I am having horizontal banding problems at all ISOs in my 5D M2.

[derisphotonetgallery]

<p>I am having banding issues in my 5D M2 under specific conditions. I do a lot of HDRI and bracket my images by usually 2 stops. I am having some banding in the sky with my underexposed images (either minus 1 or 2 EV). The banding occurs with the gradient in the sky and is curved. I am seeing this randomly at all ISOs. I am not having any problems with any other type of banding. I do see noise around the banded areas. I shoot in RAW and am seeing the banding in the RAW images. I am seeing it in around 10% of my bracketed images.<br>

Just for comparison, my Canon 1D M3 has no banding up to an ISO of 6400 even with 7 bracketed images of -1Ev. Any thought on this? I am thinking of keeping my 1D M3 for my HDRIs (and action shots, plus the waterproofing) and not using my 5D M2 for any HDRs. <br>

I am enclosing an HDRI that has been way over-processed on purpose to show the banding in the image. I have tried to post the banding with out over processing but the conversion to a lower res image doesn't display the banding well.<br>

This is not the best example of banding, but I am on my laptop traveling right now and don't have access to my main library.<br>

The banding occurs with the images that have the largest tonal depth (bright to dark in the sky).<br>

Here is the rub. I didn't have any banding when I first got the camera. It started after I did the 2nd firmware update. I have the most current firmware update (I installed it a few weeks ago) and I keep thinking that a fix will occur.<br>

Any thoughts on this?<br>

Thanks!</p><div></div>

[PuppyDigs]

<p>Nice image. I'm looking at it on a calibrated Cinema Display and can't see any bands, specks or stripes of any sort.</p>

[g dan mitchell]

<p>I'm not seeing it in the posted image. I <em>may</em> be able to see a slight bit of banding in the sky if I look really hard, but that could just be an artifact of jpg conversion.</p>

<p>I will say that underexposing monochromatic areas of almost uniform brightness is pretty much the worst torture test you can do on this sort of thing. The only way to make it even worse is to do some post processing to increase sky contrast/dynamic range via brightness or levels adjustments.</p>

<p>This is also tough on noise.</p>

<p>Do be sure that this is not just an artifact of looking at the image at a scaled down size in your post-processing software. I sometimes find that I'll see some banding in sky at 25% but not in the full size version and often not in the final resized version either.</p>

<p>Dan</p>

[steven_f1]

<p>I see banding in the sky. It looks a lot like JPG artifacts. However you shouldn't see this in the RAW files. If you are, my guess is that there is some setting in the camera that has changed and is causing the issue or a software change occurred in your laptop. </p>

<p>Try the following:</p>

<ul>

<li>Try changing the contrast and color saturation settings on your camera to the neutral.</li>

<li>Reset the camera settings to factory defaults. </li>

<li>Try undoing any custom functions you have set.</li>

<li>Reinstall the firmware that originally came with the camera. While newer firmware is generally better, it is possible a change Canon made is causing a problem with the type of photography you do.</li>

<li>To check for a computer problem, try reprocessing an old picture taken before the problem occurred. If you see banding a change has occurred in your laptop. </li>

<li>Review the EXIF data of a picture taken before with the data from a picture taken after the banding occurred. Is there something different in the EXIF data?</li>

</ul>

[phule]

<p>The only way I see banding is when I set my display for something other than 32-bit color depth.</p>

 

[madza_zulu]

<p>What banding ? I see none.</p>

[bob_sunley]

<p>The arc shaped band shows up very nicely on my monitor.</p>

<p>If this showed up with a firmware change, I'd just go back to the previous version, there is not much else you can do.</p>

 

[tim_klimowicz]

<p>I see curved banding that matches the gradient of the sky, but otherwise nothing else.</p>

<p>I think you may be confusing the terms here. Horizontal banding typically happens in the last stop or so of shadows for some cameras (my 30D, for instance), and is usually only seen starting around ISO 400, getting worse with every extra stop of ISO increase, or with any pushing, even with ISO 200 images pushed a rather extreme 2-3 stops.</p>

 

[15sunrises]

<p>Are you using photoshop to process at all? If so, make sure that your image mode is set to 16 bit.</p>

[g dan mitchell]

<blockquote>

<p>Are you using photoshop to process at all? If so, make sure that your image mode is set to 16 bit.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>+1. Sorry I didn't mention that it my post!</p>

[daveparsons]

<p>Sounds to me like the image is testing posters' monitor calibration ! I cannot see any banding at all .. the image is fine ... what we are hearing in this discussion is the difference between monitors .. not the image ..</p>

[JeffOwen]

<p>By winding the contrast up significantly the banding (or whatever) can be clearly seen. In my view it is an artefact of the post processing, I am sure it's not a shutter problem as the bands are not a true arc.<br>

Nice picture.</p><div></div>

[stsva]

<p>Looks a lot more like post processing posterization than actual banding caused by the camera.</p>

[jamie_robertson2]

<p>I see a slight arc band in the sky but I have to look VERY hard to see it. As others have said, that is more likely to be jpeg artefacts or the bit-depth of a display. If it was an issue with your camera it would be dead straight horizontal banding only. There are definitely no signs of straight horizontal banding in your posted image.</p>