Canon 5D MKII Black Dots / Black Spots Discussion

Originally Posted by Terry Zorich

And I don't recall Canon making ANY claims about how easy it would be for the average consumer to pick up a 5DM2 and shoot video like he would with a Handycam.

Maybe not. But there sure is a lot of push by surrogates like LaForet and many others regarding the whole "Fusion," otherwise known as convergence, concept.

Here's another one.

At the end of the day, I say more power to 'em. They got to make a living. This is a good hype train to get on. I just think people need to know what they're getting into. This is no magic bullet.

[Noel_Carboni]

Thank you, Drew. I'll keep the link exclusive to ProPhotoHome for a few days. Maybe it will entice some folks to join.

Honestly, yes, this problem would keep me from considering the 5D II as an astrocamera. The software workaround will probably be acceptable for most daytime work, in that it uses surrounding pixels as fill and the attention really isn't on the light sources, but for astro work the problem would stand out like a sore thumb.

We actually did have a very similar problem with a newly released astro camera (Starlight Xpress SXVF-M25C) once a few years back... Turned out that some analog electronics involved with the A to D conversion needed tweaking by the manufacturer. I could not completely work around the problem with software at the time, though I got the problem to acceptable levels while we awaited the fix.

Familiarity with this kind of problem is why I was able to pull off a quick fix for the black spots problem today.

-Noel

[AndrewCassino]

Originally Posted by Johan_Elzenga

Not all 5D Mark II cameras have this issue. I just tested one, and whatever I try and whatever ISO I use, I can't reproduce this problem. That makes it less likely that it's a design issue and more likely that something went wrong in the production of a certain number of cameras.

Because of this information, my purchase of a 5D Mk II is now completely on hold. We are long past the early days of digital capture where this sort of issue was accepted as coming with the new and exciting territory. Remember the white-dot artifacts with the D30? It makes me nauseous just to think about it.

Noel's remedial action set appears to be brilliant and I think it's a great contribution. Thanks Noel! But like Drew said, it's deja vu all over again. I have a folder full of archaic actions to fix camera-specific image defects from my previous Canon cameras, beginning at square one with the Canon G1 and D30. The 5D freed me from that sort of work flow and I'm not going back to it with the 5D MkII, not for love or money.

Canon really must demonstrate a commitment to their customers by quickly and conclusively solving the technical issues behind the black dot artifacts. Then they need to fix all outstanding cameras with the problem, and provide an iron-clad no-black spot warranty for each new 5D Mk II sold.

Andrew

[Terry Zorich]

Originally Posted by AndrewCassino

Canon really must demonstrate a commitment to their customers by quickly and conclusively solving the technical issues behind the black dot artifacts. Then they need to fix all outstanding cameras with the problem, and provide an iron-clad no-black spot warranty for each new 5D Mk II sold.

I agree that this is what SHOULD happen.
But I can't say I'm optimistic that this WILL happen.

[ksgkphoto]

So yesterday... I looked thru all of the images (about 150) that I had taken so far to see if I had any "black dots"... and I didnt see anything... so I didnt go looking for any trouble......

Actually I was waiting for it to get dark so I could take some pictures...

I had to "work" hard to get the dots...

out of a run of 6 pictures.. only the last three did it.. and to be perfectly honest, I was "happy" with the first shot..

I'm not saying that this is by any means a comprehensive test... but.. I'm in the Rockwell camp right now.. its not "really" a problem unless you go looking for it...

I agree that for Astronmy this is probably an "issue"... but for the purpose that I got the camera for ... holiday snap shots and handheld video of my 5 year old.. its perfect (just kidding...)

I took Noels "actions" and gave it a whirl.. and it improves this to the point of non issue... (thank you Noel)

One final point... you only really see this when you zoom in like crazy... and I'm not sure if I'd be printing images at that level of "detail" with the kind of content that causes this to happen "in my experience so far"...

Time will tell...

K

[Randy_Vestal]

Noel,

You are one smart guy!

[Noel_Carboni]

Thank you, Randy. That's nice of you to say. I probably have more experience than smarts though.

-Noel