This following is from a customer review at B&H for the Z90:

"Like all new SONY video cameras, out of the box - the sensor produces a large amount of color noise. I recommend hooking the camera to power, point it at a white wall, defocus, and leave on for a couple days. This will burn the sensor and camera in nicely, try it!"

For real? Thanks!

Huh?.......that's weird.

Thats going to send the hour meter way up. Remember, B&H will only take a return back if it has. less than 10 hours.

Wow- I've used Sony video cameras for 25 years and never seen "... out of the box, a large amount of color noise..."
Have I been missing something all these years??

What! I think this is a hang over urban myth from the old tube camera days that has been perpetuated by someone.

This takes me back to the 70s and 80s. We used to do this if we had a 'burn' on a Saticon or Plumbicon tube camera. With those cameras if you got strong direct light such as the sun or a studio light or sometimes even a hot sun reflection of a car windscreen you could get a mild burn on the tubes. Every shot after that would show a slightly darker spot or streak in the picture at the position where the burn took place.

Basically the phosphors on that burn spot had been exhausted more than the rest of the tubes surface. The solution was exactly as above. Point the camera at an evenly lit white wall in the sun for however many hours it took to erase the burn marks. Even used the big white side of an OB van for the same reason. After a few hours the rest of the tube's phosphor would burn down to the same level as the burn spot and the phosphor surfaces of the tubes became even again. Result, no more burn spot or streak. Mind you it would knock some good hours off the working life of the tubes.

Never ever heard of this on CCD and CMOS sensors though in all my time in the broadcast industry. There is a new myth every day. You wouldn't be dead for $$$s would you? You would miss all this :)

Chris Young
Sydney