Bands across the screen on gh2

[Framerate]

It's caused by the shutter speed, when shooting under fluorescents. LOCK your camera at your country's line frequency (1/60th for USA, 1/50th for PAL territories) and don't ever change it.

Quick question - as you know, tungsten bulbs are being phased out in the UK, and we're all being compelled to buy those horrible (to me) 'energy' bulbs with their lurid light output.

Are these similar to traditional fluorescent lights with inverter packs? (the temperature appears similar) - because if they are, they will soon be ubiquitous.

I've resisted the change so far - but it's only a matter of time.

 

[Barry_Green]

Well, not all incandescents need to go. There are newer halogen bulbs that use 27% less energy as compared to incandescents, and I think those are perfectly legal (at least in the US).

Fluorescents may or may not be an issue. It all depends on how frequently they cycle. If they're slow-refresh (meaning they cycle at the power line frequency) then they cause banding (and some people can visually see the flicker in the lights themselves, and they hate them). If they're high-frequency electronic ballasts, they should be cycling incredibly fast (I may be talking out my hat but I think the electronic ballast cycles in excess of 20KHz). Those should be immune from causing the banding.

 

[hdcutter]

I have a job this weekend shooting under fluorescent lights. Knew this would pose a problem, so I did some experimenting. Found that using an ND filter did the trick. With my lenses wide open - the way I like to shoot if possible, in manual mode i set shutter to 1/50 (for 24p) and used the Fader ND to stop down to proper exposure. Brown banding disappeared. Took the filter off with same settings and banding immediately re-appeared. My ND was set about half way. I have an Oly 12mm f2 and a Voigtlander 25mm f.95 and Fader NDs for both.