5d mark II strange black dots?

<p>Here's a comparison someone did before and after the firmware fix:<br>

<a href="http://www.andrewyip.com/blog/2009/01/07/firmware-update-fixes-5d-mark-ii-black-dots-problem">http://www.andrewyip.com/blog/2009/01/07/firmware-update-fixes-5d-mark-ii-black-dots-problem</a><br>

It's fixed! Thanks Christopher for letting everyone know!</p>

<p>Anyone have any 100% crops with the new firmware?</p>

<p>Anyone want to take a stab at what exactly Canon did in the firmware update? Noise removal update? Change the amplifier behavior? Sensor array read speed?</p>

<p>Would be cool to know.<br>

Rishi</p>

<p>>>Anyone want to take a stab at what exactly Canon did in the firmware update?<br>

I did a quick glance - it looked to me like the black dots are now white dots [i shouldn't take that leap without a better look, however]</p>

 

<p>i upgraded the last night - popped a 50 f/1.4 and went for a drive. ended up getting called by the office and had to scrub the planned test shoot (6 client projects on the go). did however roll off a bunch of shots from the car while driving home... this is a totally crap pic but i selected it from the dozen i shot as it has lots of little lights in the distance. not sure about the purple glow around some of the lights but I attribute it to shooting through my car windshield. was also -15 outside with a strong wind so stopping and rolling down the window wasn't a good option either.<br>

ISO3200 f/1.4 - full resolution JPG direct from DCIM folder<br>

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3500/3180310711_e6b3d5e511_o.jpg</p>

 

<p>How do people feel about the purple fringing around highlights and the 'purple blotchiness' so typical of 5D Mark II pictures (both problems there from the beginning)?</p>

<p>Re: purple blotchiness, check out here:<br>

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1032&thread=30301707</p>

<p>Christopher, the purple blothiness is pretty bad on your shot above.</p>

<p>Why aren't more people raising this point as a problem? It's even present in ISO 100 images!<br>

Rishi</p>

<p>Christopher, do you have a RAW version of that image?</p>

<p>I have a feeling that Canon's own demosaicing algorithm magifies the purple blotchiness, whereas ACR or DCRAW does a better job at preventing the purple blotches.</p>

<p>Would like to try it on your file since the purple blotchiness is so apparent in it.</p>

<p>Thanks,<br>

Rishi</p>

<p>Rishi.<br>

Apologies, i was tired - long day and long night - thought i had JPG+RAW set and it was only JPG that it was recording. AgreeD the blotchies are icky. I thought maybe it had to do with the high ISO, the cold and my car windshield.<br>

Will recreate and be sure RAW is enabled (normally is but I wanted both JPG and RAW for the test).</p>

<p> </p>

<p>New update for EOS 5D mk II<br>

EOS 5D MarkII Firmware Update Version 1.0.7<br>

This is just improve the Black dot and Vertical banding noise.. i don't think it fixes these two problems..<br>

it can be downloaded from here:<br>

<a href="http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosd/firm-e/eos5dmk2/firmware.html">http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosd/firm-e/eos5dmk2/firmware.html</a><br>

<a href="http://www.canon.com/eos-d/">http://www.canon.com/eos-d/</a></p>

 

<p>Thanks Christopher. Would test myself if I could get my hands on a 5D Mark II at no cost :)</p>

<p>Currently sticking to film & the nightmares of scanning... (don't get me started)</p>

<p>Can't wait to go digital.</p>

<p>-Rishi</p>

<p>Never thought I'd end up as a 'pixel peeper.' I got curious about what looks like a good fix from Canon, version 1.0.7, and wondered whether they had merely turned the black dot into a white one, thuswise making a circular shape sort of oval. So, I thank Andrew Yip for his tests, I copied a version 1.0.6 onto a version 1.0.7 in Photoshop and after <em>trying</em> to align them perfectly I reduced the opacity to see if a circle remained a circle without a black dot attached. I'm not sure if a circle remains a circle or not, I'd appreciate some second opinions on this, just to satisfy my curiosity....</p>

<p>I took Andrew Yip's ISO 800 images, rotated one a little bit to align correctly, then layered them. Find the layered TIFF file here:<br>

<a href="http://staff.washington.edu/rjsanyal/Photography/ISO800-BlackDots.tif">http://staff.washington.edu/rjsanyal/Photography/ISO800-BlackDots.tif</a></p>

<p>Hope Andrew doesn't mind :)</p>

<p>Open the file up in Photoshop and show/hide the top layer (the newer firmware) to distinguish between the two. It does kinda look like the circles turn to ovals :( Probably some sort of cloning procedure going on?</p>

<p>Not a big deal for circles of light. Wonder though, if it is cloning, if it'll work in all situations. Such as strips of bright light. Or what have you...</p>

<p>Good bit of skill Rishi, very informative, thanks. It looks to me as though Canon may have tackled this problem at source and not via cloning as there does appear to be evidence of the black dot changing to the background colour as I lowered the opacity. This ties in with an opinion I read in another forum somewhere. Whatever, it is so difficult to see now at high magnification it makes the black dot affair a non issue now. <br>

I agree with you about the strip of bright light, I would like to see an example of that to see if that too is cured (I suspect it is).<br>

I hear there have been issues in the past with firmware updates introducing new problems, I'll give my purchase 3 or 4 weeks and hope this is not the case here.<br>

I have looked forward to this camera for a long time....nearly there!</p>

<blockquote>

<p>It looks to me as though Canon may have tackled this problem at source and not via cloning as there does appear to be evidence of the black dot changing to the background colour as I lowered the opacity.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Perhaps. But the alternative explanation is that they bias the cloning to select pixels from the right (the background) as opposed to the left (the bright light source) since the black dots always fell to the right of bright light sources. See what I'm saying?</p>

<p>Either way, as much of a pixel peeper as I am, I really don't care... to me it's as much as solved :)</p>