Vertial lines in bright areas on CCD Camera?

Mike Krumlauf

Mike Krumlauf

Award Winning Filmmaker
What would be causing these lines? Is the Pre-Amp or something on CCD block set wrong? This is from a Sony HDW-F900

Screen Shot 2018-08-30 at 11.59.19 PM.jpg
 
It doesn't look like the typical CCD smear, but it's probably just that: an artifact created by the way CCD sensors read the analogue charge in each pixel.
 
That doesn't look like any kind of CCD smear I have ever seen, what kind of sensor is it (FIT, IT, FT).
 
Is this something permant in terms of damage or do one of the boards on the CCD block need to be calibrated like the driver or timing generator?
 
Greg_E said:
Assuming the same as this https://pro.sony/en_CZ/products/digital-cinema-cameras/hdw-f900r it is an FIT (Frame Interline Transfer) CCD, and that is nothing like any smear I've ever seen on the FIT chips that I've used. What it looks like is a clock error of some kind. This more than likely requires a service visit.
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if it's a clock error then its nothing burned into the CCD then? Just settings not talking to each other correctly on the boards?

I know that Sony said they do not service the F900 anymore so i'd have to find someplace else. If anybody knows of a place relatively inexpensive to have this looked at in the USA (hopefully Colorado) please let me know.
 
Video One in LA could probably take care of you, they really know what they're doing. If I remember correctly they only service Sony and Canon products, I had to use them about ten years ago and they had me covered. I wouldn't call them inexpensive but I felt comfortable with the price they asked for given the nature of the repair.
 
Moseph said:
Video One in LA could probably take care of you, they really know what they're doing. If I remember correctly they only service Sony and Canon products, I had to use them about ten years ago and they had me covered. I wouldn't call them inexpensive but I felt comfortable with the price they asked for given the nature of the repair.
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Thanks for the referral to these guys, i will check them out! :)

I think whats giving me so much anxiety about this right now is the possibility of these lines burned into one or all 3 CCD imagers. I cant find anything on google about this and am really stumped. Im hoping its a simple board calibration and it goes away.
 
Er, it was an 80 grand camera so shouldn't do this - so I'd suspect it needs looking at. You got the manual and the test gear? I'm quite handy with alignment and internal setup, but I'd struggle with kit like this - none of my test gear would do it. Is the image a big magnification of a small area, or a full frame image? Is the fault on replay from tape or live?


A few firms here are still repairing cameras older than this one.
 
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paulears said:
Er, it was an 80 grand camera so shouldn't do this - so I'd suspect it needs looking at. You got the manual and the test gear? I'm quite handy with alignment and internal setup, but I'd struggle with kit like this - none of my test gear would do it. Is the image a big magnification of a small area, or a full frame image? Is the fault on replay from tape or live?


A few firms here are still repairing cameras older than this one.
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I dont have any tools to fix this as im not an engineer, just an operator. I was shown about CCD gains at VER in Chicago but i dont work there anymore and do not have access to those tools :(
 
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Moseph said:
Video One in LA could probably take care of you, they really know what they're doing. If I remember correctly they only service Sony and Canon products, I had to use them about ten years ago and they had me covered. I wouldn't call them inexpensive but I felt comfortable with the price they asked for given the nature of the repair.
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Update on Video One: I spoke to them and they said they no longer service the F900 :(
 
Here is a video example of the problem. Make sure to watch at 1080p, full screen. 20sec on if you pause you can see it in the shadows into the bathroom area and the frame on my wall, its along the edges there.

 
Update: I purchased a used Panavision HD900F body from ebay. I was able to mate the B4 front plate to the panavision camera perfectly. no issues with that at all, was a breeze. I am still getting those vertical lines but on a much MUCH smaller scale now which is making me think that this might be a aberration problem with my lens.. especially given that the lines only show up next to chromatic aberration areas and stopping down the lens gets rid of them. I think a proper alignment in white and black shading so my lens and CCD are talking to each other as perfectly as possible will make this go away. Im not all that worried about it anymore and my god does the Panavision imager produce a nicer image.. warmer too.. my guess is its due to their pre optical filter.
 
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