Low Light Streaks - Is my camera faulty?

Tameside said:
Have you done the f/w upgrade...
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I´m not an owner of a gh1 so far but toying with the idea of buying one. Since i´m a lowlight fan this flaw would bug me a lot.

Tameside said:
... since the f/w 1.1 am not seeing much banding at all in video upto iso1250, iso1600 some minor banding is evident, and I tested this at full zoom with x2 digi invoked in a single 60w bulb dark corner of a room and was gob-smacked at the results, S mode 1/30..... and now banding issue seems solved well again, its imressive stuff.
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Good news. So, up to iso1250 not much banding/streaks indoors. But what means "not much at all" ? :-). Is it considerably better than the vimeo-clip above? Can you upload an example?
 
I am also a low light fan but am happy with the GH1. Two points:

It's worth bearing in mind that unless you're using ISOs above 800, if you get banding your camera is either faulty or is suffering from electromagnetic interference. Below ISO 800 mine is fine in low light. ISO 800 on a video camera is pretty damned bright.

So at ISO 800 with a fast prime lens via an adapter, i.e. Canon 24mm F2.8 FD mount or a F1.4 50mm prime, low light on the GH1 can be improved hugely over the kit lens at F4.
 
commanderspike said:
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It's worth bearing in mind that unless you're using ISOs above 800, if you get banding your camera is either faulty or is suffering from electromagnetic interference...
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Thx Andrew, but these "electromagnetic interferences" indoors perplex me a bit. Aren´t in almost every room these interferences? And therefore in every indoor shot these streaks in artificial lowlight?
 
Well there were a number of theories flying about. Sensor burn-in - I noticed my low light streaks were bad on the first day of ownership, but then went away. However when I got a 2nd GH1 brand new, that one did not have the same issue, it was ready to perform straight of the box. Then I started taking the interference issue seriously as a possible problem - that can't yet be ruled out. My bet is on mobile phones causing it. What other explaination, other than a faulty camera, is there?

I try to avoid shooting at anything over ISO 800 anyway.

It may even be to do with statically charged air or electric lighting, which the GH1's sensor picks up on and shows as noise.

Having said all that, now the disclaimer: I don't even notice the banding 99% of the time now... either I am ignoring it subconciously or something changed since the first day. I posted a still from a video I shot indoors in Taiwan at ISO 1600 - it was as clean as mineral water :)
 
commanderspike said:
....My bet is on mobile phones causing it. What other explaination, other than a faulty camera, is there?
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That would make sense.

Having said all that, now the disclaimer: I don't even notice the banding 99% of the time now... either I am ignoring it subconciously or something changed since the first day.
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Perhaps... ok, your lips to gods ear.
 
I was shooting with my MKII the other day and I saw some similar banding on an underexposed shot outdoors overcast almost dusk. The interesting thing is I never saw this kind of banding with the D90 even shooting that same location in similar low light conditions so I'm thinking the banding is a H.264/AVCHD thing. Has anyone seen the banding shooting mjpeg?
 
squig said:
I was shooting with my MKII the other day and I saw some similar banding on an underexposed shot outdoors overcast almost dusk. The interesting thing is I never saw this kind of banding with the D90 even shooting that same location in similar low light conditions so I'm thinking the banding is a H.264/AVCHD thing. Has anyone seen the banding shooting mjpeg?
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What ISO squig? Or fully auto?

I only see banding in the same circumstances as you (overcast sky, underexposed) when the ISO is above 800.
 
squig said:
... Has anyone seen the banding shooting mjpeg?
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No. The only thing i saw with the d90 were these terrible waves, stripes + flickering caused by fluorescent lights. But there was this "utterly fantastic workflow" of panning around a light until you get 1/50 (pal-land) to avoid it.
 
commanderspike said:
What ISO squig? Or fully auto?

