5d MkII Hot Pixel Problem

Purchased my 5D MkII about a week ago. Everything was all good until yesterday where I spotted one hot pixel showing up on all my pictures and movies. I can actually see the red dot when I switch to live view on the lcd.

I tried doing the cleaning trick where you put the cap on the camera body. The trick worked! It got rid of that hot pixel and I don't see it in my photos anymore but I still see it when I shoot movies.

Should I bring it back and exchange for another camera? Can or will this hot pixel pop up again in the future even though I get a new one? Does anyone else with a 5D MkII having this issue?

If it's still within the exchange period, I'd swap it out. It's much easier to exchange poorly performing equipment than it is to work with Canon fixing the issue.

Does anyone else with a 5D MkII having this issue with movie mode?

Update: I brought it back to Adorama and exchanged it. Let's hope the new one behaves...

MOst digital camera will have hundreds of hot pixels. You usually don't see them unless you are shooting at ISO's over 1600 and long exposures of 5 seconds or more. If you are seeing them at low ISO's with regular shutter speeds of 1/60 or higher, I would exchange my camera. I read somewhere that Canon's acceptable hot pixel's per sensor is about .01%. Which means that if you are shooting a 5D Mark II and it has 21 megapixels your camera could have up to 210,000 hot pixels. You will never see most of them. 210,000 out of 21,000,000 is a very small amount. However if I ran the dead pixel test and my camera came back with 210,000 hot pixels, I would send it back. My original 5d at ISO 3200 and 1/30sec had 267 hot pixels. But I had to zoom in to 1600 percent to see most of them. Conclusion: If you are shooting and don't see them.....then don't worry about it. If you just have to know then download the software and pixel peep your sensor to death. Remember, shoot with the lens cap on and then start shooting long exposures with different ISO's

JBF wrote in post #7081949
I read somewhere that Canon's acceptable hot pixel's per sensor is about .01%. Which means that if you are shooting a 5D Mark II and it has 21 megapixels your camera could have up to 210,000 hot pixels.

210k/21,000k is 1%.

0.01% is 2,100 pixels. Still sounds like a lot, but 210,000... yikes.

I ran into this problem too when I first received my 5DII and found the following fix online:

1. Remove lens, and place body cap on camera.
2. Select "Clean manually".
3. Leave it in this mode for 30-60 seconds.
4. Shut the camera off directly without doing anything else.

It did the trick for me... no more hot pixels. No idea why it worked though I've read a few theories.

I know you exchanged your camera so it's no longer a problem for you, but I thought I'd post it anyway because I was so pleasantly surprised that it worked!

Yeah it did the trick and it worked for pictures but the major issue was that it still shows up in movie mode... Do you see it in your videos?

I've actually never tried video mode

I don't have much interest in it.

You should try it and see... I didn't get this camera for the video features either but I personally feel that after spending over $2700 on a camera I expect everything should work... I'm just glad it was still in the exchange period.

Definitely... exchanging it was a good move.

I know where you're coming from, but I have a slightly different perspective. I would have bought this camera even if it didn't have a video mode. I've tried all the features I care about, and have been pleased with everything. I personally don't care if there are any hot pixels in a mode I'll never use. I will take a look at it out of curiosity once I get some time though.

iacas wrote in post #7087297
210k/21,000k is 1%.

0.01% is 2,100 pixels. Still sounds like a lot, but 210,000... yikes.

Ooops, screwed that one up. I do not have a Beautiful Mind.

Ran the dead pixel test on my 5D Mark II at different ISO's and here are the results:

ISO 100 = 1 hot pixel at 20 sec, 1 at 30 sec
ISO 400 = 1 hp at 5 sec, 7 at 20 sec, 7 at 30 sec
ISO 800 = 1 at 1sec, 6 at 5 sec, 15 at 20 sec, 41 at 30 sec
ISO 1600 = 2 at 1sec, 7 at 5 sec, 49 at 20 sec, 66 at 30 sec
ISO 3200 = 2 at 1/4, 6 at 1sec, 22 at 5sec, 78 at 20sec, 74 at 30sec

I looked at the 20 second shot at 3200 and the 30 second shot at 3200 and at 100% I could not see any of them, zoomed in at 200% I started to see some, but I only counted around 10, at 1600% I saw about 70% of them. I think this is pretty darn good for this camera. My original 5D had more hot pixels than this new 5D Mark II. And the hot pixels on the original 5D never showed up in print either.

How good is the dead pixel test software? Is it accurate?

What threshold did you pick/set ?. I use the dead pixel test software and the standard is 60.

Here is mine:

ISO 100, 10 secs = 1
ISO 400, 2 secs = 1, 20 secs = 33, 30 secs = 41
ISO 1600, 10 secs = 5
ISO 3200, 10 secs = 27, 30 secs = 117

John

JBF wrote in post #7194030
How good is the dead pixel test software? Is it accurate?

silvias13 wrote in post #6987852
Purchased my 5D MkII about a week ago. Everything was all good until yesterday where I spotted one hot pixel showing up on all my pictures and movies. I can actually see the red dot when I switch to live view on the lcd.

I tried doing the cleaning trick where you put the cap on the camera body. The trick worked! It got rid of that hot pixel and I don't see it in my photos anymore but I still see it when I shoot movies.

Should I bring it back and exchange for another camera? Can or will this hot pixel pop up again in the future even though I get a new one? Does anyone else with a 5D MkII having this issue?

Just received my 5D MKII yesterday and I'm having the same exact issue with a hot pixel on photos and videos. I did the cleaning steps and it disappeared on the photos, and helped a little with the video, but its still very noticeable (on video).

I read a post on FM and some users are claiming this happened when they upgraded to firmware 1.0.7. I upgraded to 1.0.7 as soon I as received the camera so I cant vouch if it was the upgraded FW or not.. What version are you guys on with this problem ?