white pixels issue

[Lodicut]

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Hallo everyone,

 

I hope to find some help here in the Forum for my problem concerning my Leica Q and Lightroom. As you can see in the attached pictures, I am having a pretty heavy problem councerning "White pixels". I could understand that, if this would be a very high iso problem, but the ISO in the picture is 1600. The shadows were opened up in Lightroom +70 and the exposure is +0.5.

 

Is anyone here having the same problem? I am not sure about contacting the support of Leica, that's why I am posting this problem right here.

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[piran]

Yes, the white spots look like what 'grows' after a heavy push

particularly with a high ISO original frame but 1600 is NOT high!

I can put your DNG file through what I use here (SilkyPIX and

Capture One) if that is of any help to you? I don't use LR.

[Lodicut]

thanks for your fast response. But I don't think this will help me out, as LR normally handles this problem not too bad.

Edited September 14, 2015 by Lodicut

[piran]

Just an offer to put your mind at rest before a panic

call to Leica! But it just looks like too much pushing...

Or maybe a bad day for random gamma rays;~)

[wda]

I don't have a Q but I do believe the spots and other noise stem from post-processing a possibly under-exposed shot. Return to LR and select Develop module > Lightroom General Presets >Zeroed.Now look at the Histogram in LR and assess whether exposure is accurate or not.  Be careful with shadow adjustments. Explore how far you can go before white spots appear. If your exposure was good, then maybe there is another cause unrelated to processing. If it was not good, try noise reduction in the Develop module.

[Klaus Bo]

Hey Lodicut,

Did you find a solution to the problem? 
I have just bought a Leica Q and have the exact same problem. 

Cheers,

Klaus

[MRCphoto]

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I know this is an old posting but I am having the same issue with white pixels when making photographs with my Leica Q. It has happened at ISO 800 which is a fairly low ISO by today's digital standards. I am slightly underexposing for highlights (about 2/3 stop), shooting in RAW and doing minimal cropping/post production. I use Photoshop. The white pixels are numerous and in the RAW files but it is not consistent, they only appear in certain frames. Is the Leica Q sensor having problems in certain lighting situations? Anyone having this problem? Klaus Bo, have you had any luck finding a solution?

Thanks,

Michael

[jaapv]

It is probably underexposure. Check the histogram in your viewfinder when shooting.

[dancook]

4 hours ago, MRCphoto said:

I know this is an old posting but I am having the same issue with white pixels when making photographs with my Leica Q. It has happened at ISO 800 which is a fairly low ISO by today's digital standards. I am slightly underexposing for highlights (about 2/3 stop), shooting in RAW and doing minimal cropping/post production. I use Photoshop. The white pixels are numerous and in the RAW files but it is not consistent, they only appear in certain frames. Is the Leica Q sensor having problems in certain lighting situations? Anyone having this problem? Klaus Bo, have you had any luck finding a solution?

Thanks,

Michael

 

I see it when shooting live music, low light high iso stuff - I just avoid pushing the shadows.

[Klaus Bo]

My problem is, that I have never seen this kind of white dots before. Something like it, when I really pull up a very underexposed image, but not when shooting at 1600 iso and only lifting the shadows and exposure a bit. I don't have this issue on neither Canon, Nikon og Fuji. 

[wojtek_87]

Sorry for digging out the topic but I noticed exactly the same thing with my second Leica Q.

I sold one early last year and bought a second one last month. I noticed white pixels at ISO range 800-1600-3200. Going beyond that point those points are mixing with noise so it is not a problem for hard lightning conditions.

`The pixels appears when I push exposure of shadows/darks by 2ev. I don't remember having those issues when I had my first Q.

Does anyone found a solution or asked Leica directly if its normal or kind of failiure?

Many thanks

Wojciech

 

[BEG]

In April 2021, Leica released a firmware update for the Q2 and Q2M that includes pixel mapping to address this problem. I do not believe that there is a similar firmware update for the original Q, however. For what it's worth, here is a link to the RDF article on the Q2/Q2M firmware update. 

[wojtek_87]

I can share finally some words from Leica (after providing DNG file which was forwarded to Germany for checks):

"I have just received an answer from the workshop confirming that your camera was operating as it should. In general, brightening in the image editing sofware can cause something like the white dots you can see appering on the pictures. The technician did reset the image to the original levels in Lightroom and all the white dots disappeared. As soon as they increased the brightness again by about 5 levels, the white pixels reappear.
The image is composed of very dark colors on a very light background with some shimmery components. Depending on where the camera measured the exposure, reflections can appear there as well and create some artifacts on the picture."

I am not fully content with that answer as I remember my first Q which didn't have those problems even when I was pushing darks heavily... but I have to live with this and be cautions when compensating exposure down whilst photographing.

However, for all the people following this thread - there is a function in Photoshop which removes all white pixels perfectly: Filters->Noise->Dust and Scratches. It detects the spots and removes them leaving images clean.

Many thanks and I hope it will help some people if they get this kind of artefacts.

 

[aalkaabi]

that's a great solution. thank you.