Sigh... dead pixels. $800 repairs.

I got my GL1 used. The person I bought it from made me a video showing what the GL1's quality looked like. No pixels. I get the camera two weeks later, a red pixel, and a dark green pixel near it.... showing up on all footage, not just the LCD. I know the seller didn't screw me, because the video he made special for me does not show any pixels. He insured the package, and it had a pixel problem straight out of the box.

I called Canon, they cannot give me an exact estimate unless I send the cam. So say I send it. Could get more damaged on the way to Canon, and on the way back. Then I have to prove to the post office that it's their fault. Then I have to send it to Canon again, and be without my camera for months. Who knows if the post office will even pay for repairs.

The video is good proof that there were no problems prior to shipping. But I dunno, everything seems like a huge hassle.

Another option I was thinking about is to just leave the damn pixels there... and call my indie film company Two Pixel Films or something. might make a good story if I ever become successful and had to explain the name: "couldn't afford to pay for an $800 repair". In the end, it's the content that matters, not the quality, right? But at the same time... friggin' pixels....

The punk inside me says to keep the GL1 and say screw even trying for the insurance claim. The punk inside me says make my films despite the pixels.

Has anyone had any pixel problems. dead or hot pixels? I know you GL1/GL2 users probably have. I've read several posts on other message boards about people having the same problems. It pisses me off, it sucks so bad... but what can you do? Use what you got? Ignore the pixels?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading this post, and please respond with any stories or advice.

-Skip

I had a good cam sent to me a long while ago and it arrived dead.It was insured. the post office paid up and I got it repaired. worth trying.

The cam just might have been damaged during shipping, or maybe not. Since the seller claimed the cam was working perfectly, without "hot" pixels, and he offered proof, I would go ahead and make a claim.

How do you know the sample tape was new and good?

BTW, hot pixels that show up at +12 dB gain may not show up as such at 0 dB of gain. Alternatively, they may be masked by image content. Hard to see a bad pixel in a busy well lit image.

I vote for just living with the dead pixels. It's not worth $800 to fix this camcorder. If you can isolate exactly where the pixles are, you can cover the dots with a less obvious color in post.

but wouldn't it be REALLY hard to cover up the pixel in post? at 30 frames per second, using frame movie mode? If I shoot an 80-minute indie full-length... how long and how much rendering would it take to cover up that red pixel (and the less bright pixel near it)? please reply... man, all these posts are totally messing me up... i'm so torn. haha.

-skip

Okay, I've never had to do this, so I won't pretend to know a lot about it, but from what I understand from posts on message boards such as this one, it isn't that hard. You just make an overlay the same way you would if you were letterboxing your movie. I wouldn't bother trying to match the exact pixel color for each shot. That would take forever. Just pick a neutral color that won't jump out at the viewer. I assume you will have to render all of your footage, but I always seem to have to do that anyway. What kind of NLE do you have? I would recommend posting in a forum that deals with editing to find out how much of a hassle this will be.

The best way I've found to deal with hot pixels is to make a track matte in Photoshop that match the locations of your hot pixels. Duplicate your footage in the timeline and shift it over 1 of two pixels. Every now and then I'll have to tweak things a bit, but you get a much closer match by shifting the footage than by trying to color the hot pixels.

It is quite possible that the hot pixels developed during shipping. Normal radiation experienced on airline flights has been known to damage the CCD blocks, so unless the camera was shipped by ground transportation, I wouldn't be surprised if the shipper was the culprit.

Rick