Hot pixels WERE on my new 5DIII - any reason to be concerned?

[photoxication]

Good afternoon,

I bought a 5D Mark III a short while ago, and noticed on all my pictures (short and long exposures, different lenses, etc...) 5 or 6 pixels were showing up as bright white. I ran a manual sensor clean for one minute (says to do it in the manual), and all the hot pixels are gone. I have no interest at all in returning the camera because it works perfectly after the manual sensor cleaning. I am looking for some feedback from others more experienced than me with buying new camera backs (I've only bought 2 in the past 6 years including the 5DIII).

I google searched and see that hot/stuck pixels are easy to clean using the manual sensor clean.. I can't help wondering though - Is it worth any concern to have hot pixels right out of the box BEFORE I ran a manual sensor clean on my new 5D Mark III? What is really going on here? Does this frequently happen during shipping between warehouses/stores, or is it packed in the Canon factory with this mild-but-annoying issue? I'd love a Canon rep to weigh in on this...

 

[neuroanatomist]

Manual sensor cleaning also makes the camera 'remap' the hot pixels (meaning, it interpolates them before writing out the RAW file). That means a slight resolution loss in the affected areas, but if it's only a few pixels, I would not be concerned.

 

[akclimber]

I've got 2 hot pixels I've noticed on my new 5D3. I haven't used the manual sensor clean trick yet since ACR will normally map them out during RAW conversion. As for being concerned about having a few hot pixels on a new camera, well, it does kinda suck, especially for the money we're paying, but I guess with 22+ million photosites on the sensor, there's always gonna be some minuscule failure rate.

 

[t.linn]

I think every new DSLR comes with a few hot pixels. Mapping them out is the solution and, as long as that works, you're good to go.

Having said that, my 5D3 came with no less than 12 bright white pixels, some of which were actually pixel groups of two or three in a row. I noticed them after a low light shooting session. The hot pixel groups were clearly visible at less than 100%. Unfortunately for me, multiple manual cleaning cycles (some several minutes long) didn't remap anything; and neither LR4.1rc nor ACR 6.7rc eliminated them. I ended up returning the camera.

 

[RunAndGun]

So far, so good on my MKIII, or at least I haven't NOTICED any. I don't think there is a sensor made with 100% "working" pixels, you just don't notice them or the camera/software "hides" them/re-maps the sensor. Both of my MKII's have hot pixels. My first one(12/08) was REALLY bad. I showed CPS some RAW files and they told me to send it in and I got it taken care of under warranty. There are hot/stuck pixels again, but I've just lived with it and fixed it in post when they've shown up. I don't shoot video with mine, but when you do flip it over, there is a big white, lit pixel cluster that makes it unusable in video mode. My second MKII body(10/11) has some, too and I'll probably send it in pretty soon and get it taken care of under warranty. It's funny, the sub-$1k 60D I bought my GF has been rock solid, so far and both of my $2k+ MKII's purchased three years apart both have pixel issues. But I've seen it happen all too often on $50K and $100K HD cameras, too.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

My 5D MK III is the only DSLR I've seen that shows no hot pixels at all, all my other bodies had dozens of them of varying brightness (red). I may need to check again taking care to turn nr off in lightroom. I took a black frame and pulled the exposure up 4-1/2 stops merely to see a nice uniform display with no bright red spots standing out. I could see some broad horizontal bands barely visible, but at 4-1/2 or 5 stops over exposed, they are not a factor.

If your pixels map out, don't worry.

 

[Christian_Stella]

My 5d3 has 1 hot pixel but it is a faint red and doesnt show up until long video shooting at high ISOs. Haven't seen it in photographs.

It's a major improvement over the 2 white hot ones on my old 5d2. I'm guessing those were clusters cause they were extremely noticeable in videos and popped up at much lower ISOs. Again, they never popped up in photographs at least, but I am having to remap them for a nearly 2 hour movie I shot and it's no fun, mostly because I don't need to add to the 2 or 3 days of rendering time on my core i7 980x once the footage has a good amount of intensive plugins like Neat Video, Magic Bullet, and some Warp Stabilizer applied. Hopefully the one and only plugin I found that's compatible with Premiere Pro will be light on the processor as I'm going to simply remap the whole movie, regardless of ISO. It's just easier than picking through the thousands of shots.

