Systems and methods for detecting defective camera arrays, optic arrays and/or sensors are described. One embodiment includes capturing image data using a camera array; dividing the captured images into a plurality of corresponding image regions; identifying the presence of localized defects in any of the cameras by evaluating the image regions in the captured images; and detecting a defective camera array using the image processing system when the number of localized defects in a specific set of image regions exceeds a predetermined threshold, where the specific set of image regions is formed by: a common corresponding image region from at least a subset of the captured images; and any additional image region in a given image that contains at least one pixel located within a predetermined maximum parallax shift distance along an epipolar line from a pixel within said common corresponding image region within the given image.