OT: Sensor lifetime

[Jim King]

Does anyone in this forum have objective data on the useful lifetime of CMOS and/or CCD imaging sensors? My searches on this topic have turned up lots of speculation and dismissals along the lines of "the camera will be obsolete before the sensor wears out," but no authoritative information from anyone who works in the semiconductor field.

Can anybody help me with info or a link/citation? Thanks!
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Jim King - Retired Colormonger - Suburban Detroit, Michigan, USA; GMT -4h (EDT)
Pentaxian for over 45 years.



* * * * *
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.

• Sir Winston Churchill

* * * * *
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.

• Albert Einstein

 

[Henry Falkner]

My searches on this topic have turned up lots of speculation and dismissals along the lines of "the camera will be obsolete before the sensor wears out,"

And that is precisely why you cannot find any authoritative data. I do remember that SONY recalled a range of cameras because of faulty sensors. As I recall, they replaced sensors up to four years old.

Here at DPReview, I cannot remember reading about faulty sensors for years, but I don't read every forum. The Olympus C-770UZ in 2004 had a few incidences of stripey night pictures which had long exposures.

I have used digital cameras since 1997, and I never had one that went blind while I had it, or shortly after I sold it. The longest I have owned a digicam is ten years, an Olympus C-990/D-490. It is still fully functional, but it only was used regularly for the first two years.

A friend of mine has a blind Canon Ixus of unknown age (he now uses it as a sound recorder) which had an insect in it apparently causng short-circuits.

Sensors are semiconductor devices. When I was at Tech, we were told about the bathtub curve describing failure rates. It was stated that most of the failures would occur at the beginning and the end of a 7-year life cycle.

Manufactueres of sensors do expect that some picture elements will fail. Olympus recommends that you do 'PIXEL MAPPING' when you buy the camera and then every six months, but not any more often. This process will ensure that dead pixels will not stick out like a sore thumb in a picture. The dead pixels are represented by the average of the live pixels around them.

For new digital cameras as a whole, failure rates have been stated to be between 3% and 7% - regardless of whether the camera is a low-end P&S or a high-end DSLR. Once a camera gets to be about six months old, very few will fail without a known cause.

Henry

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Henry Falkner - SP-570UZ, Stylus 9010, Stylus 7020, D-490Z
http://www.pbase.com/hfalkner

 

[Barrie Davis]

My searches on this topic have turned up lots of speculation and dismissals along the lines of "the camera will be obsolete before the sensor wears out,"

And that is precisely why you cannot find any authoritative data. I do remember that SONY recalled a range of cameras because of faulty sensors. As I recall, they replaced sensors up to four years old.

Yes, but, with respect, in the case of the SONY sensors it was because there was a screw-up in manufacturing. They didn't "wear out."

With regard to wearing out.....

My own concern is for the colour filter array that overlies the actual sensor. Apparently, the colours originate in organic dyes. Now, dyes FADE quite noticeably over time and with exposure to light. What's more, it must be remembered that filters over the sensor of a point and shoot get MILLIONS of times the light exposure of a typical dSLR ...

...because the sensor is open to the lens all the time the camera is switched on... pretty much.
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Regards,
Baz

Well, I'll see your Cher, and your Streisand... and I'll raise you an Alice Babs!

 

[Jim King]

--
Jim King - Retired Colormonger - Suburban Detroit, Michigan, USA; GMT -4h (EDT)
Pentaxian for over 45 years.



* * * * *
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.

• Sir Winston Churchill

* * * * *
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.

• Albert Einstein

 

[Simon97]

Going under the premise that video sensors are very similar to still camera sensors, they can last for many years under continuous use. We had a security camera with CCD sensor. It was used continuously for 10 years and was still working when we upgraded the security system.

 

[Joseph S Wisniewski]

My searches on this topic have turned up lots of speculation and dismissals along the lines of "the camera will be obsolete before the sensor wears out,"

And that is precisely why you cannot find any authoritative data. I do remember that SONY recalled a range of cameras because of faulty sensors. As I recall, they replaced sensors up to four years old.

Yes, but, with respect, in the case of the SONY sensors it was because there was a screw-up in manufacturing. They didn't "wear out."

