Nikon got a black dot problem as well?

19 Comments

1. www.barrosinc.com
   Posted January 20, 2009 at 7:41 pm | Permalink

   its like the black plague from medieval times!!

2. No Problem.
   Posted January 20, 2009 at 8:24 pm | Permalink

   There’s no problem because no one cared and there is so much more than can go wrong with super long exposures — but kudos to Nikon for noticing it and fixing something before anyone even cared (unlike Canon, who fully released a unfinished product knowing damned well that it was choc full of black holes from Uranus, a huge problem for anyone in the market for that cam).

3. DNHJR
   Posted January 20, 2009 at 8:26 pm | Permalink

   Well it must have been very rare because I never heard any complaints like you heard about the 5DM2 with it’s black dots.

4. John Galbraith
   Posted January 20, 2009 at 11:35 pm | Permalink

   I have black dots somewhere and their not in my D3X pictiures…

5. Tomao
   Posted January 21, 2009 at 12:13 am | Permalink

   Are they talking about the little black crosses you can get on the D700 when doing long exposures? Cause I’ve certainly seen that on my camera. I’ll have to test it out this week to see if the firmware update fixes that.

6. Tomao
   Posted January 21, 2009 at 12:15 am | Permalink

   I see an example here…
   http://www.flickr.com/groups/nikond700/discuss/72157611138481951/

7. Archer
   Posted January 21, 2009 at 4:30 am | Permalink

   I use both the D700 and Canon 5DMk2, what black dots? Both are great cameras that help me make great pictures.

8. Pablov
   Posted January 21, 2009 at 6:45 am | Permalink

   - I did know and see some “issues” when applying Long Exposure Noise Reduction, that gave bad results (for instance when shooting night sky long expsorues), I’m not sure if that refers to that.

   - In the case of the 5D MK II, the black dots were even at not-long exposures, but high ISO settings (the higher iso, the more noticeable bad effect)

   I guess they are different issues.

9. DS
   Posted January 21, 2009 at 8:50 am | Permalink

   In the case of Nikon, the ‘black dots’ were apparently extremely rare on very long exposures. I have never seen any such problems on 1000’s of D3 and D700 images I have seen. Well done to Nikon for fixing it anyway.

   I also use a new Canon 5D MkII and those problems are much more frequent under normal shooting. Still waiting on Canon to supply a satisfactory fix too.

   • Pablov
     Posted January 21, 2009 at 12:02 pm | Permalink

     Canon already released firmware update 1.07 , did you try it ?

     - PLEASE let me know if you noticed hot pixels in both, still images, and video movie clips.

     - in still images at fast shutter speeds, and in long exposures)

     - In movie clips, at dark scenes

     I’m very concerned about the so often hot pixels reported by owners. Remapping is an option for still pictures, but seems it doesn’t work for video clip.

     (I read someone having more than 100 hot pixels in normal shutter speeds, not long exposures)

     • Pablov
       Posted January 21, 2009 at 12:04 pm | Permalink

       PS: I was taling about the Canon 5D Mark II

   • Anonymous
     Posted January 26, 2009 at 7:42 pm | Permalink

     I have black dots on my photos under normal exposure… noticed it last week. Will post a sample later. Also, that was ISO200 under normal conditions.

10. The gooch
    Posted January 21, 2009 at 11:02 am | Permalink

    Dam, I’ve experienced these black dots while using my D90 for night photos. But so far only of the moon and not city photos. I actually thought I had something on my sensor but it doesn’t appear so now. And it’s usually only the first photo, if any at all.

11. Scott
    Posted January 21, 2009 at 3:26 pm | Permalink

    I noticed the black dot “problem” in my D3 since day one. But it only happened when long exposure NR was “ON”. So, I just turned it off. My long exposure work around (and many others, I am sure) for the last 14 months has been to shoot many short exposures (@ 30 secs.) and “stack” them in CS3. It works quite well and the lack of noise, once the composite is finished, blows everything else away. However, I do give credit to both Canon and Nikon for dealing with these perceived problems.

12. rhlpetrus
    Posted January 22, 2009 at 5:29 pm | Permalink

    This is a software rpoblem, so not too difficult to repair via firmware. I wonder, never heard of it before!

13. [NR] admin
    Posted January 22, 2009 at 5:36 pm | Permalink

    I knew about Canon’s black dot issue, but did not know that Nikon had it as well.

14. Rich
    Posted January 22, 2009 at 8:30 pm | Permalink

    I certainly was a victim of the “black dot” issue. Hope it clears up with this firmware.

15. japeeps
    Posted January 25, 2009 at 5:35 pm | Permalink

    I think it is a dead pixel…
    almost all camera I’ve tested have that both in canon and nikon.. also those who are still in the store… check nikon website knowledge base search for defective pixel

16. Laszlo
    Posted January 26, 2009 at 7:43 pm | Permalink

    I’m having this black dot issue under normal exposure – ISO200. I’ve looked at the example posted upstream, but only get one or two black dots in the entire photo. Very strange! Anyway, I updated my firmware last night to 101 so we’ll see what happens. Love the D700, but this was a bit of a surprise for me.