Anyway to get rid of red pixel spot? (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

A point-n-shoot digital camera (Canon) of mine has developed a small red pixel spot, normally, I can ignore them, but this spot is right smack dab in the middle of the photo, and it shows up easily in dark areas, but not so much in white areas.

Am I just stuck with it, or is there something that can be done if I send it back to Canon? I really don't want to touch up every single photo I take with this particular digital camera.

 

[Bryan X]

Is this actually a red spot on the printed photo (and when viewed on your computer) or just on the back display screen of the camera?

 

[Patrick Sun]

The first case (on the photo file created by the camera, not on the LCD screen).

 

[Scott Merryfield]

It sounds like you have a bad spot on your sensor. If that is the case, I doubt it's worth the cost to repair.

 

[Bryan X]

I think Scott is right. The fix would probably be expensive. They would either replace the sensor or map out the stuck pixel.

 

[Jay Taylor]

Here's something from a forum discussing this subject:

What we are referring to here as "pixel mapping" is a diagnostic software program used by the Canon Factory Service Center to identify dead pixels in an imager and essentially replace their data with good information from adjacent "live" pixels. There's nothing new or unusual or exclusive to Canon about this procedure. Virtually all imagers used in digital cameras today have some degree of dead pixels present when they are manufactured. Mapping out the dead pixels is something that occurs initially at the factory when the camera is assembled as a part of the quality checking procedure. However, even though all dead pixels present at the time of camera assembly are mapped out at the factory, more can appear at a later date for a variety of reasons. When this happens, the Service Dept. can step in and remedy the problem. This service is typically offered at no charge while the camera is in warranty.

Although this doesn't apply to your point & shoot camera, some digital SLR cameras with a manual sensor cleaning function such as the Canon 5D Mark II have a built in procedure to map out the dead/stuck pixels:

How to remove Stuck Pixels on your Digital SLR - SlashGear

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

If the camera is out of warranty and you have Adobe Photoshop or similar, maybe you can just create a simple script/batch job to automatically touch up and remove the hot pixel for you on your computer. I imagine it'd be similar to a red-eye reduction function, except the function would be programmed to know exactly where to apply the fix. In fact, maybe you can even just use the built-in red-eye reduction function on whatever app you use, if it has that.

_Man_