D80: how many hot pixels are normal?

[elinder]

In mid April I bought a D80 (my first Nikon and first DSLR), and just got back from vacation with it. Overall, I'm thrilled with the quality of the photos, except for low light or higher ISO images. I am noticing times when I have quite a few hot pixels. They are not always there, bit it seems as the light goes down, and/or ISO goes up, some pixels have a harder time working properly. A few ISO 100 images have a few hot pixels as well, but mostly ISO 400 or over, even with High ISO NR turned on. How many hot or incorrect pixels is normal for this kind of camera?

I've searched here, and it seems this was previously a problem on early cameras, but mine is a newer version. I've seen threads on Dead Pixel Test and PixelFixer, and depending on how I set the sensitivity, they show anywhere between 10-20 hot pixels.

Here's a web gallery (where you can download the full size files) that has the original image I noticed it on, and a lens cap on test with the same exposure settings. Sure, enough, most of the problems are in the same places.

http://gallery.mac.com/erichlinder#100008&view=grid&bgcolor=dkgrey&sel=1

Should I try to exchange the camera, send it in for remaping (which just deactivates those pixels if I understand correctly), or just learn to live with it and correct in post?

Erich

 

[Shot Therapy]

I think even the newer D80 cameras can be expected to have some number of Hot/Stuck pixels, which are, as you stated, more visible and apparent at higher ISO and also seen in some darker areas. I have noticed several in my pics as well. It is up to you whether this is acceptable and whether your preference is to map them out, or clone them out yourself in PP. I am living with mine for the time being and removing any glaring ones in post processing. I think that this is a common fault theshold of the current technology used for this performance/build class of camera.

Jim

 

[expgatour]

i looked at your samples and you seem to have an awful lot of them.

I have the d80 since last Dec and haven taken about 10,000 images so far and only in the last week or so have I found 2 hot ones and they show up at 400iso and above.

 

[eclipsevv]

Hot pixels are quite normal, especially on a 10MP sensor.

You can basically do three things:

1) Just ignore them

2) If you use NEF, you can use PixelFixer, an excellent freeware program I use as part of my workflow: the program builds a profile of all the hot pixel of your camera, that removes them directly from your NEF files. PixelFixer has a batch mode, so it's quite easy and quick to use it routinely.
You can find it on http://www.pixelfixer.org

3) Send your camera for service to Nikon: they will remap the hot pixel so that they are totally ignored, the pixel value will be reconstructed by interpolation. This happens by default at production: all sensor have hot pixels, they are remapped at the factory, but sometimes some are not remapped correctly or they will develop later. The only problem is that a new hot pixel could develop soon after your camera returns from Nikon... it's totally random.

If hot pixel bothers you, I think you should check with Nikon if they will do the remapping for free, otherwise option 2 is quite effective (actually it's the same as option 3, but you do the remapping in software after the shoot).

 

[elinder]

What bothers me most is that there are so many of them in a brand new camera. It doesn't say much for the quality control. That and the fact that the freeware programs I've found so far like Pixel Filter are PC only, and I work mainly on a Mac. I'm currently leaning toward using the camera for a while longer to see if any more develop (assuming most of the failures happen during an initial high failure rate that tapers off), then sending it in to have it remapped.

Erich