With regard to wearing out.....

My own concern is for the colour filter array that overlies the actual sensor. Apparently, the colours originate in organic dyes. Now, dyes FADE quite noticeably over time and with exposure to light. What's more, it must be remembered that filters over the sensor of a point and shoot get MILLIONS of times the light exposure of a typical dSLR ...

...because the sensor is open to the lens all the time the camera is switched on... pretty much.

Hi Baz...

Well, there is a fading effect where the "u" quickly fades, causing the "colour" filter to become a "color" filter. But aside from that...

I tried various levels of UV radiation in an attempt to fade the filters and create a monochrome camera. I subjected them to, literally, sun years worth of UV, and produced just barely measurable changes. Those dyes are tough.

Just try to avoid pointing the camera directly at the sun: that melts the CFA or the microlenses.

--
Rahon Klavanian 1912-2008.

Armenian genocide survivor, amazing cook, scrabble master, and loving grandmother. You will be missed.

Ciao! Joseph

http://www.swissarmyfork.com

 

[sherwoodpete]

Well, there is a fading effect where the "u" quickly fades, causing the "colour" filter to become a "color" filter. But aside from that...

That doesn't quite mesh with my own experience. I've found that the 'u' fades in and out of visibility as the longitude setting is adjusted.

Regards,
Peter

 

[Joseph S Wisniewski]

Well, there is a fading effect where the "u" quickly fades, causing the "colour" filter to become a "color" filter. But aside from that...

That doesn't quite mesh with my own experience. I've found that the 'u' fades in and out of visibility as the longitude setting is adjusted.

Hi Peter.

It's been my experience that one really has to crank on the longitude setting, generally by many 10s of degrees east or west, to get them to affect the vestigial 'u'. However, a simple 5 degrees of north latitude will result in an abundance of such.

--
Rahon Klavanian 1912-2008.

Armenian genocide survivor, amazing cook, scrabble master, and loving grandmother. You will be missed.

Ciao! Joseph

http://www.swissarmyfork.com

 

[Cedarhill]

I bought a Canon S100 (I think is the model number) somewhere around the year 2000. I got the camera out about a year ago after many years in the closet and shot a few pictures. They all had a decidedly blue color cast. No amount of messing with the menu adjustments made it any better. I decided the sensor might be going bad and traded it on on a Canon G9 under the customer loyalty program. I can't absolutely confirm that it really was the sensor but I don't know what else it could have been.

 

[Henry Falkner]

I tried various levels of UV radiation in an attempt to fade the filters and create a monochrome camera. I subjected them to, literally, sun years worth of UV, and produced just barely measurable changes. Those dyes are tough.

I wished the same applied to inkjet prints.

Thanks for coming in on that one.

Henry

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Henry Falkner - SP-570UZ, Stylus 9010, Stylus 7020, D-490Z
http://www.pbase.com/hfalkner

 

[ttterk]

I've wondered the same myself, and have decided to stop worrying about the sensor. My Panasonic DMC-FZ18 has taken somewhere around 580,000 exposures (including somewhere around 30 short .MOVies). Ever since I found I could shoot continuously with a fast SD card, I've been shooting that way most of the time. Of course, I've only kept about 9K of 'em.

I've compared picture quality with the earlier exposures, and can't see any noticeable difference. With my next camera, I think I'll take some "control" shots so I can make a more scientific comparison over time.

 

[Mr Roygbiv rainbow]

Will anything electronical outlast something mechanical ? I don't think so . We got a built in problem with our futures up this creek !
--
Roygbiv

 

[ttterk]

ttterk wrote:
"taken somewhere around 580,000 exposures"

Eek! Oops! and mea culpa. That should have read 58,000 exposures. I was off by a factor of ten.

Once I thought about it, I did the math, and sure enough, the Panasonic software that tracks the number of exposures only counts first 999 of each 10,000 numbers, and skips from, say, 999 to 10,001.

I love/hate software.

 

[Peter McNeill]

I have an old Olympus C3020 I bought in 2001 and it still produces pictures as good as the day I bought it. Getting MMC cards for it is a different story. lol
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