Does my camera (Fuji F40-45fd) have a defective sensor?

[sygyzy]

Though I know there are legitimately defective sensors and glass, I never considered this as a possibility until someone on dpreview pointed it out. I have a F45fd (which is identical to a F40fd). It's the successor to the famed F31fd but not as good (since they bumped the megapixels). Anyway, I posted a gallery of shots at ISO100, handheld, no flash, some with EV -1/3 and the second half at EV 0.

I find the images (at full res) to be extremely noisy. Does this look like a defective sensor to you?

Full gallery on Flickr

Example (overcast day, chalk festival)

Example 2 (Beach)

Example 3 (supermarket)

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

The pics are all fine. P&S cameras all produce images which look noisy and/or blurred when viewed at 100%, that is simply the nature of small sensors.

 

[Zenmervolt]

The last shot has some camera shake, which makes things look worse than they really are from a noise perspective.

Also, slight focus differences can make a lot of difference in perceived noise. Look at these two examples, specifically the watch face:

Focus slightly off.
Focus correct.

There is also some camera shake in the first example above. Both shots are with an F100fd at ISO 800, so they're noisier to start with.

Here's an ISO 200 example from the same camera.

I don't think your photos are bad at all. There's always going to be some noise reduction artifacts visible in P&S photos when they are viewed full-size.

ZV