I have recently discovered a problem with my Olympus C4000. Every picture I now take includes a small white dot. On magnification at 16x this appears to be 4 square pixels. I have yet to change the smart media card, but as the lens is clean, I believe this may be pixel failure on the CCD. Does anyone know the expected lifespan of a charge coupled device, and will the problem get worse? Is there anything else I can do or try? Thanks in advance. As my camera is just within one year old I am emailing my vendor where I purchased the camera from.