Black spots afflict Canon's new SLR

Canon's EOS 5D Mark II

(Credit: Canon)

Some users have reported that photos taken with Canon's new $2,700 EOS 5D Mark II camera can be blemished with dark spots near areas with very bright highlights.

I first heard about the issue on the DP Review forums on Friday, but now one pixel-peeping user has come up with a fix spotlighted by Photography Bay: Disable for highlight tone priority, lighting optimizer, and noise reduction, according to commenter f_stops.

"No black dots," the photographer and new 5D Mark II owner reported on the posting, supplying before-and-after shots as proof.

Canon is checking into the issue. "We have been made aware of this and are looking into it," a Canon representative said Monday.

The spots appear on the right edge of some shots with very bright highlights.

One forum poster spotted a dark patch on a 5D Mark II video; it appears fleetingly at about 1:04 into the video.