istD sensor tilted?

No matter how hard I try to level the camera horizontal, the picture comes out stightly tilted. yes, very slightly, but always the same direction. first I though I actually tilt the camera whan I push the shutter. So I used self times. Still tilted. Then I put the camera on the table. Still tilted. Then I took a picture of the camera itself in a mirror. Still tilted. I am convinced that the CCD is stigtly tilted. I had the camera for almost 2 weeks now.

the CCD seems to be clamped in between 2 plates attached to the body, and there are some gaps around the corners. I am sure a service tech could align it better. Have you seen this problem before???

Also, the 4-way controllers seems slightly off-center: the gap bwteeen it and the ring is larger at the top than at the bottom.

Does your *istD have the same problem(s)?

I would think that by setting it on a tripod with a bubble level you could decide with some confidence of being right.

Patrick T. Kelly said:

I would think that by setting it on a tripod with a bubble level
you could decide with some confidence of being right.

Click to expand...

Yes, or you can pick a building with a distinct horizontal line, set the camera on a tripod, lline everything up, make sure you are at a right angle to the building, and then do a test.

It is sometimes difficult to hold the camera perfectly level or square. And your angle against the subject affects the result too. A few months ago I took several hundred images at a neighborhood rodeo. A friend also took several hundred. When I put them together on a CD I noticed that he tilted almost every photo to the left while I tilted almost every photo to the right.

I use arbitrary rotate in PS from time to time to square things up. But at other times a little tilt looks good too.

--
John Power
Racehorse in the desert.

'Life is too short to miss out on photography.'

Yes, I have to concentrate when I take each shot to level the viewfinder - I find the way I hold it, it drops slightly to the left so I move my right hand down a bit to level it up. Its very slight but I could probably get it adjusted. Still not certain if its me or the camera, but Ive learned to compensate.
Steve

chibitul smecher said:

No matter how hard I try to level the camera horizontal, the
picture comes out stightly tilted. yes, very slightly, but always
the same direction. first I though I actually tilt the camera whan
I push the shutter. So I used self times. Still tilted. Then I put
the camera on the table. Still tilted. Then I took a picture of the
camera itself in a mirror. Still tilted. I am convinced that the
CCD is stigtly tilted. I had the camera for almost 2 weeks now.

the CCD seems to be clamped in between 2 plates attached to the
body, and there are some gaps around the corners. I am sure a
service tech could align it better. Have you seen this problem
before???

Also, the 4-way controllers seems slightly off-center: the gap
bwteeen it and the ring is larger at the top than at the bottom.

Does your *istD have the same problem(s)?

Click to expand...

There are many reported cases about tilted output.

I don't know what causes this (tilted sensor or parts such as mirror to viewfinder) but one thing apparent is that you should send your istD to A/S service center.

-changgull

chibitul smecher said:

No matter how hard I try to level the camera horizontal, the
picture comes out stightly tilted. yes, very slightly, but always
the same direction. first I though I actually tilt the camera whan
I push the shutter. So I used self times. Still tilted. Then I put
the camera on the table. Still tilted. Then I took a picture of the
camera itself in a mirror. Still tilted. I am convinced that the
CCD is stigtly tilted. I had the camera for almost 2 weeks now.

the CCD seems to be clamped in between 2 plates attached to the
body, and there are some gaps around the corners. I am sure a
service tech could align it better. Have you seen this problem
before???

Also, the 4-way controllers seems slightly off-center: the gap
bwteeen it and the ring is larger at the top than at the bottom.

Does your *istD have the same problem(s)?

Click to expand...

----------------
Broken E-10

changgull song said:

-changgull

chibitul smecher said:

No matter how hard I try to level the camera horizontal, the
picture comes out stightly tilted. yes, very slightly, but always
the same direction. first I though I actually tilt the camera whan
I push the shutter. So I used self times. Still tilted. Then I put
the camera on the table. Still tilted. Then I took a picture of the
camera itself in a mirror. Still tilted. I am convinced that the
CCD is stigtly tilted. I had the camera for almost 2 weeks now.

the CCD seems to be clamped in between 2 plates attached to the
body, and there are some gaps around the corners. I am sure a
service tech could align it better. Have you seen this problem
before???

Also, the 4-way controllers seems slightly off-center: the gap
bwteeen it and the ring is larger at the top than at the bottom.

Does your *istD have the same problem(s)?

Click to expand...

