October 11, 2005 – A host of digital camera manufacturers issued CCD advisories following Sony’s CCD advisory last week. Fujifilm, Konica Minolta, Nikon, and Sony all issued statements pertaining to faulty Sony-brand CCDs in their digital cameras. Dozens of models are affected by the CCDs, which have epoxy packaging that erodes and allows moisture to seep into the camera. Cameras with the problem will appear to have severely blurred or unnaturally colored images.
The digital cameras were manufactured between October 2002 and March 2004. Reports of the problem include a corrupted view, a strong color tint, complete blackness, or bands disrupting the image. The distorted images can be seen in the live view as well as the playback mode.
Fujifilm and Nikon had three models each affected by the CCD issue. The Fujifilm FinePix A303, F410, and F700 digital cameras may have the problem. The Nikon Coolpix SQ, 3100 and 5700 also use the faulty CCD. Konica Minolta had the most models affected by the problem. The following cameras may have the faulty CCD:
DiMAGE 7i
DiMAGE 7Hi
DiMAGE A1
DiMAGE Xi
DiMAGE Xt
DiMAGE X20
DiMAGE S414
DiMAGE F300
Users experiencing this problem should contact the particular manufacturer. Each manufacturer has issued releases stating that free repairs are available for the affected models.
These advisories came just as Sony was gaining ground in the U.S. market share of digital cameras. According to the NPD Group, Sony Cyber-shot digital cameras accounted for 20.3 percent of digital camera shipments in September launching Sony to the number one position in the United States.
