Nikon D80 Stuck/Hot Pixels (Images included!)

Messages
114
Name
Jack
Edit My Images
No
Hello,
Im quite new to DSLR cameras and photography and I have recently bought a second hand Nikon D80 camera and was wondering if someone could please help/or give me tips with the problem I have with it? I am using the camera in full 'manual' mode, with an old manual focus Nikon 50mm F1.8 (could this be adding to the problem by not using an AF lens?).

As I have been taking photos recently I have noticed some stuck/hot pixels on my images. I have found out though that if I use a flash with the camera (either an external one, or the one on the camera) the problem seems to dissapear? They also seem to be not visible if the image is overexposed or has alot of light. There seem to be around 10 stuck pixels in the worst case scenario and there seem to be a few constantly stuck ones when the flash it not used.

I have also tried to eliminate the stuck pixels by trying different shutter speeds etc which seems to work OK. But I had have to take around 3 different photos at different settings to make sure they are gone so this is not very practical. I have had to set the shutter speed to around 1/400 for the images below and the outdoor images I think was 1/-600/800 although it could of been higher. The aperture was left on f1.8 on the manual lens, although I have tried changing the aperture to change the lighting, although because it is a manual lens I am mostly setting up the lighting by mostly using the shutter speed and ISO.

I am mostly worried about these as I would like to print images at A3 size so also do you think these would be visible?

Below I have uploaded some full size images of what I am talking about, I have highlighted the pixels with red boxes:

http://jak01.com/pics123/hotpixel/pixels.JPG
http://jak01.com/pics123/hotpixel/hot pixels/DSC_0407.JPG
http://jak01.com/pics123/hotpixel/hot pixels/DSC_0431.JPG
http://jak01.com/pics123/hotpixel/hot pixels/DSC_0433.JPG


I have also emailed companies about getting this fixed, as I have emailed Nikon who have confirmed that these are hot pixels, and have been quoted around £80 to get the sensor remapped by a private company. I have also been offered a refund by the seller but the camera is perfect apart from this problem and it was a great price so I am not sure what to do now :thinking:

If any one has any tips on how I could sort this or make them less visible (by using different ISO settings or sensitivity's, aperture or shutter speed settings/buying a new AF lens? Or using software like Photoshop to batch edit photos?)

Thank you
Jack :wave:
 
There used to be free software floating around on the web to remap the sensors in certain Nikon cameras to cure this, not sure if the D80 was one of them, but it would be worth a Google anyway....
 
To be honest if you had not put a red box around them I would not have seen them, 3 out of 10 million is not that bad really.

I had them appear at times on a D80, tended to be at high ISO settings, long exposure shots in dark areas can also lead to them.

It is fairly common, and personally it would not worry me, a simple fix in photoshop.

If you send it off all they do is map out the dead ones, basically turning them off.

It has nothing to do with the lens that you use.
 
They can look worse with in-camera JPEGs, and occur more with long exposures and high ISOs.

There are freeware standalone programs for zapping them. I see that PaintShopPro is used, so try the dusting layer script (link near foot of page) -- though it may need a minor re-write for your version. Dark frame subtraction is a technique you may wish to read up on.
 
Thanks for all the answers so far, please keep replying as I dont mind trying different things to sort this :)

@Flash In The Pan
I have tried a few bits of software but many seem to be for raw files only, I usually just shoot in JPG format. And there is a Nikon D1000? re mapper software but thats it :(

@Martyn...
Yeah its not always 3 though sometimes (which I could put up with), as seen in this picture (http://jak01.com/pics123/hotpixel/pixels.JPG) there are like 10+ dead pixels. Also what do you mean by 'turn them off'? Do they appear black or does it use other pixels around it to fill the pixel gap? Also Im looking into that Photoshop cloning thing, but im looking to batch process many images at a time which looks quite confusing.

@photon
The only thing with mine is that they are occuring at low ISO's aswell :( And thanks I will look into that dusting script.

Thank you
Jack
 
Last edited:
@Martyn...
Also what do you mean by 'turn them off'? Do they appear black or does it use other pixels around it to fill the pixel gap?

They turn them off, and average the value of adjacent ones to fill in the gap.

I bet most of those would not show up in a print, I would just PP the prominent ones.
 
I've got one on my D90 at the bottom of the frame, LR3 maps it out, so does the in-camera processing for JPEG's

:)
 
@photon
The only thing with mine is that they are occuring at low ISO's aswell :( And thanks I will look into that dusting script.

Thank you
Jack

Yup, reading around a bit more, there are possibilities of dead, hot and stuck pixels, and yours are the stuck variety. Apparently, Nikon don't differentiate, and just call any faulty one "defective".

Usually (or in the past), in-camera processing made them worse in JPEGs. Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw, I've read, will automagically correct them.
 
Back
Top