Second Hand DSLR - Issue with colour

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Hi all, pleased to meet you!

I have just purchased a second hand DSLR. Everything seems fine, the camera appears to work perfectly, that is until you check what you've taken.

All the pictures are heavily tinged with a magenta colour and it doesn't appear like there's any green at all, no matter what mode/settings selected. I opened the images in Paint and pipetted whites and "greens" and as I kind of expected, there was 0 green. For example, a white section was R:208 G:0 B:243.

At first, I thought the camera had been IR modified for astrophotography, but now I'm not so sure. Surely there would still be some green?

I would attach pics, but I'm not allowed to yet! :)

Any help appreciated,
Cheers
 
Are these JPEGs or RAW files that have the magenta cast? Do the photos look fine on the Camera’s screen?
 
Hi,

Thanks for the replies - I've tried defaulting all of the settings and played around with the white balance with no luck.

The tint is present in both RAW and jpg. The pictures look fine in live view (but the camera has a secondary sensor for this), but the tint is present when viewed on the camera also.

It's just so strange that the camera works perfectly, blue and red are fine, but no green. I'm puzzled.

Thanks
 
The tint is present when you look through the OVF?
 
I had a Panasonic FX55 go just like this. If it's the same fault as I experienced then the electronics are faulty and it's a case of back to the seller. :(
 
Which camera? Is there a 'factory reset' menu button that resets everything, in case you missed a setting?
 
Hi,

Thanks for the replies - I've tried defaulting all of the settings and played around with the white balance with no luck.

The tint is present in both RAW and jpg. The pictures look fine in live view (but the camera has a secondary sensor for this), but the tint is present when viewed on the camera also.

It's just so strange that the camera works perfectly, blue and red are fine, but no green. I'm puzzled.

Thanks

Hi @StiffCookie and welcome to TP

In live view you are seeing "what the camera sees" without knowing exactly which camera you have.......I have yet to learn of one that had two sensors!

Therefore, if in live view and through the optical viewfinder you are seeing the scene as normal.......but when you examine the pictures on the computer, whether raw or jpeg, there is "0" value on the green channel.

I can only think of 2 things:-
1) there is a problem with the camera processor, in that it is not recording the green channel

2) if it is a Canon, I recall the 5 series & 1 series bodies allow for changing the magenta vs green balance (I may be misdescribing it but fairly I had seen that on the menu on the 5Dmk3) but it is possible that a reset may not return that to default settings.

If you cannot resolve it by double checking the settings and/or doing a factory reset......then sadly it appears to be 'fubar'.

PS re: #2 of my suggested causes.
Unlike simple White Balance choice....this one I am thinking of is called White Balance Shift......
Here is one Canon page that goes into the aspect/user adjustable Green/Magenta I vaguely recalled
https://snapshot.canon-asia.com/art...rs-with-the-white-balance-correction-function

That has these screen grabs
eos-80d-menu_1325-1.jpg


eos-80d-menu_1325-2.jpg


So, I wonder if it is possible...no idea why anyone would do it, to set the above shift to remove 100% of Green?

Hope that helps......but if not, hopefully the seller will see you good :)
 
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I had my Canon 20D converted to infrared and the images have similar levels in all three channels so I do not think you have a converted camera. As you have tried the obvious, it sound like a fault so you should reject the camera. I expect the seller has been expecting a rejection and must know about this fault.

Dave
 
I am thinking that is why the camera was sold, maybe too expensive to get fixed so flog it was the sellers thought. That fault should have been in the descripion of the camera
 
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You just shoot a patch of grass, a piece of white paper and some sky using daylight WB, and picture style normal or standard, etc, and if the in camera JPEG is no good you must demand for refund.

It's not your problem to find out any technical details, that had to be detailed by the seller in the listing.
 
Thank you all so much for your input, I appreciate every reply. You guys were right - I discovered that the camera was indeed faulty. I think the previous owner tried to mod it, broke it and then sold it for peanuts. The green channel circuitry on the CCD PCB had been damaged. I have now repaired this and the camera is working perfectly! Although now I'm a little disappointed it's not modded! I like the sound of the possibility with a full-spectrum (or IR) camera. I probably won't be taking it apart for a while now though...maybe one day
smile.gif


@Box Brownie: It's an old camera and I think Sony were one of the manufacturers experimenting with two sensors when live view was a relatively new thing, check here: https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydslra350/2


https://ibb.co/XS197Ts - The damage
https://ibb.co/1XTSzZs - Size of the components
https://ibb.co/q9Nbwp7 - After discovering second track broken
https://ibb.co/8sVPDwN - Repaired

Just to clarify, it is an Alpha A330.

Thanks again
 
@StiffCookie

Good on you for having skill to recognise the tampering and to be able to work close in on the surface mounted components (AFAIK with double sided PCBs too much heat applied one side can de-solder on the other side)

But glad it is sorted and thanks for the link about its lightpath and functioning.
 
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