Hi, I just bought a new Olympus 2020Zoom camera, and found one very bright red pixel on the LCD screen which is stuck there all the time (could be a small cluster of pixels, because it's very evident). Is this a common problem on these LCD screens? Is it a cause for taking it back? Is the chance for getting more stuck pixels on the LCD-screen larger when there is one there already?

Jan.

-- Jan Kocbach (Jan.Kocbach@fi.uib.no), August 07, 2000

Answers

Well, that is a debatable issue. You may never have another pixel problem again or of course it could be the sign of things to come. Its hard to tell but due to tolerances sometimes beyond control, dead pixel can and often do happen. Camera and monitor makers often list in the manual that a certain number of pixel loss is acceptable due to the technology involved and that in most monitors its about 6-8 pixels before the company will truly consider it a problem. If you can take it back without penalty, fine do it, otherwise I wouldn't worry all that much, its not like the dead pixels are in the final picture anyway and you have a warranty from the company in case the LCD totally goes haywire.

-- Cris Daniels (danfla@gte.net), August 07, 2000.

I purchased a Nikon Coolpix 990 that had a red pixel in the LCD. Nikon Canada immediately replaced the camera with a new one, but that had a green pixel in the LCD. They replaced the camera a third time and I finally got one with no dead pixels in the LCD.

I felt that since it was a new and expensive camera they should provide me with a perfect one, and Nikon obviously agreed. Barry -

-- Barry (barryk3@home.com), August 12, 2000.