Her is the link if you prefer in French:http://www.figaro.fr/...
.../afp_depeches/hightech/051129155734.ojwh0016.html
Defects on certain sensors of numerical cameras and caméscopes
AFP
[ Tuesday November 29, 2005 - 16h57 ]

Numerical cameras sold in a great surface
© AFP Martin Office

PARIS (AFP) - the numerical cameras and the caméscopes using sensors
CCC risk, under certain conditions, to suffer from defects of posting
and recording of the image, according to an investigation published in
the December issue of of the magazine the Photographer.

However, according to Sony, principal manufacturer of these sensors,
the number of affected apparatuses is "not very important".

These sensors CCC (Load Coupled Device) constitute, with the sensors
CMOS, one of principal technologies making it possible to transform a
luminous image into numerical instructions. They equip with tens of
models of cameras or caméscopes, of practically all the marks.

According to the magazine, which quotes sites of after-sales service
or some Internet sites specialized, "Sony represents with him only a
significant part of the world production" of sensors CCC.

Since 2002, Sony employed a new adhesive to maintain the ice optical
of the CCC on the cases containing the integrated circuits. This
adhesive, under the effect of the moisture combined with heat, could
in certain cases release from the vapors, in particular from iodine,
coming to oxidize connections.

"We confirm that the sensors marketed between October 2002 and March
2004 can present this defect, and we informed all the customers of
them on our Internet sites since the beginning of October", declared
with AFP the director marketing of Sony France, Herve Van Compernolle.
It however affirmed that only "a few tens of apparatuses" had been
announced like defective since the beginning of October in France.

Sony set up, in all the countries of the world, the procedures
offering the assumption of responsibility of repairs to the owners of
defective apparatuses, either by bringing back those in the retailer,
or by directly contacting the customer service of Sony.

The numerical apparatuses concerned present a series of malfunctions,
like the absence of image, of the images distorted or with very strong
color predominance, or deteriorated by horizontal bands.

Other cameras, not equipped with the CCC manufactured by Sony, would
also present defects, for example for Nikon apparatuses on the system
of measurement of the exposure or on the contacts of the memory board,
according to the Photographer.