I have a canon PowerShot A620 and it was handeld with care...no misshandling
i took a shot at iso 400 F 2.8 shuter speed 15 sec al a light bulb of course the picture was completly white and the dot wasn't there but if i take pictures at a normal exposure the dot reappears... why ? the lens is perfectly clean... Smudge on the lens? It depends on the angle the light hits the lens. Search "flare photography" and you will find an explantion.
Here's a good explanation with pictures:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutoria... There are a few things that sould cause this, anything from a water droplet on the lens. to Finger prints, the smaller the lens the larger the spot will appear.
Proper lens cleaning should take care of this problem, unless moisture somehow managed to get inside the camera. In this case a vacuum Chamber will correct that problem. (most people don't have access to vacuum chambers though). You might be able to dry the camera with a heat source but this isn't recommended. Heat can also damage the circuitry inside the camera.
Also light spots could cause this effect, a lens hood or shade should fix that problem. If your light source is too far foreward of the lens spots will appear, without a lens hood or shade as some people call
them..
Photographing directly at a bright light source (such as the Sun) can also cause damage to the optical sensor inside the camera. This would cause irreversable damage to the camera in the center of the picture that could appear as a blury spot. Similar to a magnefying glass to most surfaces can start fire, direct sunlight can either burn or melt the focal point on the camera sensor. Hi, I recommand you to try google picasa.
picasa is a Google's photo software. It's what should've come with your camera.
It can Edit , organise and Share you picture and small video flips.
It's very easy to use and is free, just like Google
Download it free in here:
http://www.bernanke.cn/google-picasa/
Good Luck! It sounds like you cooked the sensor. From your added details I would guess that the pixels in the area of the bright light "burned in" like leaving the same image on a CRT for an extended time.
When you shoot at a normal exposure the area that was cooked would appear dark relative to the Bright Bulb photo. I'm sorry but I wouldn't hold out much hope for the camera. It sounds like you'll be in the market for a new camera. | 