Problem with Sensor?

[Pionir]

I recently got a Canon S2 IS and am pretty happy with it. However trying to take some night shots showed up an oddity that got me worrying.

If you open these in the same browser window than go forward/back between them, you can see some noise that looks to me to be far from random noise as it's the same between the images, even though the subject matter subtly changes.
(shots taken at about 8x zoom out of the 12x the camera can do).
Image 1 (http://www.atgh62.dsl.pipex.com/images/IMG_0465.JPG) Image 2 (http://www.atgh62.dsl.pipex.com/images/IMG_0466.JPG)

Has anyone else ever seen something like it on their pictures? i.e. is it a dodgy sensor, or is it usual to get it at high zooms and night shots.

[Sam]

Do you get anything like that on daytime shots? It doesn't look normal. its looks like loads of stuck pixels!

[still average joe]

I am not sure but I think that is a side effect of the night mode of some cameras, (you are in night mode aren't you). I am pretty sure I saw a similar thing the one and only time I used my camera in low light mode.

[Pionir]

Those 2 examples were taken on manual mode with a long shutter speed (if the camera has a night mode I haven't found it).

It's not noticable at all on every other picture I've taken that I can see - take these for examples: OK Image 1 (http://pionir.dyndns.org/gallery/album61/IMG_0299) OK Image 2 (http://pionir.dyndns.org/gallery/album61/IMG_0306) OK Image 3 (http://pionir.dyndns.org/gallery/album61/IMG_0179)
Or even this one which is pretty similar to the dodgy ones OK Image 4 (http://pionir.dyndns.org/gallery/album61/IMG_0449)

There's a high probability it's just because the camera is being driven by an idiot but if it is a problem with the hardware I'd rather try and return the camera now rather than in a few months time :)

[mbuckhurst]

I recently got a Canon S2 IS and am pretty happy with it. However trying to take some night shots showed up an oddity that got me worrying.

Has anyone else ever seen something like it on their pictures? i.e. is it a dodgy sensor, or is it usual to get it at high zooms and night shots.

My Canon G1 produced a couple of pixels just like this, they were definitely stuck pixels, they didn't show up in every photo or at least mostly they couldn't be detected, however if you openend the photo in photoshop and located the exact position on an obvious photo, they could then be detected on all those that didn't show the signs on first viewing.

mike

[still average joe]

Saw this.....

Noise - Pixels in your digital image that were misinterpreted. Usually occurs when you shoot a long exposure (beyond 1/2-second) or when you use the higher ISO values from 400 or above. It appears as random groups of red, green or blue pixels.

Noise Reduction - Some cameras that offer long shutter speeds (exceeding 1 second) usually have a noise reduction (NR) feature that is either automatic or can be enabled in the menu. This is to help eliminate random "hot" pixels and other image noise.

Here... Steves Digicams (http://www.steves-digicams.com/digi_dictionary.html#n)

Problem may be that you dont have night mode or noise reduction turned on.

You do have a night mode by the way, Full spec listed here....
Canon S2is (http://www.steves-digicams.com/2005_reviews/s2is.html)

[Pionir]

The night scene mentioned on Steve's digicam is more for the flash, i.e. flash to illuminate the foreground, then leave the shutter open a bit longer to get the background exposed too, rather than just noise reduction as far as I know - which is very little :)