how long does a ccd last?

[rocketsharp]

hey guys, wondering how many shots before a ccd starts to lose pixels? my d100 has

done around 570000 pics and has 1 noticable dead pixel, a few not so easy to see

and i'm not sure if i'm imagining it but it seems to be really noisy now. it gets a fair

hiding by changing lenses on location and i heard that my blowing dirt off it with a

blower can reduce their life span. any ideas? matt

[lake_0571]

570000? My Congratulations Guy.

[terry_rory]

Your D100 has notched up almost the equivalent number of shots as 10,000 x 36 rolls PLUS 10,000 x 24 rolls of film.

 

I think any camera would deserve a major service after the equivalent of some 15,000 - 20,000 rolls especially as the D100 was originally a 'consumer' (or at best 'prosumer') camera!

[beno_t_marchal]

<p>The only information I have seen on this topic was in an interview with Phase One VP of

Manufacturing on the Luminous Landscape site: <i>I asked Jesper if to his knowledge there

was such a thing as a sensor chip deteriorating over time. His answer was an unequivocal

no.</i>

<p>For more details, read the read the original interview at <a href="http://www.luminous-

landscape.com/essays/phase-one.shtml">http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/

phase-one.shtml</a>

<p>--ben

[umd]

Not sure about the ccd but mechanical parts, esp shutter will fail sooner or later; and probably a repair will be more costly than buying a brand new camera. It is miraculous if you haven't had any shutter faileres yet in 570,000 shots. Are your exposures consistent?

[vasilis]

The number is so high that really nikon could make an advertisement based on your case. You have saved 100.000 dollars in film.....

 

Did it give you any problems during this period??

[jwenting]

Everything has an MTBF, electronics parts as well.

570k distinct operational cycles seems to be fairly high, especially for a non-professional piece of equipment (but then, Nikon used the same sensor tech in all their cameras up until the D2h so it's not all that surprising).

 

Your shutter is likely tested to have an MTBF of 100.000 cycles which is the norm for Nikon consumer items (which the D100 officially is/was). 6 times MTBF is very good indeed, I wouldn't want to be the poor sob on the other end of the probability curve from you :)

[lex_jenkins]

Even now some manufacturers of LCD TVs and monitors consider a certain number of dead pixels right out of the box to be acceptable and not grounds for exchange, return or warranty service.

 

I doubt that many serious digital photographers these days would consider this acceptable for cameras.

 

My Olympus C-3040Z P&S digicam (now around five years old) demonstrated several hot (green) pixels when new during long exposures. I just try to avoid exposures longer than 1/15 with that camera.

 

My D2H has one hot pixel that shows up green. I didn't notice it until the summer, a few months after purchasing the camera, but when I examined all of my photos closely I can see that the problem first came up about a month after I first began using it. It hasn't been much of a problem but I should return it for service before the warranty expires.

 

Pixmantec's RawShooter Premium (the pay-for version, not the freebie RawShooter Essentials) has a very effective utility that eliminates such spots from hot or dead pixels without significantly affecting desired fine detail. I'm not 100% enthusiastic about RawShooter but this particular utility is very effective.

[ShunCheung]

I sure hope that the 570,000 figure is not a typo. That seems to be awfully high. The D100 has been out for about 3.5 years. Even though this is among the earliest D100, it works out to be about 450 images a day, 365 days a year.

 

Is there an extra zero somewhere?

[Landrum Kelly]

I have two digital cameras, one that uses a Nikon mount, and one that uses a prosumer zoom (the Olympus E-20).

 

I have shot a lot of pictures with my Olympus E-20, bought in late January, 2001. I don't know how many, but the number has been very, very high.

 

So far? The same large dead pixel that I started with (and which rarely shows on actual photos).

 

As for the shutter, I did notice recently that there were some slight irregularities in exposure, but all were salvageable in spite of the slight variation.

 

As for my Kodak 14n with a Nikon mount, I have noticed no problems with either pixels or exposures, but I have had it a mere year and nine months.

 

--Lannie

[Landrum Kelly]

Correction: The E-20 was bought in late January, 2002.

 

--Lannie

[kelly_flanigan1]

With our three 36" wide engineering drawing scanners from 1992, one has died, another works only to a 24" width, one is perfect. The "dead" one has noise in most of its sensor banks; which are groups/blocks of 8" wide arrays. The "noisy sensor" failure mode is not the sensor, but failure of the alot of electrolytic caps, a few transistors, plus dirt/toner on the traces. The electronics that surround the sensor array are what is failing with these engineering scanners. The failure of a digital camera might just be leaky micro electrolytic caps. These have a failure rate orders of magnitude higher than resistors, transistors, ceramic caps. The noise on these engineering scanners effected the useablity of the light dark threshold controll. To replace/troubleshoot the caps was done on one unit, a horrible sinkhole in time.<BR><BR>With a camera sensor often dead pixels and noisy ones are mapped out during camera build, to hide the defects. <BR><BR>ALOT of digital cameras "die" by being dropped, splashed with water, or a switch gets flakey due to dirt. The cost of fixing even a P&S digital is often 120 bucks for just a switch, thus many cameras will just be disposed of and not repaired.

