I swear it!

I just got a new preview screen and was calibrating it, when I wanted to look at the live feed going in my XH-A1. I noticed a big white pixel that I never saw before, both on the screen and in the camera's LCD & EVF. I cranked up the gain and lowered the shutter (of course I found a bunch of little hot pixels), and turned the camera off. After some minutes of worry, I turned it back on, only to find the pixel was brighter. Right then, I switched it over to 60i from 24F mode and it disappeared! I cranked up the settings again the same way, still no. I switched back over to 24F and it was STILL GONE.

Either I'm going nuts or hot pixels are showing up and disappearing again. Has anyone else had this problem???

I really hope I don't have to send it to Canon, I'm starting a big project in a week... I can't afford to have random white pixels deciding to show up for no apparent reason!

THANKS!!!
-Alex

Dear Alex,

For your peace of mind, record a test tape when the pixel is present.

Then capture the test tape to determine if the white pixel is actually in your footage.

If it is not in the footage, then you can shoot with confidence.

Alternatively, you can playback, in the camera, some previous recorded footage and check for white pixels.

check the XLH1 forum for a thread on this - the a1 and the h1 use the same sensor.

in my experience hot pixels will become visible at high gain settings and when the camera is warmed up.

there are several SW plugins that do a great job of hiding hot pixels

Hot pixels will also become more apparent at slow shutter speeds.

You are not crazy. While editing footage from my XH-A1 I have seen hot pixels (usually blue on mine). They would appear in a dark shot but later in the night would be gone after the camera had been turned off and back on. I was very upset when I saw it the first time. BTW, this has only happened about 2 or 3 times since I have owned the camera and I bought one of the first ones out.