 

[photoxication]

Thank you all for your replies. Much appreciated! I will leave the remapping as my solution. After the remap, the images are perfect to me at 100% crop.

This is the first camera I really cared about 100% crops anyways - the IQ is so fantastic for my shooting style I rarely need to worry about noise processing like I did at ISO 1600 on my 7D... I find myself zooming in at my pictures in Lightroom and smiling like a child who just found the Cookie Jar and no one else is around

 

[Turbocharged]

Usually you don't have to worry, although more than 5 on a new sensor is a bit disappointing. I had none on day one, and I don't plan to "search" for it... (iso1600, 1s)

Try record a video, since remapping does not seem to work on video. If they show up in video, it's your call if to ask for a new one.

 

[photoxication]

Try record a video, since remapping does not seem to work on video. If they show up in video, it's your call if to ask for a new one.

Now video abnormalities is a very good point to be concerned about. Thank you for bringing that up. Eventually, I am sure I'll be shooting some video - I do feel a strong pull towards it when I get some time. I'll check out if indeed there are hot pixel issues in video mode on the 5DIII and report back. I would consider that a worthy warranty issue I will address with Canon and my dealer, even if I don't plan on using video yet...

**UPDATE 4/11/2012 @1 PM:

I have no hot pixels during video. It's a keeper

 

[smithy]

I have a small cluster of bright red hot pixels just below centre frame. Will see if there's anything I can do about it, otherwise I'll have to take it up with my dealer. It's visible even at 25% on my monitor.

 

[Jappe]

Has some one tested that old sensor cleaning trick with 5D mkIII and found it working?

In my 50D latest firmware update disabled that sensor cleaning trick. Sensor cleaning trick will not remap hot not stuck pixels anymore :'(

I think that Canon had took that feature out and only way to fix hot or stuck pixels is to send camera to service center.

I am planning to buy 5D mkIII and it would be good if broken pixels could be repaired without sending camera to service center.

 

[bdunbar79]

Has some one tested that old sensor cleaning trick with 5D mkIII and found it working?

In my 50D latest firmware update disabled that sensor cleaning trick. Sensor cleaning trick will not remap hot not stuck pixels anymore :'(

I think that Canon had took that feature out and only way to fix hot or stuck pixels is to send camera to service center.

I am planning to buy 5D mkIII and it would be good if broken pixels could be repaired without sending camera to service center.

If you just purchased the 5D3 and it's still under warranty, service center is free.

 

[Jappe]

If you just purchased the 5D3 and it's still under warranty, service center is free.

I am planning to buy 5DmkIII. During first year warranty would cover pixel fixes, but it's quite troublesome send camera back and forth. After warranty is over service center will charge from pixel fixes. ???

 

[KimH]

Hi All,

I did a dust mapping with a white sheet and found that I have a (red) hot pixel on my brand new (aren't they all) 5DIII.

I am wondering whether to send it in for a fix, but the conversation here says "don't bother, it's ok.."

Is it really so?

Any help appreciated.

kim

 

[mrsfotografie]

I just discovered a hot pixel in a few photographs. I did a pixel remap and it's gone

So far I didn't do a remap on the mkIII. I only bother to remap hot pixels if they show up in photo's. However I've so far remapped the 40D I had, my 5DMkII and now my MkIII. Pixel remapping is a great feature.

 

[9VIII]

Hot pixels are actually what convinced me to upgrade from a few lamps on a table to an actual light box for macro work.
On an 8 second exposure my 5DII lights up like a Christmas tree. I sincerely doubt any camera will give a faultless image with a long exposure.
Anything under 1 second seems to be fine.
This is actually one problem I can see having with Mirorless, when I'm shooting in live view for extended periods hot pixels are definitely worse. Again, that's only with long exposures, but in those situations you want your sensor cool for best performance.