Pentax K20D Hot Pixels Problem Confirmed
According to Imaging Resource, Pentax has confirmed the “hot pixel” problem in Pentax K20D DSLR and assured that the firmware update to solve this issue is on the way:
Pentax USA has confirmed the issue, themselves noting that it only seems to occur when the 2-second self-timer is employed. They said that the engineering team was working on a firmware fix for the problem, and that a fix would be publicly available at some point in the future. No ETA was available for the fix yet, as the engineering team had apparently only just recently confirmed the problem and its cause.
DPReview forum user Pfan has contacted Pentax European Headquarter chief technician and reported that…
Since yesterday evening there is a firmware-fix ready and we implemented it on my K20D - IT WORKS !
This update will be implemented in the next firmware version - it will be available after quality testing phase in the near future.
So they worked fast and fixed it - it´s NOT a hardware question - and everybody can update the K20D´s via normal sd card update process.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I really doubt that if the hot pixel issue is purely a “software issue”. It just looks like that software is used and relied heavily to suppress the appearance of the hot pixels which are surely generated by the hardware, even at the lowest ISO speed (100) and at a very high shutter speed / exposure time (e.g. 1/2000th second).
Even if it will be true that Pentax are able to *hide* the hot pixels in some camera operating modes which they have forgot to do before, it seems that the “Auto hot pixels rule out and memorized algorithm”, which is reported to lack a resetting function, has not been confirmed by Pentax yet (even for those rumours) and thus of course will not be addressed in the near future. If this reported bug is true, eventually the whole image will be mapped out, as long as each pixel has become hot only *once*, so this will be a very terrible thing indeed.
June 5th, 2008 at 1:23 am
Of course ricehigh is just guessing as he does not know. However I KNOW that I’ve never had an issue with my K20D so I couldn’t give a toss about a firmware update.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:36 am
So, what are ALL those hot pixels reports about? Where do they come from??
June 5th, 2008 at 4:38 am
Somehow Rice I don’t think Pentax will allow their camera to automatically map out the entire sensor due to hot pixels.. Surely it will refresh and re-calculate from scratch instead of an interative process.
Until a firm answer has been provided I wouldn’t go spreading misinformation.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:18 am
> Surely it will refresh and re-calculate from scratch instead of an interative process.
Not really. There is NO *resetting* option or function available for the pixel mapping user “feature”. Just think about it..
June 16th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
RiceHigh — Okay, I’ve thought about it. Probably the pixel mapping feature resets each time it runs, eh?
September 30th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Hi,
The “hot pixel” problem for the K20D was also verified by Digital Photography Review (DPR)(see especially http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxk20d/page22.asp).
However, as far as I can tell, unlike the Imaging Resource (IR), DPR did not exclusively use the 2-second timer in their testing.
Pentax, in their response to DPR’s results, did acknowledge the bug, but did not indicate that the problem was due to using the timer for shutter release (as they did when responding to IR). Instead, Pentax said that the problem only occurred in high-contrast shots (how interesting how their explanations change to fit the situation), and that a firmware upgrade would fix the problem.
What is most important is that DPR further tested the K20D after loading the version 1.01 firmware and still found hot pixels. Can someone tell me why there are these discrepancies between 1) the results from DPR vs. IR, and 2) Pentax’s response to DPR vs. their response to IR?
I did want to purchase a K20D, but now I will wait until Pentax & Samsung fix this problem, or they lower the price. This is a critical problem for a camera in this price range.