Nikon D600: Small sensor dots caused by a speck of dust, lubricant drops, or by Hot Pixels?
I was reviewing some of the Forums related to dust, or oil spots on the sensors. I have had no oil spot problems with my own D600, as yet.
The following information and Data is based on the fact, that the Nikon D600 is using a Sony-built IMX128 sensor (although Nikon insists it is designed to its specifications) with a pixel pitch of 5.9 microns.
iFixit tears down the Nikon D600 - Chipworks confirms Sony sensor: Digital Photography Review
I did own a Sony A77, a few years back, and the A77 had the translucent fixed in place mirror, and as such, it was very difficult for dust to get through to the sensor, as opposed to Nikon’s mirror flipping up, for exposure. I did not have a Hot Pixel problem with my A77. I purchased Gary L. Friedman’s Guide to the A77, in which he outlines the hot pixel problems with some Sony sensors; and below I quote his outline of a hot pixel problem, and a possible fix.
The Complete Guide “Sony’s 65 & 77 SLT Cameras by Gary L. Friedman.
“Sometimes a small dot on every picture isn’t caused by a speck of dust; rather sometimes a single pixel can “go south” and remain a fixed color forever. Although it is not mentioned anywhere in the documentation, and although I haven’t actually had the opportunity to test this myself, one of the online newsgroups revealed a very clever undocumented feature of the Konica Minolta 5D and 7D, which has since been verified on the A700, A900, and presumably it’s in your new camera as well.”
“At the beginning of a month when the camera is turned on, it will test itself for a stuck pixel, and if it finds one it “maps it out” in its memory, replacing its value with the average of all the surrounding pixel’s values when it processes the image and writes it to the memory card. So if you suspect your camera has such a “hot pixel”, set the camera’s date to the beginning of next month, turn the camera off and then on, and the problem should go away. (You can even move the date back to today once it’s done.)”
I have no knowledge if Nikon’s software package for the D600 has this mapping program for correcting hot pixels, or not. Hope this information might help, and not confuse.
John
I was reviewing some of the Forums related to dust, or oil spots on the sensors. I have had no oil spot problems with my own D600, as yet.
The following information and Data is based on the fact, that the Nikon D600 is using a Sony-built IMX128 sensor (although Nikon insists it is designed to its specifications) with a pixel pitch of 5.9 microns.
iFixit tears down the Nikon D600 - Chipworks confirms Sony sensor: Digital Photography Review
I did own a Sony A77, a few years back, and the A77 had the translucent fixed in place mirror, and as such, it was very difficult for dust to get through to the sensor, as opposed to Nikon’s mirror flipping up, for exposure. I did not have a Hot Pixel problem with my A77. I purchased Gary L. Friedman’s Guide to the A77, in which he outlines the hot pixel problems with some Sony sensors; and below I quote his outline of a hot pixel problem, and a possible fix.
The Complete Guide “Sony’s 65 & 77 SLT Cameras by Gary L. Friedman.
“Sometimes a small dot on every picture isn’t caused by a speck of dust; rather sometimes a single pixel can “go south” and remain a fixed color forever. Although it is not mentioned anywhere in the documentation, and although I haven’t actually had the opportunity to test this myself, one of the online newsgroups revealed a very clever undocumented feature of the Konica Minolta 5D and 7D, which has since been verified on the A700, A900, and presumably it’s in your new camera as well.”
“At the beginning of a month when the camera is turned on, it will test itself for a stuck pixel, and if it finds one it “maps it out” in its memory, replacing its value with the average of all the surrounding pixel’s values when it processes the image and writes it to the memory card. So if you suspect your camera has such a “hot pixel”, set the camera’s date to the beginning of next month, turn the camera off and then on, and the problem should go away. (You can even move the date back to today once it’s done.)”
I have no knowledge if Nikon’s software package for the D600 has this mapping program for correcting hot pixels, or not. Hope this information might help, and not confuse.
John
