PC-GUY
1
Background
In the first half of October, 2005, a number of digital camera and camcorder manufacturers issued service advisories involving a range of digital camera models (as well as some digital camcorders and PDAs that incorporate image sensors). In each case, the story was similar - CCD (image sensor) failures, particularly in conditions of high heat and humidity, led to cameras capturing images with either no picture at all, or with extreme distortion and severe purple or green color casts. An example of the latter symptom, courtesy of the Konica Minolta Europe website, can be seen further down this page. We first started hearing about this problem in late September and early October, 2005, with a significant increase in reader emails about it in the first week of October. The problem understandably caused considerable concern among our readers, with many wondering whether this was an ongoing problem that could affect current cameras.
Initial service advisories by Sony, Canon, Fujifilm and Konica Minolta were soon followed by announcements by Nikon, Ricoh, and Olympus. Affected cameras were all manufactured between 2002 and 2004, the underlying problems have apparently been found and corrected, so no cameras currently on the market are affected. (We are assured by sources that new cameras purchased today will not be affected by this problem. See the "What caused this problem" section at the bottom of this document, for a more detailed discussion of possible causes.)
We here at Imaging Resource did a little digging into the problem, and it appears that the problems trace to certain models of image sensor chips manufactured by Sony between 2002 and 2004. (Fujifilm has stated that they manufacture their own CCD chips, so it's not clear whether or not the problems with their cameras are in fact related to those of the other makers.)
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In the first half of October, 2005, a number of digital camera and camcorder manufacturers issued service advisories involving a range of digital camera models (as well as some digital camcorders and PDAs that incorporate image sensors). In each case, the story was similar - CCD (image sensor) failures, particularly in conditions of high heat and humidity, led to cameras capturing images with either no picture at all, or with extreme distortion and severe purple or green color casts. An example of the latter symptom, courtesy of the Konica Minolta Europe website, can be seen further down this page. We first started hearing about this problem in late September and early October, 2005, with a significant increase in reader emails about it in the first week of October. The problem understandably caused considerable concern among our readers, with many wondering whether this was an ongoing problem that could affect current cameras.
Initial service advisories by Sony, Canon, Fujifilm and Konica Minolta were soon followed by announcements by Nikon, Ricoh, and Olympus. Affected cameras were all manufactured between 2002 and 2004, the underlying problems have apparently been found and corrected, so no cameras currently on the market are affected. (We are assured by sources that new cameras purchased today will not be affected by this problem. See the "What caused this problem" section at the bottom of this document, for a more detailed discussion of possible causes.)
We here at Imaging Resource did a little digging into the problem, and it appears that the problems trace to certain models of image sensor chips manufactured by Sony between 2002 and 2004. (Fujifilm has stated that they manufacture their own CCD chips, so it's not clear whether or not the problems with their cameras are in fact related to those of the other makers.)
Read the rest