Index: trunk/psphot/src/psphotFindFootprints.c
===================================================================
--- trunk/psphot/src/psphotFindFootprints.c	(revision 17516)
+++ trunk/psphot/src/psphotFindFootprints.c	(revision 17870)
@@ -18,8 +18,8 @@
     PS_ASSERT (status, false);
 
-    float effArea = psMetadataLookupF32 (&status, recipe, "EFFECTIVE_AREA"); 
-    psAssert (status, "EFFECTIVE_AREA missing: call psphotFindPeaks first"); 
+    // XXX do we need to use the same threshold here as for peaks?  does it make sense for
+    // these to be different?
 
-    float threshold = PS_SQR(FOOTPRINT_NSIGMA_LIMIT)/effArea;
+    float threshold = PS_SQR(FOOTPRINT_NSIGMA_LIMIT);
 
     int growRadius = 0;
@@ -31,7 +31,4 @@
     PS_ASSERT (status, false);
 
-    // XXX do we need to use the same threshold here as for peaks?  does it make sense for
-    // these to be different?
-
     // find the raw footprints & assign the peaks to those footprints 
     psArray *footprints = pmFootprintsFind (significance, threshold, npixMin);
@@ -39,6 +36,5 @@
     // XXX handle the error conditions here
 
-    // footprints now owns the peaks; after culling (below), we will rebuild
-    // the peaks array
+    // footprints now owns the peaks; after culling (below), we will rebuild the peaks array
     psFree (detections->peaks);