Question.

[frankungstein]

I havea couple of issues here. On my zoomed in photos i notice this red pixel in many of the shots I take. Mostly noticed on my star photos, but I also noticed them on the indoor photos I took at my sons basketball game. I was utilizing my canon 55-250 for the shots I see this. Also, I have a black speck or spot that I've noticed when I look through my viewfinder and I can't figure a way to get rid of it. I don't see it on the photos that I take but its driving me crazy. Any suggestions on how to get rid of it? I've cleaned my lens several times and wiped down the viewfinder.

[inkista]

The single red pixel sounds like a hot or stuck pixel to me. This is a sensor issue, and there probably isn't any way to fix it other than to get the camera serviced or to repair the pixel in post processing for each image. Using a high iso or long exposure time is likely to exacerbate it, if it only shows up periodically.

The black speck you're seeing is probably on your focus screen. If you have a bulb blower, you can try directing a few puffs of air onto your focus screen, always holding the camera face down, so that whatever you dislodge will float out of the camera and not back into the chamber. The focus screen is above the mirror in the "ceiling" of the chamber. Whatever you do--don't touch/rub the surface of the focus screen with anything. It's textured plastic, and scratches very easily. If it's really bugging you and you can't dislodge it, you can send the camera into Canon service and have them replace the screen, or you could attempt removal and cleaning. I did that once, ended up scratching the hell out of it, and only eventually got it fixed when I sent the camera in to Canon service and they swapped the screen for me. I'm ok with repairing vintage fountain pens and sticking memory chips and hard drives in my computers, but that one was beyond me. YMMV.

[frankungstein]

Ink,

Thank you for the input. I only notice the red pixel when I'm bringing the action close utilizing a high iso indoors.

JD

[inkista]

If you're not seeing it all the time, but only on high iso shots, you're probably okay. If you shoot JPEG, you might want to consider, in that specific shooting situation, turning on C.Fn II-4 (long exposure noise reduction). This tells the camera to perform dark frame removal. It'll let you take the shot, then using the same exposure settings, it'll take a "dark frame" (i.e., make the same exposure but with the shutter closed), so that it can map out your hot pixels and remove them from the image.

Obviously, this means every shot you take is going to take twice as long, so it can be annoying. It may just be easier to post-process the dot out with a clone/spot healing brush.