I feared an expensive repair or worse, replacement, would be necessary when my K3 started generating speckles in neutral-tone areas. Regular lens / CCD cleaning did no good whatsoever.... so I ventured into the more remote nether-regions of the menus and discovered the Pixel Mapping feature. Fingers firmly crossed and credit card to hand, I set it going.

Problem solved .... it's BRILLIANT!

Take a look at the image specifically the sky, a hell of a mess .... now fixed.

Attached Images

 

[zapp]

Problem solved OK, but that is a large number of pixels that are off - looks more like regions being off.

[BigMackCam]

Welcome to the forums

That looks like either debris or oil spots on the sensor, or a cloud of small flies near the front of the lens - either way, very small things that are not in the focal plane. It really doesn't look anything like defective pixels, since those would appear as sharp points of (coloured) light or black dots when viewed at 100% reproduction.

Did you get this same problem on multiple photos in a variety of different shooting conditions, or were there some shots where it wasn't noticeable?

[sergysergy]

That looks like dust on the sensor to me.

[automorphism]

This is almost surely dust! In fact, it is an extremely dirty sensor. You might have think you solved it, but dust is only visible in certain shots so make sure you can't see it taking a shot of a blue sky at a small aperture like f/8.

The dust removal feature of cameras is pretty much useless. You need to use a blower or wet cleaning if the dust is sticky.

[stevebrot]

I hate to be a spoil sport, but pixel mapping should not have helped that. It is for detecting hot or dead pixels.


Steve

[MossyRocks]

I would think sensor cleaning is needed. The first time I cleaned my sensor I did a piss poor job and eneded up with more spots. I think it took something close to 10 attempts to get a good cleaning. I've gotten better but still haven't managed to get it on the first try. The size of the spots and the roundness points to it not being dead pixels. Focusing close or using a wide/ultra wide and stopping it down a bunch will make the dots more visible. When I clean a sensor I use my old 17mm fisheye stopped down all the way and set to the minimum focusing distance and point it at a wall a ways away.

[Adam007]

What everyone else already said!

[pschlute]

Agreeing with everyone else. Your sensor looks like it has been taken on a holiday to the dust capital of the world.

[swanlefitte]

If pixel mapping works for dust on the sensor it might be a good hack for when you don't have access to a sensor cleaning. Perhaps on a trip. After you can clean the sensor you can remap. Please tell me pixel mapping isn't a non reversable fix. I would expect it isn't because it might confuse dust with pixels.

[StiffLegged]

Or the midges have taken up residence – this is June, after all. Maybe ask Ffordes if they do sensor cleaning after Nicola lets us all oot again.

[stevebrot]

Please tell me pixel mapping isn't a non reversable fix.

That is a good question. If it isn't permanent, I wonder how it might be reversed? If it did fix the OP's problem, it would have been at an enormous loss of resolution.


Steve

[swanlefitte]

. If it isn't permanent, I wonder how it might be reversed? If it did fix the OP's problem, it would have been at an enormous loss of resolution.


Steve

It might not be reversed but during the mapping I would expect it would start from scratch and recheck every pixel, including those previously turned off.

[clickclick]

Looks like someone sneezed on that sensor. Better go get it tested!

[Parallax]

If the issue varies with aperture, i.e. worse at small apertures, less noticeable or nonexistent at large, it's most certainly what others have suggested; dust or other foreign substance on the sensor.