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RMStringer

Photography Tech Tip: Minolta/Sony solution against hot pixels, stuck pixels

Solution against hot pixels, stuck pixels.

 

I noticed this tonight on a photo shoot while doing very long exposures at night.

 

Once a month, when switching off, the SLR camera will shoot a black image (not even opening the shutter) and look for stuck pixels to update the “dead pixel map” of the camera. The switching off appears slower when this happens (the red light will blink a little longer), but after this step the problem is automatically corrected.

 

If you want to correct it by yourself, the only thing that you have to do is to change the date in the camera menu, move it forward at least further than the next 1st day of the next month, switch off the camera (let it do its little game of red light), switch it on again, shoot one picture, go to the menu and change the date back, then switch off the camera.

 

After this, your Sony camera updated its hot pixel mapping and knows where to expect them. It will automatically remove them from the picture and just interpolate values from the neighboring pixels. Instead of having an ugly white spot, you’ll get a microscopic and all-but-invisible loss of resolution (one-pixel resolution loss out of 6 to 20 million is still acceptable, isn’t it?)

 

It works with all Sony SLR cameras (and older Minolta or Konica/Minolta cameras). To be kept somewhere in the back of our memory.

 

 

320 Second Exposure

320 Second Exposure, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

Long Exposures at Nigh taken with the Sony 18-70mm Lens. The temp was about 50 DegF and it was a very clear sky. Location is on the New State Fish Hatchery road located on FMR 255, Southern tip of Lake Sam Rayburn.

Exposure: 320
Aperture: f/9.0
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 400

465 Second Exposure

465 Second Exposure, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

Long Exposures at Nigh taken with the Sony 18-70mm Lens. The temp was about 50 DegF and it was a very clear sky. Location is on the New State Fish Hatchery road located on FMR 255, Southern tip of Lake Sam Rayburn.

Exposure: 465
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 200

837 Second Exposure

837 Second Exposure, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

Long Exposures at Nigh taken with the Sony 18-70mm Lens. The temp was about 50 DegF and it was a very clear sky. Location is on the New State Fish Hatchery road located on FMR 255, Southern tip of Lake Sam Rayburn.

Exposure: 837
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 200

15 Minute 1 Second Exposure

15 Minute 1 Second Exposure, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

Long Exposures at Nigh taken with the Sony 18-70mm Lens. The temp was about 50 DegF and it was a very clear sky. Location is on the New State Fish Hatchery road located on FMR 255, Southern tip of Lake Sam Rayburn.

Exposure: 901
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Golden Morning

Golden Morning, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

Taken in OFallon Illinois. It was about 12 DegF that morning.

If i would have not said where this photo was taken, one could assume that it is anywhere in the world. The snow gives it a desolate look. The sun glowing off the snow looks like it could be in the tundra or some other location like that.

Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1600)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 40 mm
ISO Speed: 200