 files on, all I did was just go to menu and find pixel mapping and then run it, that's all I did. Unless I did it wrongly but I thought it was pretty straightforward. May be some of the veterans in the forum could clarify this to us please.

Thanks

Amin

Amin when you put your card in a computer it will show the pixel mapping files ,with your photos in a seprate folder.same as dust image.