I only see banding in the same circumstances as you (overcast sky, underexposed) when the ISO is above 800.
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It was manual, can't recall the ISO probably between 800 and 1600. It only occurred for a few seconds out of about 5Gb of footage and it doesn't bother me much because I wouldn't normally underexpose like that. The H.264 produces some nasty compression artifacts in solid tone areas if I underexpose a shot.
 
commanderspike said:
It's worth bearing in mind that unless you're using ISOs above 800, if you get banding your camera is either faulty or is suffering from electromagnetic interference.
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I'm beginning to wonder whether my camera is faulty then. I'm still seeing banding even at 200ISO. I've had the camera a few weeks, have done the update and use it in full manual mode.

I can't say that there's no EM fields around, but then when can you ever say that in the modern world.

Can anyone think of a good way of doing a fair comparison with someone elses camera? ie is there some way we can set up roughly similar light levels and shoot the same thing?

Failing that, are there any GH1 owners in central or NW London who wouldn't mind getting together to do a quick side by side comparison?
 
nathankw said:
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Can anyone think of a good way of doing a fair comparison with someone elses camera? ie is there some way we can set up roughly similar light levels and shoot the same thing?
...
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That´s a good idea. I think this should be clarified. Slowly but surely the whole thing becomes pretty weird imho.
 
Maybe all units sold before a certain date have the problem so in 1-2 months from now I'll go to a camera store and compare my GH1 to the "new" ones.
 
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Count me in.
New PAL GH1, Terrible vertical lines in low light from 400 ISO up (experimenting), using the kit lens.

Maybe tomorrow it will be better.....

rrrrrrrrrrrrr.......
 
OPHERBA said:
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Maybe tomorrow it will be better.....
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Haha... yes, mystical things will happen overnight. - Only indoors? What kind of light? A german owner tried it out with different iso values:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkqeArinq7A&fmt=22
2 mobiles were switched on. I cant recognize any banding/streaks.

I can´t believe that it depends on different cameras. I suppose that every cam has it but it only occurs in a specific environment/light situation - I don´t know. But perhabs the proposal by nathankw would be the best way to find it out?
Can anyone think of a good way of doing a fair comparison with someone elses camera? ie is there some way we can set up roughly similar light levels and shoot the same thing?
Click to expand...
 
capice said:
Haha... yes, mystical things will happen overnight. - Only indoors? What kind of light? A german owner tried it out with different iso values:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkqeArinq7A&fmt=22
2 mobiles were switched on. I cant recognize any banding/streaks.

I can´t believe that it depends on different cameras. I suppose that every cam has it but it only occurs in a specific environment/light situation - I don´t know. But perhabs the proposal by nathankw would be the best way to find it out?
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I filmed in a friggin church and there was banding... so, it has nothing to do with interference. :cry:
 
I filmed in a friggin church and there was banding... so, it has nothing to do with interference.
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Here churches are very popular with the mobile phone companies for mounting transmitter masts on, often cunningly concealed... then there's radio mics that get used a lot in churches... nowhere is safe these days!
 
I'm beginning to think that the banding is prevalent is most units. Look at the dpreview samples from the review. The indoor clips and the step less aperture clip are riddled by banding and it can't be ignored.

This is a big deal, maybe the camera is not shielded at all for interference or one of the internal components is causing it. The Microphones, EVF and or LCD could all be culprits.
 
I'm just now one of the lucky few that has 2 of these cams. I did a quick test with both cams in the same lighting, same settings, same kit lens. Yup, same banding issue. The difference between the two are negligible as far as my eye sees. Have not done the firmware update on either camera nor have I tried it with my prime lenses yet. I plan to do tests with a myriad of suggested settings found throughout this forum and see what happens.
 
What I can say for sure is: "WYSIWYG". I can easily see the vertical lines inside the VF when filming on low light. First I thought it is only a "VF thing" and the final output will be clean but I was mistaken.
 
Are you in CM, S, 1/30, 1/50, lock iso(unlock all option for iso, 1/3) lock iso at iso1000 max and work down, also invoke ae hold and lock exposure as well and compare. If your evening shooting you should have no problems with 1/50, daylight you'll need some light-stoppers though. See what you find, how low light are you wanting to go? I have some minimal horizontal banding at iso 1250 and 1600 only in low light. In good light well none.
 
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