[aaron l]

Lex - Yes, manufacturers accept a certain number of dead pixels on display devices. I'm staring at a red one right now on my notebook. However, having a dead sensor site on a capture device is another matter.

 

At ISO 1600, I've discovered that I've got three red pixels on my D70 that seems to be dead. They only show up at 1600 and no other ISO that I've been able to detect. Now, when I purchase a camera, I'll make sure to check that immediately as well. Maybe even sample a couple in-store cameras. If that's an acceptable standard, then okay. But I don't like having to dot out red dots in my band shots. It doesn't make me hate my camera, just be aware of all the operating conditions.

 

Matt - How in the world have you taken 570k shots with your camera? Hooked it up to Nikon Capture, wall power and let it rip? That would have to be a record for a D100. Electrolytic and tantalum capacitors wear out. Not sure if a CCD has a wear-out mechanism.

[jmcconnell2]

Does a CMOS sensor, and a CCD sensor have about the same lifespan? I have a digital Rebel that I bought in Sept 2003. This camera`s file system goes to 10,000, then starts over. I am on the 9th cycle, and I don`t see any defective pixels. I understand that Nikon is using their first-generation CCD on the D2X, is it a good camera? Which is the best type of sensor, CCD or CMOS? I just got a Digital Rebel XT, and like the original Digital Rebel, it has a CMOS sensor. If CMOS is better, why doesn`t every camera company use it? If CCD is better, why doesn`t every company use That? My brother has a Nikon D70, which he has had for about 1 1/2 years, we can`t find any bad pixels. He wants a higher resolution camera, which he says he will keep for several years, what is a good choice?

[StuartMoxham]

It is really quite amazing that the shutter has not failed. Over a half a milion shots on that D100. I wonder if the shutter is still acurate. I was even suprised about the digital rebel still going after 90,000. I have often considered buying a used DSLR but have be put off by the huge number of images people manage to shoot with these things. I don't know if these figures make me more or less nervous. I guess you made a huge saving in film. Just one question really how many images do you guys actually print from all these.

[phule]

<< At ISO 1600, I've discovered that I've got three red pixels on my D70 that seems to be dead. They only show up at 1600 and no other ISO that I've been able to detect. >>

 

This is not a dead pixel, this is just a noisy one.

 

A dead pixel returns the same color all the time not matter what the ISO or shutter speed.

[jmcconnell2]

Hi Stuart, I am retired, I take pictures as a hobby, and to suppliment my income. I shoot at car shows, horse shows, dog shows, and other events where I think people might like prints. At a car show or cruise-in, I usually shoot 20-30 shots of each car that the owner wants prints of. Using different camera angles, different exposures, ect. Then I print a set of (1)11x14, (2)8x10`s, and (4)4x6`s. I have an Epson R1800 printer, which will print up to 13"x19", and the quality is fantastic! Thirteen by nineteen inch prints from a 6mp camera are ok, from an 8mp camera (Canon 350xt) are pretty darn good, and from a 12mp camera, (Canon 5D) are as good as anything I have ever seen! To answer your question, I don`t print many relative to the number of shots taken, but I want to make sure that I have the best shot possible before I print. Photo processing costs about 30 cents per square foot, ink-jet printing, on premium glossy paper, costs about $2.70 per square foot. Therefore, I take lottsa shots, and print once! Happy Hollidays, Jim.

[StuartMoxham]

Thanks Jim for you reply. I was curious about the number of images because I find with my small digicam that I don't use that often, I have maybe made 200 prints max from about 4000 images. I also find that that from my B&W films that I process and print myself that I don't print many more than 10-15 frames per roll of 36, sometimes it is more and sometimes it is less, it depends also what and how I was shooting sometimes I might go through a roll of 36 B&W in a few minutes shooting my daughters and I may not have that many great shots that I want to print. It would seem the with being able to choose to print only the good images a DSLR would be quite a nice way to go especially for color.

[aaron l]

Rob

>>This is not a dead pixel, this is just a noisy one.

A dead pixel returns the same color all the time not matter what the ISO or shutter speed.<<

 

You're most likely correct there. It's never been a big deal except at ISO1600 for me to ever care. A truly dead one would react differently.

[lee hamiel]

Matt:

 

Sounds like you are the Wilt Chamberlain of the camera world ... :)

[tom_luongo1]

Aren't shutters electronically controlled now in a way which makes their timing much more accurate and reliable? And wouldn't this contribute to 500K+ accurate actuations?

 

My D70 'feels' slightly noisier than when I bought it less than an year ago. But Nikon Tech told me that sensors don't wear out. Still, I'll be sending it back to them since it's still it under warranty.

 

My D1 seems to have developed several pixels that return white at slow shutter speeds, but most of the time this isn't a problem.