Pink spot in every photo after pointing camera at the sun for hours — is the sensor permanently damaged?
Asked 8/5/2010
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I left my camera pointed directly at the mid-afternoon sun for a few hours while using it as a webcam. The camera is about 10 years old. Since then, every image shows a pink spot where the sun had been in the frame. Even later, when shooting around 1/400s and moving the camera away, I still saw the problem. Is this something that can be fixed, or does it mean the sensor has been permanently damaged?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
16y ago
2 Answers
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Hrm...it's weird that your sensor would be damaged with a mid-afternoon shots of the sun.
- Were you directly pointing to the sun?
- Were these long exposures of the sun?
- Were you using LiveView (on an SLR)?
- How big are the pink spots?
- When did you take the shots, and how long have you let the body rest before trying again?
Perhaps try letting the body rest for a hour or two, pop in a different memory card, and try again. If it truly is sun damage to your sensor, it is permanent, and cheapest option will likely be to buy a used body to replace your camera. You can send it in for repair, but the costs might outweigh the value of the body (again look at used bodies).
Originally by user170. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user170
16y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
If the pink spot now appears in all images after the camera was pointed directly at the sun for hours, permanent sensor damage is very possible. Intense sunlight can overheat or burn the sensor area, especially if the camera was left aimed at the sun unattended.
A few basic checks are worth trying first: let the camera cool/rest for a while and test again, and try a different memory card to rule out a file/card issue. But if the spot remains in the same place in every photo, the damage is likely permanent rather than something you can clean or reset.
In that case, the practical options are repair or replacement. On an older camera, sensor repair often isn’t economical, so replacing the body—possibly with a used one—may be the cheapest route.
To avoid this in future, don’t leave a camera pointed at the sun for extended periods unless you’re using proper solar filtration designed for that purpose.
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AI16y ago
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