CCD life

[master]

Just a general wonderment... Is there a life span on CCDs? is there a certain number of shots one can take before it starts losing its quality? If there is then I would have to reduce my practice shots...

[Wildman]

Your camera's life will probably be limited by the number of shutter clicks, not any electronic component. Limit your number of exposures? Nah! Just shoot, shoot, shoot. The more pictures you take, the better you'll get at it and the greater your chance of taking that great shot.

In reality, you'll want to upgrade to the next generation camera long before your camera wears out.

[MrPogo]

I think I've seen 300,000 quoted before, which is enough for you to take 100 shots a day for 8 years, 50 a day for 16 years etc, so it's highly unlikely you'll wear out the CCD before you want to upgrade.

[JimC]

Well, a CCD imager can develop dead or stuck pixels as it ages (this is not uncommon at all).

For example, I've got an older Nikon 950 that has developed some dead pixels in one corner of the image now (but I doubt you'd ever notice them in your images), and I've got a newer pocketable camera (Konica KD-510z)thathas recently developed a stuck pixel (always at it's brightest value, unless shutter speeds are very fast). It's not really noticable in most images (yet). I have to look for it to see it in most.

When some users get a stuck pixel under warranty, they'll wait until their warranty is almost expired to send it in for service, in case more stuck pixels develop later.

Other users never get any (it tends to be inconsistent and random with digicams).

Most of the time, the manufacturer has a way to map out bad pixels (interpolating values from surrounding pixels to replace the pixel that's bad), versus replacing the CCD. Some models now have automatic mapping of bad pixels at periodic intervals (or a way for the user to do a "bad pixel" remap). I suspect that this feature will become more popular in future models.

[hedwards]

Wildman wrote:

Your camera's life will probably be limited by the number of shutter clicks, not any electronic component. Limit your number of exposures? Nah! Just shoot, shoot, shoot. The more pictures you take, the better you'll get at it and the greater your chance of taking that great shot.

In reality, you'll want to upgrade to the next generation camera long before your camera wears out.

Exactly at any rate, a camera is useless if you don't take the shots you want. Personally i would be more concerned with missing out on a once in a lifetime shot than shooting the camera to death.

[master]

That is true. I'll probably want to get a new camera way before that...

[pagerboy]

Well I sent my camera in now because there is no use getting less than perfect prints.

[Kenny_Leong]

I really agree with JimC about the development of hot-pixels and stuck pixels as it ages. My 950 has a hotpixel too, and there's not much I can do about it, except to just use a little effort with an image editor clone-tool. I don't mind to do this at all, but it's disappointing how CCD electronics can't keep working properly for a much longer time. Mine's showed up after maybe 4 to 5 years. And there's no free pixel remapping software for my 950, while there's a free remapper software for some later-model nikon cameras. So I'm still stuck in the mud right now.

[Norm in Fujino]

My oly C755 developed a hot pixel a couple of months ago, but it comes with a pixel mapping function built in, so a few seconds and I'm back to work.

[hedwards]

You could create a transparent layer in photoshop or like with just a cyan or other appropriate complementary color over the position of the hot pixel. May not work for every shot, but it can reduce the appearance in just a few seconds.