erm, silly question but...

[alto]

Hi.

as u can see, am a newbie. I have a 1.3 mpx cam that i bought about 8 months ago. recently i noticed that for many of my shots, there are "gaps" of blue spots in them - they are especially obvious if i view the picture in the original size, and i have to use the "blur" function in photoArc studio to try to make things look slightly better by blending the blue spots. the thing is, i never noticed this when i first used the camera during the first few months.

my question is - is this repairable? (i.e. time for me to send back to company to fix?) and what is wrong with my camera?? is this "noise"? (but then again, why suddenly appear??) or is it the CCD problem?

would appreciate any help!!! thanks

 

[Darren]

alto,

can you post a link to some example pics so that can see what is the problem.

 

[alto]

ok, will post pic...need to go look for them first as i'm at work

 

[alto]

Originally posted by Darren
alto,

can you post a link to some example pics so that can see what is the problem.

here we go - one example -

faces have been cut to protect the innocent

anyway - what i'm concerned about is the blue colour on my fren's blouse. it looks speckled. (I think this photo has also been "blurred" before, as i do not have access to the original photo currently).

 

[alto]

surely someone can help? pleeeeeeeeease?:cry:

 

[Jed]

The pic's taking ages to load for me, but that might have something to do with the fact that I'm overseas...

 

[alto]

fixed the link - i think the site that i posted to now refuses to allow me to link.

thanks

 

[Jed]

Hmm... can't say I see too much wrong with it as it stands to be honest. From what you describe (speckled blue blouse) it might be too much JPEG compression.

 

[alto]

i see. but the original JPEG was already speckled. so far it is very obvious in group shot pictures that i take (of people) - their faces, their clothes etc. i suppose it's time for me to upgrade to at least a 3.3 mg pixel?!?

 

[Jed]

Well, if you could provide an original file it would be helpful. I would strongly suggest getting to the route of the problem before jumping at buying a new camera.

 

[Darren]

Originally posted by alto
faces have been cut to protect the innocent

anyway - what i'm concerned about is the blue colour on my fren's blouse. it looks speckled. (I think this photo has also been "blurred" before, as i do not have access to the original photo currently).

Alto, I don't think there is anything wrong with your camera - the results are quite commensurate with the quality that you would expect from a 1.3Mpix camera.

The one thing that may be causing the blue cast is the White Balance setting - my guess is that the camera is set to Auto (which detected the artificial lighting - fluorescent?) BUT also use the flash which is technically BLUER than fluorescent. Basically, the cam not that great at mixed lighting white balance.

Here is an edited photo (using the Color Cast removal function in Photoshop Elements):-

 

[alto]

thanks very much! I think the white balance may have something to do with it. I've also noticed that all my photos have a rather blue/greenish tinge to them.

i will go ferret out an original photo as well, and hopefully post it up tonight.

 

[alto]

here are links to two photos recently taken. The group shot taken with flash and automatic white balance is especially bad - extremely "speckled", and i don't know what is wrong. :dunno:

group

sky

would appreciate your help again.

 

[Jed]

Well the sky picture, I honestly have no idea what's going on. It looks a bit like a massively dithered GIF. Only possibility I can come up with is that the camera has a very limited colour depth.

The group shot is more straightforward... that's just rampant noise, the digital camera equivalent of grain.

 

[Goondu]

I take it that the pictures comes straight from the camera and there is no post-processing done to the images.

To me, why not take your camera down for a thorough checkup. I believe it is still under warranty?

Make sure you bring down your images or ask them to test out the camera and show them the results on the monitor.

On the other hand, if you decide to invest in a new camera, this will be a perfect excuse for you to get one. :devil:

 

[alto]

Thanks everyone for your help...i think i will make a trip to the company to get camera checked out. (yes, no post processing done to images. at least I know what noise is now )