If you’ll recall, a while back I had bellyached about hot pixels on my recently acquired digital camera. After contacting Nikon tech support, I was informed that their official position on the matter is that a few are normal. So, I was resigned to live with it.
Well, after the post I made on the topic festered for a while, I was again contacted by someone else at Nikon, and apparently, they had a change of heart. The way I described the situation, they went on to say, seemed to indicate that my situation was “unique” and that camera I had did, indeed, require repair after all, and could I please send it in?
I honestly don’t know if such “re-evaluations” are commonplace there, or if it was the result of them not liking the idea of a picky geek with a website complaining about his new gadget. Much as I’d like to stroke my ego, I doubt I have THAT much pull, but you never know…
Nonetheless, I must say that after sending the camera in, the problem has been quite handsomely resolved to my satisfaction. I now hold in my hands a camera with a CCD that near as I can tell, is just about “flawless.” And I was also clearly able to determine that Nikon did not just remap the hot pixels for a quick and dirty software-based fix, as is the common practice. The components are completely different. Now, it’s actually likely that they repalced it with another CCD that exhibits fewer hot pixels than what I had before, and the filtering software in-camera is just better able to compensate. That’s fine by me. My real problem was that these hot pixels were getting through DESPITE the averaging and filtering software that is inherent in modern digital cameras.
I don’t know what hoops had to be jumped through within their corporate structure, if at all, to make this happen, so the particular contact at Nikon who handled this shall remain nameless, for now at least. but I AM quite happy. You go, Nikon.