Q: I went out to a bird refuge the other day to get some pics of the birds flying. I thought I got some great shots until I got home and viewed them on the computer, they was so full of noise I couldn't use any of them.
It got up over a 105 degrees outside and I left my camera on for a couple of hours at a time so I didn't miss any shots. I remember my camera feeling hot to the touch... but then again, every thing was hot that day.
Do you think my camera just got hot which resulted in all the noise? Could I have done some permanent damage to my camera?
I have noticed this a couple of times since and every time the temp has been in the hundreds but it seems to work fine on the cooler days.
A: Yep. It's a fact. A hot camera is a noisy camera. The effect is called "leakage current". You can read a technical explanation of this (and other noise factors) here:
http://www.outbackphoto.com/dp_essentials/dp_essentials_04/essay.html