Author Topic: white dots on EPL1 at F22 (Read 2040 times)

chun86 · « **on:** July 05, 2010, 08:48:06 AM »

Hey fellow PEN owners,

This is my first post so I should say hello. I recently bought an EPL1 with the 14-42 kit lens. It's a fun little camera and is nice and small unlike my nikon D40.

The other day, I was shooting indoors (night)with a lamp on, F22 at 60sec at ISO100, vivid setting on manual with incandescent white balance @14mm range.

I set my camera on the table and let it shoot just to test how well the camera can handle F22 and what I saw in the picture I didnt like. The picture looked ok until you zoom in on the black tv stand where speck of white appeared all over.

While I own a dslr, I am in no way an expert on digital photography. I was wondering whether anyone on the forums can give me an insight about what is happening or whether I have a defective unit. I want to be able to take nice shallow nature pictures or night time pictures but not if the camera keeps making those white dots.

Thanks and hope to read more amazing stuff about the EPL1.

popo · « **Reply #1 on:** July 05, 2010, 09:14:05 AM »

Pretty much all digital cameras suffer from this to some extent. As the exposure gets "long", say, in the order of seconds or longer, some pixels heat up faster than others giving those specks. There are two ways around it: cool down the sensor which is not practical I know... the other is dark frame subtraction. Does the E-PL1 have a function called something like "long duration noise reduction"? If so enable it. Otherwise you have to do the equivalent manually. That takes a second image with the same settings, but with the shutter closed (you would have to use the lens cap for manual operation). That captures only the long duration noise, and you use image software to subtract that from the image with noise.

Other workarounds are to minimise the shutter duration unless absolutely necessary to have it so long. Find how high you can go on ISO for the image quality you really need, and if you can open the shutter at all, that would help too.

sannin · « **Reply #2 on:** July 05, 2010, 09:23:37 AM »

To add to Popo;s reply ....

Under Color/WB menu, turn "Noise Reduction" to Auto. Not "on", but "Auto". Your DSLR probably has the same already activated.

You have to be in Single-shot mode to activate this, not in continuous shooting mode where itis by default turned off. If I remember, when NR is set to Auto, it kicks in when speed goes 2 seconds and below.

60 seconds is long though ... better check f/22 during the daytime.

This is all about Dark Frame Substitution. For more info, google the term.

As for Nikon D40, I really liked that dslr, small and lightweight, Kodak sensor even

, one of the better Nikons that I had. But E-P1 had better images overall, IMHO.

P.S. If you see dark spots on the LCD of your Pen at f/22, pointed at a bright light source, it means dust on sensor. Not noticeable at wider apertures, but at narrower apertures. Good way to check for dirt.

sprocketdog23 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 05, 2010, 01:58:05 PM »

It's a fact of life at long exposures, and all digital sensors suffer from this. I did some night shots (30 sec exposures) on my aging Nikon D70 recently, and then had to spend hours in Photoshop removing around 300 very bright and multi-colourful pixels from across each shot, and that was with long exposure noise reduction on, so your EPL-1 sounds like it's doing a similar thing. I'm yet to try my E-P1 with long exposures, but I guess it will be much the same

cosinaphile · « **Reply #4 on:** July 05, 2010, 09:25:55 PM »

learn something new every day , saw them occasionally but dinnt know what they were

white dots on EPL1 at F22