Stuck pixel on 3000z

The black spot can be from one or two sources. The first, is a called a stuck or hot pixel. Your camera's sensor has 12.9 million pixels (12.3 million are used for the image). Many times, a hot or stuck pixel is a bright color - red, yellow, green, etc. It can be any color however. Dark or black pixels can also be called dead pixels as they look like they're "off." Regardless of which your camera suffers, it will not respond to light projected on the sensor by the lens. You'll have to have manually edit the pixel in each image, or return to Nikon for sensor replacement. Nikon used to perform a mapping out of the pixel, but it seems that they don't do this any longer. A sensor replacement can cost in the hundreds of dollars.

The second source, is dust on the sensor. A pixel(s) blocked by dust will show up in each picture, but will appear to be more in focus in some images than others - depending on the aperture value of the camera when the exposure was made. A stuck pixel usually has a very definite edge on all images regardless of aperture setting. A simple, careful wet cleaning of the sensor with a product designed specifically for the job can solve this problem pretty quickly.

Here's a video for wet sensor cleaning from Youtube There are others here too. I hope this was helpful & good luck!

how big are the black spots? are they pixel size? i have one black spot too but its called a "dead pixel" when ya buy laptops these days, sometimes...they will have a dead pixel gaurentee for like 25 dollars, but i didnt choose that so now im stuck with one annoying dead pixel on my 5 thousand dollar laptop but im fine with it i guess. when my screen gets bad, im rich enough to just replace the whole screen anyway. dead pixels cant be fixed i dont think just replaced by the whole screen.

Sounds like a dead pixel.

The spot meter area is small because I have photographed 2 people side by side many times, focused on ones chest then found that the "spot" had slipped into the little space between them, the bad focus not really showing up when I checked the LCD. (My eyes are old and so are my glasses.) Got home and found useless pictures. Sometimes I was outdoors in the sun and couldnt check the LCD. Some of the threads say the focus spot is "off center" with no acccurate way of finding it when using the viewfinder. I take some beautiful, wonderful pictures but these errors really tear me up. I've got to get the LCD box viewer with the 2x lens viewer I guess. All those years as a 35mm Canon F1 user I would long for a spot meter almost daily. Now I see that a matrix meter AND a spot is the real choice. I hope eventually to learn to outwit my 3000Z because it does give me such excellent pictures. Sometimes there is noise on a face, sometimes it is the focus and at functions it is so embarassing to ask a principal subject to wait because the *** or ***H procedures take so long. A wedding, other than the reception, would be near impossible in *** or higher. Good Luck, Dav.

auto white balance should work OK. I was thinking maybe you had accidentally switched it to the Fixed setting. Hmm. You said you were using Normal and Landscape modes. Just to see how it works, I would suggest switching from Program mode to Full Auto. See if that fixes your purple skies. I don't know why it would, but it is something to try

My camera also has a one bad pixel in the LCD; my pixel is green. My camera was also ordered from Buy.com. They have been very helpful and my story is almost identical to yours for their return/replacement practice. It is really nice to see online companies that continue to offer 'great' prices and also provide great customer support.

In addition, flash lighting dust doesn't make a white spot, but a fuzzy whitish circle (out of focus). The image underneath is still visible, but distorted. These are definitely not flash reflecting on dust.

Ocassionally images from digital cameras will have "defect" pixels. These pixels may appear in the final photograph as bright white, green or red spots that are out of place when compared to the rest of the image. Sometimes people call these spots "hot" or "dead" pixels. Usually these pixels, and other types of "digital noise" appear in the darker or underexposed parts of images; additionally, images taken at longer exposure times are much more likely to have this issue. Many Nikon cameras have a "noise reduction" or "NR" process that fixes these problem areas. When NR is activated and image exposure times drop below 1/4 of a second the NR automatically processes the images as they are saved. This Noise Reduction feature is sometimes called "Night Portrait" or "Night Landscape" Scene Modes. If these spots are seen on images photographed under normal conditions (bright light with exposure times shorter than 1/4 second) then the camera may need to be sent in to a Nikon Service Center for repair. Notice the green defect pixel near the center of this image.

Ocassionally images from digital cameras will have "defect" pixels. These pixels may appear in the final photograph as bright white, green or red spots that are out of place when compared to the rest of the image. Sometimes people call these spots "hot" or "dead" pixels. Notice the green defect pixel near the center of this image. Usually these pixels, and other types of "digital noise" appear in the darker or underexposed parts of images; additionally, images taken at longer exposure times are much more likely to have this issue. Many Nikon cameras have a "noise reduction" or "NR" process that fixes these problem areas. When NR is activated and image exposure times drop below 1/4 of a second the NR automatically processes the images as they are saved. This Noise Reduction feature is sometimes called "Night Portrait" or "Night Landscape" Scene Modes. If these spots are seen on images photographed under normal conditions (bright light with exposure times shorter than 1/4 second) then the camera may need to be sent in to a Nikon Service Center for repair.