----------------
Broken E-10

Click to expand...

I haven't noticed lots of reports about tilted sensors in *istD, where did you find this information. This is the only post on the subject that I have seen.

Simple test, use a tripod line up the horizontal lines or the horizontal or vertical screen edges on the viewfinder with a roizontal or vertical line, and see it the resulting image matches, mine does, no tilted sensor here.

chibitul smecher said:

Then I took a picture of the
camera itself in a mirror. Still tilted. I am convinced that the
CCD is stigtly tilted. I had the camera for almost 2 weeks now.

Click to expand...

Yes this will always show the CCD alignment relative to the camera body. If you see any tilt then the sensor must be tilited - send it back for alignment.

Dan

you are not alone.

I suspected this problem in my *istD and I used the macro 2.8/50 and the copypod of Pentax to shot a sheet of millimetred paper, carefully adjusting the horizontality of the lines in the viseur. The resulting image was rotated and could be corrected with a 1+ -0.1 degree rotation CCW in photoshop. Now when I shot buldings I frame carefully and rotate the camera a lilttle CW.

Two persons in the french site photim reported the same problem. One of them tested the camera on a tripod: the subject and the camera being horizontal, the picture was horizontal too but the image in the viseur was tilted. Thus the problem was not in the CCD but in the mirror or the prism.
--
Jacques Bijtebier

My *istD had the same problem, I tested it on a tripod with a square frame all lined and every picture required 1.6 degree rotation to get the frame square. Glad it was that cause it was driving me nuts!!! I thought I must have had one leg shorter than the other or something!!!!!

Anyway sent it away to get the tilt and some dead pixels fixed. After being returned broken 3 times(with things that were not broken previously) I finally received the camera back in one piece 10 weeks later Not happy Pentax Australia!!!!

Have had camera back a few weeks now and seems to be fine, but last lot of pics had one ugly green dead pixel. I dread having to send it away again, but for $2.5K it should work and work well for a long time!!!

Anyway best to send yours away and get it fixed, you probably are not to blame!!!

Tim

Wally OZ said:

changgull song said:

-changgull

chibitul smecher said:

No matter how hard I try to level the camera horizontal, the
picture comes out stightly tilted. yes, very slightly, but always
the same direction. first I though I actually tilt the camera whan
I push the shutter. So I used self times. Still tilted. Then I put
the camera on the table. Still tilted. Then I took a picture of the
camera itself in a mirror. Still tilted. I am convinced that the
CCD is stigtly tilted. I had the camera for almost 2 weeks now.

the CCD seems to be clamped in between 2 plates attached to the
body, and there are some gaps around the corners. I am sure a
service tech could align it better. Have you seen this problem
before???

Also, the 4-way controllers seems slightly off-center: the gap
bwteeen it and the ring is larger at the top than at the bottom.

Does your *istD have the same problem(s)?

Click to expand...

----------------
Broken E-10

Click to expand...

I haven't noticed lots of reports about tilted sensors in *istD,
where did you find this information. This is the only post on the
subject that I have seen.

Click to expand...

I'm in Korea.
There is a big forum for SLR users, http://www.slrclub.com , and in pentax
sub forum there, I could find many cases of tilted output.

Some of them had to send their cameras to JAPAN service center to fix the problem. They said the service was clean and satisfactory.
I saw a picture of a case, and the tilt was about 1~2 degree.

Some guys said they just go on using it because the level of tilt is not so severe.

Wally OZ said:

Simple test, use a tripod line up the horizontal lines or the
horizontal or vertical screen edges on the viewfinder with a
roizontal or vertical line, and see it the resulting image matches,
mine does, no tilted sensor here.

Click to expand...

--
----------------
Broken E-10, Expecting *istD

Tim Marsbar said:

My *istD had the same problem, I tested it on a tripod with a
square frame all lined and every picture required 1.6 degree
rotation to get the frame square. Glad it was that cause it was
driving me nuts!!! I thought I must have had one leg shorter than
the other or something!!!!!

Anyway sent it away to get the tilt and some dead pixels fixed.
After being returned broken 3 times(with things that were not
broken previously) I finally received the camera back in one piece
10 weeks later Not happy Pentax Australia!!!!

Have had camera back a few weeks now and seems to be fine, but last
lot of pics had one ugly green dead pixel. I dread having to send
it away again, but for $2.5K it should work and work well for a
long time!!!

