I am enjoying my Fuji FinePix S3000 but I'm having a problem with 'hotspots'when taking pics in the sunlight. That is, the brighter (whiter) parts of the pic are washed out. Would that have anything to do with the lack of a UV filter or would it be something else? I've also heard somewhere that digital cameras picks up IR. Anybody know anything about that? Thanks Stan

...could have something to do with it. Please run an experiment, (just hold a UV filter over the lens, try a shot with and without). Let us know the results. Likely it is just that digital cameras take some getting used to. They behave much more like slide films than negative films, and keeping the highlights from blowing out is sometimes a challenge. Then again, something could be out of calibration?

Others may have a better idea, but its been my experience that digital cameras have exposure latitude that is more similar to slide film, than to color negative film. That is to say, it is very narrow. I currently use 5 digi cams (Cannon G2, Minolta D7, Olympus C740, Nikon D-100, and Nikon D2H) and to varying degrees, have had this problem with all of them. If you are shooting a scene that has a range of tones from deep shadows to bright highlights, detail will have to be sacrificed someplace, and most cameras will expose for detail in the mid-tones, thus losing detail in both highlights and shadows. Now having rambled on about all that, what I do depends on the subject. When I shoot action, most of my work, I will try to avoid recording large blown out areas by underexposing by -0.3 to -1.7 EV. Doing this I realize I am sacrificing detail in the shadow, but this is less objectionable, in my opinion, than having huge blown out highlights. The other thing I do, is with stationary scenes I will ether bracket, with large changes in EV from + to -, or tripod shoot two exposures, one for highlight detail and one for shadow detail, and then combine the two images in post processing. This is simply what I do; others may have better ideas, and if they do, I to would be interested. In any event I dont think the addition of a UV will have any effect at all, and may increase the chance of lens flair, thus increasing the problem.

Without seeing any examples, I'm thinking what Quinn says above. Easiest way to tell would be to look at the Histogram of one of your images. If the data stretches across the entire histogram and clips against the left and right sides, then you're running up against the exposure latitude of your camera. If it just bunches up against the right side of the Histogram, then you are overexposing (clipping the highlights) and you should dial back a little when you shoot. I'm thinking it's the latitude, since you don't mention any other parts of your image being off. -=>Donald