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Weird FL-40 problem

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Niko55958

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Hello...

I just recently bought FL-40 for my Uzi and it's been great, but one minor problem has started to occur every now and then.

Today I took about 50 pictures with fl-40 in 20 minutes and 8 pictures of those had 2 uppermost lines of pixels corrupted.
Here is an example:



Cropped a small partition from the upper right corner and enlarged it.

There is a part of ear of our dog, but the first 2 lines of pixels are garbage and this is the whole line of pixels from left to right in the original picture.

Not a major fault, but annoying. Seems to happen when I'm putting the fl-40 into heavy use. Not in every picture, as I said, here it was 8 out of 50. Weird.

Has anybody else seen this kind of behaviour with her/his fl-40? Any advices appreciated.

-Niko
 
Niko, I'm willing to bet that what you've seen is not an FL-40 problem, but a simple camera glitch that occured when the image was being written to the SM card. You may have been pressing buttons or zooming at the same time. It's something that just happens, and I wouldn't worry about it as long as it's a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence.

Cheers ...

-- Rich in NEPA [NATURAL ACTS™]“The Object of Nature is Man; the Object of Man is Style.”
 
Rich in NEPA said:
Niko, I'm willing to bet that what you've seen is not an FL-40
problem, but a simple camera glitch that occured when the image was
being written to the SM card. You may have been pressing buttons
or zooming at the same time. It's something that just happens, and
I wouldn't worry about it as long as it's a once-in-a-blue-moon
occurrence.
Click to expand...
Yes, it's just a minor problem, but has never happened without the fl-40. I was thinking that maybe it has something to do with trigger voltages or something that occurs because of the heavy use of the flash. I also bounced the flash from the ceiling all the time, so the flash needs to fire in higher power.

Well, I'm not losing my sleep because of this, but it's still a bit annoying at least if it's starts to happen more oftern.

-Niko
 
Niko,

the absolutely same thing happens to me! I noticed those two corrupted lines at the top of my pictures and they appear (statistically!) on maybe every 20th shot taken WITH my FL40. I was wondering what the hell..., and I also wanted to come up with a thread like this here.

I am curious of any other reports of this, because I have no idea why this is happening. You might be right about the high energy usage when firing FL40, but who knows for real and what can we do about it? (I'm wondering what'd Oly say...)

Martin

ps: I too have Uzi...
Niko said:
Hello...

I just recently bought FL-40 for my Uzi and it's been great, but
one minor problem has started to occur every now and then.
Today I took about 50 pictures with fl-40 in 20 minutes and 8
pictures of those had 2 uppermost lines of pixels corrupted.
Here is an example:



Cropped a small partition from the upper right corner and enlarged it.

There is a part of ear of our dog, but the first 2 lines of pixels
are garbage and this is the whole line of pixels from left to right
in the original picture.
Not a major fault, but annoying. Seems to happen when I'm putting
the fl-40 into heavy use. Not in every picture, as I said, here it
was 8 out of 50. Weird.
Has anybody else seen this kind of behaviour with her/his fl-40?
Any advices appreciated.

-Niko
Click to expand...
 
Nice to know it's not just me. Maybe it's some small failure in the european versions of Uzi. Hard to say, but I sent an e-mail to Olympus europe support about this. Let's see what they will say.

-Niko
emzet said:
Niko,

the absolutely same thing happens to me! I noticed those two
corrupted lines at the top of my pictures and they appear
(statistically!) on maybe every 20th shot taken WITH my FL40. I
was wondering what the hell..., and I also wanted to come up with a
thread like this here.
I am curious of any other reports of this, because I have no idea
why this is happening. You might be right about the high energy
usage when firing FL40, but who knows for real and what can we do
about it? (I'm wondering what'd Oly say...)

Martin

ps: I too have Uzi...
Click to expand...
 
I haven't got the european version - mine was shipped from USA (NTSC video). I'm looking forward to seeing Oly's answers.

thanks for doing this
Martin
Niko said:
-Niko
emzet said:
Niko,

the absolutely same thing happens to me! I noticed those two
corrupted lines at the top of my pictures and they appear
(statistically!) on maybe every 20th shot taken WITH my FL40. I
was wondering what the hell..., and I also wanted to come up with a
thread like this here.
I am curious of any other reports of this, because I have no idea
why this is happening. You might be right about the high energy
usage when firing FL40, but who knows for real and what can we do
about it? (I'm wondering what'd Oly say...)

Martin

ps: I too have Uzi...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Niko, I have used numerous external flash units with my C2100uz, including the FL-40, and have not seen this with it. I have, however, seen it only once with my C2020z, and I never use an external flash with it. It occurred when I was shooting rapidly and the buffer was filled and I was trying to zoom. One frame was corrupted in the same manner as yours. I still don't believe it's a flash problem. But, let us know what you find, OK?