Anyway best to send yours away and get it fixed, you probably are
not to blame!!!

Tim

Click to expand...

Not happy JAN!

I don't blame you, at $2.5K it should be repaired properly and treated with care and respect along the way.

Gee whiz I dread having to send it in for anything after reading your post.

Was that service done with CR Kennedy? must be since you mentioned Australia.

Dead pixels are unavoidable...

istDuser said:

Dead pixels are unavoidable...

Click to expand...

What we need is a Photoshop plug-in which would map out the one or two dead pixels we all seem to have. It is easy enough to find their X-Y position once and for all and set up the mapping. Does anybody know about any such plug-in?

Seperate programs exist which does it but then you open and save the file that one extra time and lose quality (in case of JPEG).

Ole

Wally Oz I do believe that they were the company providing the service, although I have only dealt with the local camera store who are mighty unimpressed and pushing them pretty hard!!

I also agree istDuser that dead pixels appear to be a fact of life with digital cameras.

However having spent AU$2500 on a camera I would like the company to be a bit more up front about it. I doubt that 5 years ago anyone would have accepted spending that quantity of cash, only to be forced to touch-up EVERY image that they produced!!!! Yeah it may not be that hard, but you should NOT have to do it. Maybe Camera manufacturers should provide with their new cameras, firmware/software that can map out the dead pixels in the camera and let you know exactly how to use it, because you will. At least then you can weigh up the positives/negatives in a better manner.

Believe me I love digital photography and will not be going back, but quality control issues like this need to be discussed and fixed alot better than they are now.

Tim Marsbar

Tim,

I didn't think I had seen anything on this subject in the *istD manual believe me I read the manual day one, had I seen such a notice I would have taken it very seriously, I would have taken it straight back that day and moved on, no ifs or buts.

I just performed a search of the *istD PDF manual for "pixels" and all I could find is that the LCD may have pixels which do not iluminate 0.01% is allowed.

I checked the box and all documentation that came with my *istD.

NO MENTION OF DEAD PIXELS AT ALL!

I don't accept that anyone paying $2500 for a DSLR should put up with dead pixels.

The *istD manual doesn't say or even hint you should.

IT IS A FAULT, HAVE IT REPAIRED UNDER WARRANTY.

Why would you agree to own a camera you pay this much for and play russian roulette to see if you got lucky, this is Pentax's problem, it is called Quality Control, no need to get lucky it is either right or it isnt.

I don't have any dead pixels, on my *istD.

If I did, I would take it back and demand it be repaired, if they couldn't supply me with a sensor with no dead pixels that spoil the resutling image I would insist on a refund.

P&S digital cameras worth a quarter the price of the *istD cope with this problem by remapping pixels, try and convince me that Pentax hasn't heard about that.

There is no way I would be out looking for software to fix this problem myself, I am the end user, not the manufacturer, it is the manufacturers problem, not the customers.

The end user/customer finding ways around this problem is not on IMHO.

Tim Marsbar said:

Wally Oz I do believe that they were the company providing the
service, although I have only dealt with the local camera store who
are mighty unimpressed and pushing them pretty hard!!

I also agree istDuser that dead pixels appear to be a fact of life
with digital cameras.

However having spent AU$2500 on a camera I would like the company
to be a bit more up front about it. I doubt that 5 years ago anyone
would have accepted spending that quantity of cash, only to be
forced to touch-up EVERY image that they produced!!!! Yeah it may
not be that hard, but you should NOT have to do it. Maybe Camera
manufacturers should provide with their new cameras,
firmware/software that can map out the dead pixels in the camera
and let you know exactly how to use it, because you will. At least
then you can weigh up the positives/negatives in a better manner.

Believe me I love digital photography and will not be going back,
but quality control issues like this need to be discussed and fixed
alot better than they are now.

Tim Marsbar

Click to expand...

I have one hot pixel which appears sometimes on a dark background. I fix it rapidly with the stamp tool.

About the independent programs erasing dead pixels: surely they allow to save in TIFF, then you can reopen in PS without a supplementary compression.

A problem with dead pixels is that they do not necessarily appear immediatly: on my C2000Z and my E10 of Olympus it took more than one year.
It must be possible to write a PS action to erase dead pixels of know position.

Pixel mapping could be included in a future firmware upgrade: when I sent my E10 to repair the dead shutter, they also installed the latest firmware including pixel mapping.
--
Jacques Bijtebier