First of all, I have to say that shooting with the 7D has brought back the love and excitement I have with shooting video. I’ve been shooting a lot with it, and when I was reviewing my footage and photos, I found a dead pixel on the sensor of the camera. I know I’m not the first person for this to happen to on a DSLR, but I figured I’d document my progress in getting this fixed so that I can help anyone else who may need to go through this. So after shooting some stills and video at our local professional organization, I noticed the dead pixel. So I dumped everything off the cards and called Canon’s Customer Service at 1.800.828.4040.

click the image to enlarge

Before I contacted canon, I wanted to make sure I got my ducks in a row, so I did some research and found some people got dead pixels to come back by running the auto cleaning sensor process a few times. Others did the manual sensor cleaning trick, which is where you take the lens off, turn on manual sensor cleaning for 30 seconds to 3 minutes and then restart the camera. I tried it several times with no results, so I called Canon. The guy was really helpful and told me exactly what to do, so I made a quick video and included it with the samples from the meeting. I stripped the camera down, including straps and the z-finder frame, filled out the paperwork and wrapped it in 3 inches of bubble wrap.

Here’s the video I made:

7D Dead Pixel Location from John N. Miller on Vimeo.

They said it would take I week after receipt of the camera. Long behold, they’ve notified me it is on my way back home… ONLY 2 DAYS after receipt! YOU ROCK!!! Once the camera is back, I’ll update this post verifying the fix. It was a pain not to have this camera around, but the quick turnaround makes me feel good. Bestbuy should take note on how to treat customers.


::UPDATE::

So I got my camera back from the Canon Factory Service Center.  They remapped the sensor and upgraded me to the latest and greatest firmware.  But long behold, when I looked at the camera again, I found the dead pixel.  I’m going to call Canon again and see what’s next.  Here are the videos after the sensor remapping.

7D Dead Pixel After Sensor Remap #1 from John N. Miller on Vimeo.

After talking with the Canon rep, I felt like he was prepping me to accept that a dead pixel on a 1 month old camera, but he sent me a bunch of paperwork to send it back in again.  I get that a dead pixel on a still image on a still camera is not that big of a deal.  Its 1 in a series of thousands.  As a professional, I don’t ever NOT take a photo into Lightbox or Photoshop.  I can quickly fix them.

Where I have a difference of opinion is when it is on the portion of the sensor that the video function of the camera uses.  This is the 7D.  The camera marketed and wanted because of it’s video capability.  And when there is a red dot constantly in the middle of the image even during camera moves, it is unacceptable.  Especially in a camera where, when I found it and started this process, was less than 1 month old.

I’m starting to get frustrated as I have been trying to push off shoots, getting shoots canceled and loosing business.  Stills and Video are my job, and this is starting to bite into my ability to make money, so I am asking Canon once again to please fix my camera.  I’m guessing I’ll have an update within a week, so keep an eye on the blog and we’ll see what happens.

Talking about the sending in the 7D from John N. Miller on Vimeo.

::UPDATE #2::

Just got the camera back from Canon.  It was their second attempt to fix the dead pixel in the sensor and once again, I turned it on, moved the box to the approximate location, magnified to 10x and stared at a bright red dot staring at my face.   I’ll post properly when my anger and frustration calm down.  Also, just to add insult to injury, I found more problems, LCD looked like it was failing and Autofoucs when taking stills would not work.  BLERG!

::UPDATE #3::

So after “discussing” my dissatisfaction with the repair service that I was receiving, I was assured that when a camera returns for a third time, it automatically goes to a senior technician. So I packaged up the camera and sent it off again.  After quite some time, I finally got it back with a note that they had replaced the sensor!  FINALLY!  So just know that if you have the same problem, it may suck because you could be without your camera A LOT, but in the long run, they will get it fixed one way or another.