5D2 Owners, Video Banding on Underexposed Surface Normal?

L

liangyue

New member
Hi, I bought my 5D in February this year and I only used it very lightly --- half video and half stills.

Recently I noticed very fine vertical banding noise on surfaces 2 ~ 3 stops underexposed. I have Sandisk Extreme iii card (the 30MB/s version, which support UDMA mode) and I tried ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200. I just point the camera to a relatively dark area in my room and underexpose it 2~3 stops.

The vertical pattern is very fine and evenly distributed all over the screen, and it is especially obvious when panning (and quite distractive). The camera is set on factory default with highlight tone priority disabled. I also took stills of same scene and noticed no fixed pattern noise (either horizontal or vertical) even after zoom in 100%.

Seems I am the first one to bring up this issue on this forum, is my camera faulty and I should contact Canon for a fix (while my camera is still under waranty)? Any other 5D2 owners have similar issue as I do? How did you resolve this issue?

I ordered a 8GB UDMA sandisk extreme IV card and I will do the same test later this week.

I searched extensively online regarding this issue and only found the speech of Tim Smith from Canon about the video banding possibly related to the non-UDMA CF card. But I also noticed claims from 5D2 owners that they did not see any issue with Kingston 133x card which IS non-UDMA card.

My 5D2 demonstrate very similar symptom of GH1(although the banding is a lot less as colorful and very fine, so much so that you have to pan the camera to really notice it) , which is extensively discussed on the GH1 forum. I read through the banding issue on GH1 and I do notice one member claims that he could not see any fixed pattern noise on 5D2 video.

Your experience and solution is highly appreciated. Thanks!
 
im uploading a video sample of a similar issue that I ran into last night while shooting in dark underexposed areas
the horizontal banding seems quite weird because its got very thick bands of darks going across the screen
i will post my video in a few mins
 
looks like scrolling waves from the street lamps, try adjusting your shutter speed to match the refresh rate of the artificial light source to minimize it as much as possible. Not sure if that's what you're referring to or not. If it is then that's normal.
 
Last edited:
What the OP describes is an issue with all CMOS sensors, I believe. But what the video shows is not CMOS fixed pattern noise or banding. It's something else. Not sure it's to do with the street lights as it doesn't move, it doesn't 'swim' or scroll, it stays static.

But having owned both cameras, I know for sure that in his video it looks VERY different to the CMOS sensor banding on the GH1. But the conditions he describes are very close to how banding happened on the GH1. It shows up on low contrast, pale surfaces, underexposed, at any ISO level.

But this looks more like a faulty camera.

I'd say, due to it's severity, and the fact that it actually darkens the image rather than puts fine coloured noise in multiple channels across the entire sensor that it is a fault but cannot say for sure. The GH1's banding is in multiple vertical channels of varying width but all quite thin.
 
Last edited:
I thought it was the shutter speed or the ISO noise pattern, but like commanderspike said, it is static so I thought it was the horizontal banding issue. This is only noticeable in dark underexposed shots and as you can see when the camera points at the subject it's not even there anymore.
 
Downloaded the full HD version and actually there is some subtle movement of the bands, and I am 99% certain it's causes by a high shutter speed which isn't in sync with the street lights. liangyue are you in a PAL or NTSC country?
 
Thank you all for your replies! Here is the original footage from 5d2. The extreme IV UDMA card arrived and this file is recorded using that card.

http://www.4shared.com/file/136122624/48214ed/MVI_0436.html

Here is another (recorded on extreme III 30MB/s card):

http://www.4shared.com/file/136134030/672eb6b/Rendered_-_af9b49fe-6bad-4ece-b83c-3518c56a76f0.html


Looks like the problem is still there. It is a phenomenon that only existed in video mode. Oh, the camera is on firmware 1.1.0.

I will have one more files ready in 30 minutes. However, I used luma curves in adobe premiere to lighten the scene so that the vertical banding is more obvious.

Further search on CMOS vertical banding yields this result:

http://www.freshpatents.com/Fixed-p...ickup-apparatus-dt20081002ptan20080239110.php

Seems this is indeed a problem on the camera CMOS chip and the best solution seems to me is to contact Canon for a fix...
 
Foursecent Lights

Foursecent Lights

Ive seen the same thing whenever I am shooting near flourescent lights. Google it and you will see other documentation of this. If that is the case, Its not a broken camera.
 
Hi commanderspike, I am in US (so it is NTSC standard here). Oh, I am Liangyue (sorry for confustions if there is any). So here is the other file I recorded using extreme IV UDMA card.

http://www.4shared.com/file/136137115/5759b8bf/Rendered_-_9a1999c0-c03e-4978-84fe-b426032baf08.html

I rendered this file in adobe premiere cs3 with hightened luma curve. It is a patten that only shows on under-exposed surfaces. In my earlier recording when I got the camera, I only took properly exposed test footages and never noticed this kind of phenomena. I got suspicious after came across the GH1 banding test and only found my particular camera suffers the same problem... (You know I was considering hard on getting a GH1 as well for longer shoot).
 
i get the fixed pattern gridded banding too.... part of the monster. i thought my cam was bunk.

But it actually gets better over time, and its more visible on computer LCD screns. watch it on HDMIout on a 1080p plasma and its practically invisible.

Just shot a test today @ 1600ISO, lit with a match, and it looked perfect on my plasma, looked like GARBAGE on my HP screen... monitoring matters.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top