D-200 "banding" and "dead pixels"

[jack_a]

I have never owned a digital camera before and am considering

purchasing a Nikon D-200 with the 17-55 f2.8 lens. I have read

about possible "branding" and "dead pixel" problems.

 

1) What are these problems?

 

2) How do I check or test to see if these problems exist?

 

3) Are there other problems I should check and/or test for

immediately after purchasing/receiving my D-200?

 

Thanks for any advice and/or suggestions.

[cappoldt]

Jack, do a search for this topic - it's been fairly well-covered. Also, perhaps do a Google search for "D200 Review," and read the review of the camera on this site. (can anyone provide links to the major reviews that address this?)

 

The banding issue seems isolated to only some cameras in only early shipments, Nikon has since isolated the problem and corrected it in subsequent shipments...so anything out there now should be fine.

 

I'm not aware of dead pixel issues, though I'm sure it does happen - as it does with most all DSLRS regardless of model or manufacturer.

[patricks]

read more <a href="http://www.naturfotograf.com/D200_rev00.html>here</a> and <a href="http://www.bythom.com/d200review.htm">here</a>.

 

make sure you have the right to return the camera for whatever reason - many smaller shops won't allow you to do this.

[patricks]

guess i messes that up

 

http://www.bythom.com/d200review.htm

 

http://www.naturfotograf.com/D200_rev00.html

[ShunCheung]

Thom Hogan has a good explanation in his excellent D200 review: http://www.bythom.com/d200review.htm

 

Scroll down to near the end of the review and look for an image of a lamp. A lot of people shoot directly into a light and look for banding in the area where you have a transition from very bright to dark.

 

Dead pixels can happen to pretty much any digital camera. I don't think they are common.

[harvey_edelstein1]

For reports of and by D200 owners who had banding on their cameras the best place to read dozens of posts is on nikonians D200 forum at www.nikonians.org. If you go back several months you can get the whole history of Nikons response to the issue and the effectiveness of the Nikon repair fix.

[ilkka_nissila]

Ironically, the Canon 5D seems to also have banding in some instances in the image related to autofocus or image stabilizer activity. What's strange is that in the case of the D200 there was such a big fuss about it.

 

You can do the lamp test and most likely you'll see some short banding in the edge of the overexposed area relative to the dark surroundings if you shoot around iso 400. At iso 100 this disappears and at iso 1600 the noise makes it invisible. It doesn't appear on my unit but even if it did, I couldn't care less.

[ShunCheung]

I think part of the problem is that Bjorn Rorslett initially suggested that Nikon should recall all D200's. Since Rorslett is a Nikon authority, his opinions carry some weight, but he quickly backed away from that position. As far as I can tell, Nikon fixed the ones with real banding problems promptly.

<P>

The following is a quote from Thom Hogan's review to which I provided a link above:

<P>

Thom Hogan: <I>So, overall I consider the banding issue mostly a non-issue. If your D200 is a new one (post manufacturing change) or a fixed one or an originally good one, to see any banding you'll generally need to be doing something wrong, not the camera.</I>

[jack_a]

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice. The question I really need answered is:

 

1) What is branding? In the "Lamp Test" what am I looking for?

 

2) What is a "Dead Pixel" and again what am I looking for and how do I test for one?

 

Thanks againfor all the helpful information!

[ShunCheung]

To see banding, take a look at the lamp image in Thom Hogan's review again: http://www.bythom.com/Images/D200_2_049b.jpg

 

See those vertical lines on the shade, right above the bright area?

[alan_olander1664878205]

It's "banding" not "branding". That might help if you're searching for it.