Just bought the GH1. Put in the hack. Works excellently apart from this vertical banding that ruins most shots. I tried the burning in process but unsucesfully. Are there other solutions? Or do I need to have the sensor replaced? See the attached picture. That wall is white. This is what happens to underexposed surfaces. I also see this pattern in well exposed shots but it is more hidden then.
GH13 + vertical banding
- Thread starter roelf
- Start date
billy fattey
Active member
I see this too on any shot with iso higher than 200.
Hi roelf,
while the higher the iso the worse the banding still counts, you still always need to light your shot right. since this is iso200 you´d want to throw in a little light in your scene.
And just keep shooting, I used to have lots of banding at first but not anymore, not at all actually. Interesting...
while the higher the iso the worse the banding still counts, you still always need to light your shot right. since this is iso200 you´d want to throw in a little light in your scene.
And just keep shooting, I used to have lots of banding at first but not anymore, not at all actually. Interesting...
Key word being underexposed.
All cameras love light. If you are using the stock lens, get a faster lens. Adding more light to your shots will solve this problem.
This is not the problem that "burning in" fixes. The "burn-in" fixes colored bands. What you are seeing is FPN from underexposing.
seanmcleod
Well-known member
I'm sorry Svart but I don't agree with this... what happens when say you're filming a scene in a confessional and you want the talents face lit only by the light coming in through the screen of the confessional. All the black surrounding the subjects face would be banding.
I'm not saying this is you, but I think a lot of guys give this BS "use lights and the problem is solved" answer, but it's not true. This doesn't occur in say a HVX or on RED, but it does on the GH1 and needs to be addressed, cause there is nothing you can do to fix it in post. So something needs to be figured out so scenes that involve darkness and little light are doable with this camera.
And I do think it's a lot less prevalent in the newer GH1 bodies than those of us who were on board early and bought last year. I have two GH1s, one from fall 09 and one I just bought a month ago and the newer one has way less low light/banding issues.
I never said the FPN is normal.
What I'm saying is that your scene with the confessional should have a lot more ambient light than you think to bring up the shadows slightly so that you have LESS dynamic range from bright to dark. That's how the big boys do it for film and that's how you can also avoid seeing the FPN.
Homunculus
Carbonite Member
svart is right. just look at hollywood, if they were to light that confessional scene it would not be just natural light. it would only look that way. just get a fast prime and keep your ISO low and fill a bit with ambient light so that it looks like a tiny bit of natural light just from the confessional window but in reality is more. it's good to keep in mind the gh1 already is able to pick up much more light than film stock
One way to fix banding in near-black areas in post is to crush the black end of your gamma curve, forcing all dim areas to black. This gives you a high-contrast look without over-emphasizing the edges of objects.
As for ISO, the only effect on banding I've seen from high ISO settings is to increase the overall noise level, which includes the banding. I suspect the banding is always lurking at the bottom of the gamma curve, regardless of the ISO setting.
Ian-T
Veteran
For some reason I always thought this is how professionals…or pro filmmakers do it. I mean…this is what makes sense to me. They just light for that type of scene…which I believe typically has more (ambient) light in it than what one might think.
Pietro Impagliazzo
Well-known member
That's a main gripe I have with cameras with these kind of compromises.
I love to light with low levels of light. For mood and what not.
Adding fill to add contrast is post is something I just can't do properly.
Underexposure is an artistic choice as well. I see nothing wrong with OPs image, besides banding of course.
Some day M-X is going to light my path... Or darken it.
:grin:
Now to the tech side of things... What data rates were you using?
I used the AvcHd at the "C" setting and MJPEG up to 80 mbit/s. But both codecs showed the same banding problem. I just received a replacement: it is much, much better. I have not hacked it yet, though. Hope to do that today. The serial number seems to say that the hack is possible.
I will keep you informed.
I will keep you informed.
bad luck
bad luck
At first I had a beautifully hacked GH1 with awful 'color banding'. Now I have a GH1 with no or very slight color banding but it cannot be hacked because it has firmware 1.34. May I say I feel a bit of animosity towards Panasonic? I am trying to buy a second hand GH1 now. Anybody has one for me?
bad luck
At first I had a beautifully hacked GH1 with awful 'color banding'. Now I have a GH1 with no or very slight color banding but it cannot be hacked because it has firmware 1.34. May I say I feel a bit of animosity towards Panasonic? I am trying to buy a second hand GH1 now. Anybody has one for me?
A great way to get rid of banding is to buy the neatvideo plug-in (no, I`m not selling it) and use that. I used it first on hv30 /xha1 footage and was really pleased with it, then on gh13 precisely to deal with the banding and also the colour blotches that appear in the blacks, both problems are greatly reduced every time and sometimes you could almost tell yourself they are eliminated completely. Also the image detail is kept. It´s good.
I tried the free version of "Neat Video" but it did not seem to help much. The banding in my case is really bad. Some people claim it is a matter of lighting but I swear that between the two GH1' s I had there was an enormous difference. The good one has some banding in iso 1600 in difficult lighting situations, the bad one even has banding in broad daylight, for instance when you film against the sun in the darker area's would be this "banding", destroying the shot.