Cheers ...

-- Rich in NEPA [NATURAL ACTS™]“The Object of Nature is Man; the Object of Man is Style.”
 
I received a reply from Olympus Europe about this problem. I also sent them an original faulty picture. They suggested me to send the camera for repair. But I don't know, the problem occurs pretty rarely and is easy to fix with Photoshop. I'm not sure if I could live without my camera for 2-3 weeks. Here is the mail quoted:

"
Dear Niko ...

thank you very much for your mail dated 22.01.02.

The image you sent us indicates a fault within your C-210UZ. We therefore suggest to send your camera to our repair centre.

When you send in the camera please include a printout of one of the faulty pictures and discribe the fault as detailed as possible (just like you did in the e-mail to us) so that our colleagues in the repair department can test the camera under similar conditions.

Do not send in any unnecessary accessories such as SmartMedia Card, batteries or the flash and please write down the serial number of your camera for your own record.

"
 
Well, that is certainly not a kind of answer that would please me... I will try and ask Olympus here in Slovakia (besides that, I have this stuck pixel that could have been mapped out). Look for my post in this thread within a week or two. I don't want to say goodbye to my UZI, not for 2-3 weeks!

I'm thinking I'd live with that too, but I hope you realize that 2 faulty lines of 1600 pixels each is like 800 stuck(2x2) pixels!!!

Martin
Niko said:
I received a reply from Olympus Europe about this problem. I also
sent them an original faulty picture. They suggested me to send the
camera for repair. But I don't know, the problem occurs pretty
rarely and is easy to fix with Photoshop. I'm not sure if I could
live without my camera for 2-3 weeks. Here is the mail quoted:

"
Dear Niko ...

thank you very much for your mail dated 22.01.02.
The image you sent us indicates a fault within your C-210UZ. We
therefore suggest to send your camera to our repair centre.
When you send in the camera please include a printout of one of the
faulty pictures and discribe the fault as detailed as possible
(just like you did in the e-mail to us) so that our colleagues in
the repair department can test the camera under similar conditions.
Do not send in any unnecessary accessories such as SmartMedia Card,
batteries or the flash and please write down the serial number of
your camera for your own record.

"
Click to expand...
 
emzet said:
I'm thinking I'd live with that too, but I hope you realize that 2
faulty lines of 1600 pixels each is like 800 stuck(2x2) pixels!!!
Click to expand...
It sounds much worse when you put it that way! Well...I have to think about sending the camera for repair. I have also another minor problem with my uzi which could be fixed at the same time (voice in video clips is out of sync). I just would need a spare camera for that period of time and what if they can't produce the error in the repair center? After 2-3 weeks it would just come back with a note "no problems found" or even worse do something more dramatic like changing the ccd and produce a bunch of real hot pixels or screw up the fix some other way. I don't know. (I've had some bad experiences with repair centers (not Oly brand though)).

Let me know what Olympus support will answer to you.

-Niko
 
Few minutes ago I talked to local Oly serviceman and guess what answer I got? "We have not had such problem before, bring it in, we'll look at it and see what we can do..." So I told him about my stuck pixel also and that my uzi is from USA (ntsc) and I'll be sending them your picture of the "weird problem" - I suppose this is ok (since I'm now at work and I ain't got such "demonstration" picture with me here). They might give me some info via email before I'll get to the service lab personally...

have a nice day,
Martin

ps: why do you fear of them not being able to reproduce the out-of-synch-voice? Make a small video for them yourself... Looks like we will have to rely on oly servicemen's skills - let's hope they know what they're doing?!?
Niko55958 said:
(voice in video clips is out of sync). I just would need a spare
camera for that period of time and what if they can't produce the
error in the repair center? After 2-3 weeks it would just come back
with a note "no problems found" or even worse do something more
dramatic like changing the ccd and produce a bunch of real hot
pixels or screw up the fix some other way. I don't know. (I've had
some bad experiences with repair centers (not Oly brand though)).

Let me know what Olympus support will answer to you.

-Niko
Click to expand...
 
Niko said:
Hello...

I just recently bought FL-40 for my Uzi and it's been great, but
one minor problem has started to occur every now and then.
Today I took about 50 pictures with fl-40 in 20 minutes and 8
pictures of those had 2 uppermost lines of pixels corrupted.
Here is an example:
Click to expand...
Interesting - that's exactly the problem I have in a few of my shots with a Promaster flash with the Olympus TTL module.

--
Misha
 
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