ISO 51200 on a K-5?!?!?

<p>I gave ISO 51200 a shot after figuring out how to get it to show up. This was in Washington Square Park from about 35 feet away. There wasn't even enough light to see the couple's faces from where i was. Took a bit to get it to focus, but it got through after a few tries. <br>

Very noisy, but that's to be expected. But I see that banding that I heard about in the early days of the K-5 and was hoping that the firmware might have fixed it by now. Does everyone run into this or is it just certain cameras? I just bought this a couple of months ago and thought they would have fixed it my now. It looks to be in just the lower 30% of the picture, so I can adjust during shooting to make that part less important.<br>

So, in a better-than-nothing situation, it could be useful.<br>

http://www.photo.net/photo/15000912&size=lg<br>

I included the link because the picture feature wouldn't work from this url</p>

<p> </p>

<p>By the way, this is Raw from Lightroom 3, with no modifications (sharpening, noise reduction, exposure, etc.)</p>

<p>I like it, Ray. It reminds me of the old film days when you would push the film to ASA 2000 and hope for the best, being thankful to get any image at all.</p>

<p>Banding or no, being able to shoot at 51200 is just remarkable...</p>

<p>Looks pretty similar to the Fuji ISO 1600 color print film I used to occasionally shoot at high school football games and marching band competitions... which is to say that it <em>is</em> pretty grainy, but considering it's ISO 51,200, it's freaking <em>amazing</em>!</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Banding or no, being able to shoot at 51200 is just remarkable...</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I agree, amazing to be able to shoot at ISO 51200. Looks better than ISO1600 on my old k10D. If you are shooting at that high ISO, you can shoot raw and tinker with the sharpening and noise reduction to see if that helps alleviate the banding (which in my opinion, doesn't hurt your photo). I have the k-5 and love it. I usually dont shoot above 3200, but I think I'm going to start doing so for some extreme situations. (Like shooting in the dark).</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Well, I've never seen such banding on my K5...<br>

Looks like the occasionnal banding we experienced on the K7 sometimes, though...</p>

<p>Mmmmh, going through the Canon 5D review over at DPreview, I found a similar phenomenon, caused (it seems) by the use of AF-C... Seems like there can be some kind of interference between the lens' motor and the sensor...</p>

<p>Ray, did you have a cell phone in your pocket by any chance? I've seen/heard reports of those causing issues at very high ISOs as well.</p>