C300: Magenta banding on c300 MKII: Is this a fixable issue?

Lkorver

Well-known member
And by fixable, I mean in-camera, not in post.
I've tried ABB but didn't have an effect.
Do I have a sensor issue that needs fixing or is this issue inherent to all c300 MK2's?

Magenta Banding.jpg
 
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Unfortunately, it's a feature not a bug :/

In all seriousness, this is a known issue on CMOS sensors. I've gone back and seen it in footage I've shot on various red cameras. Though admittedly the mk2 def has one of the worst I've seen. I've sat down in engineers from canon and they're aware of the issue.

A few things I've done to prevent it:

- I did a test against some blinds a few months ago an found that just rotating the camera made it go away. Not always possible, but the problem seems to be most apparent when you have lateral highlights against an underexposed area next to it. X number of pixels at a certain IRE just strip out the green channel across a line.

- Exposure, One big thing to note with all of the Canon line, expose properly in camera, don't try to push the shadows around in post. I've found that magenta smear is worse when my shadow area is below 20ish IRE. I was getting into trouble when I was trying to balance everything in a frame, rather than exposing for the subject. Sometimes we try to play out post production in our heads a bit too much on set.

- If you've exposed properly most of it will go away in the grade. The frame you attached, if you gave it exposed +1 1/2 stops the banding would probably be a non-issue once graded.

Check out this example from a recent shoot. You can see the smear on the chair, but in this shot I've exposed for the subject in the chair so once graded it's imperceivable.

DISCOVER_quick_color.00_04_14_11.Still030.jpgDISCOVER_quick_color.00_04_14_11.Still029.jpg
 
I think Canon kind of screwed themselves with this issue when they tried to pull every bit of dynamic range they could out of the sensor. In a normal picture profile this banding would be hidden in the blacks or the noise, but it becomes fairly obvious in the log profiles.
 
This has made me extremely frustrated with my C300 mk2! It is soooo ugly when it appares, and so hard to get rid of.

Lately I´ve been shooting ISO 400, and the problem seems less apparent. I read somewhere that others also has had success reducing iso to 400 or less.
 
This has made me extremely frustrated with my C300 mk2! It is soooo ugly when it appares, and so hard to get rid of.

Lately I´ve been shooting ISO 400, and the problem seems less apparent. I read somewhere that others also has had success reducing iso to 400 or less.

Are you shooting Canon Log 2? If so, have you tried Canon Log 3?
 
Are you shooting Canon Log 2? If so, have you tried Canon Log 3?

I often shoot C-Log 2 yes, but it is the same with c-log 3, and even Canon Std 709 for that matter. It seems to more easy to spot for me when shooting c-log 2, so I feel its easier to avoid getting surprised in post. Plus I really like C-log 2! :)
 
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