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GH2 showing fixed darker band/stripe 20 pixels high across footage
  • 186 Replies sorted by
  • JamesAllenVisualJamesAllenVisual

    Interesting because when I tried that I could see it clearly. Will test again but it showed up without having to do anything.. hmmm. Also on mine it'll show up consistently when shooting almost anything is reduced light. Wonder if it's worse than other's.

    ** EDIT: I just tested with the lens cap on and couldn't see it either but then I found a way to get it to show immediately. Just take the lens cap off very slowly and move it away from the lens a little bit so that some light is allowed in - that should show the line really clearly.

    Here is a video to show it:

    Watch full screen in 1080p if you can. You might need to click to watch it on YouTube to enable full screen mode.

  • kanintesovakanintesova

    Guys. I tried with the lens cap on. It's just dark and black (duh) When I boost the mids/gamma in FCP I see it slightly but also lots of noise of course. There must be at better way to test I believe. Maybe shooting a grey card or something similar.

  • spacewigspacewig

    I'd be happy to participate.

  • kanintesovakanintesova

    Maybe if we render png stills from the NLE? Then we don't have to deal with multiple compressions that will smear things. Might be easier for comparison side by side also. What do you guys think, from which ISO should we start? 400?

    Also tell what camera serial batch.

  • JamesAllenVisualJamesAllenVisual

    Some superb ideas here. I like the idea of comparing like for like. I am putting together a video showing the problem in various shots I've taken. In fact, every time I've gone out to shoot at 1/50 I've had the issue in various places. If I do return I'll certainly ensure I get footage of a fixed test that I can then recreate.

  • csynccsync

    Agreed, good idea @nomad. If you post guidelines, I'll take some video and upload it tomorrow.

    @kanintesova - dropbox is good and easy to share files with.

  • kanintesovakanintesova

    @nomad: That's a good idea. Any guidelines? Thoughts? Where do we upload?

  • nomadnomad

    Why don't we all make a test with the same (high) ISO and a cap in front of the sensor? That should be reproducible.

  • csynccsync

    If you do that, could you try to shoot something with the current camera and then recreate the shot/lighting with the next one? I don't think we have confirmation on the differences between sensors, that would be very helpful as a resource. I am going to try to do this myself in the next week with two GH2's.

  • JamesAllenVisualJamesAllenVisual

    I think in that case I may return it and get a new one from Amazon. Think they will send a new one out immediately which is cool. Nothing really to lose.

  • csynccsync

    I only use completely manual lenses and I see it pretty easily. It definitely seems to vary from camera to camera, some are better than others. If you have a bad one, see if you can get it fixed or work around it.

  • spacewigspacewig

    Lens have nothing to do with it. I noticed it and I've never owned a lumix lens but had the problem with a leica 50mm summicron and voigtlander 40mm M-mount lens. The common denominator seems to be high ISO.

  • JamesAllenVisualJamesAllenVisual

    Excellent test Sam - be interested to hear the results.

  • sam_sticklandsam_stickland

    @yoclay If this is true, it wouldn't be seen on completely manual lenses? I'll try and test this tonight.

  • yoclayyoclay

    I believe that I read somewhere that the reason why this is happening is because there is a power draw from the live lenses and the cameras sensor / processing units are not properly protected from it. Somewhere there is the equivalent of a capacitor missing in the design. This is clearly instanced by the presence of the band even with the cap of the lens on. Whether or not this is actually true is anyone's guess.

  • JamesAllenVisualJamesAllenVisual

    I thought as much.. Just that annoying decision now whether to return it and try another or just stay put with this one.. Bloody awesome camera.. Just be nice to have one which had this 'feature' as minimal as possible. ;)

  • tinyrobottinyrobot

    The stripe is a "feature" of the GH2. All of them have it to a degree. Degree being that if it is hardware related, which I think it is, then maybe some more and some less - just like all hardware.

  • JamesAllenVisualJamesAllenVisual

    I have a feeling this probably is related to the lens being used. I have both the 14-140mm and 20mm Panasonic len's and both show this issue very clearly indeed. I haven't filmed much yet but went out for a shoot on Saturday and as soon as it got darker outside the line was there - as clear as day. It even shows up when shooting at night in a very well lit main area of the city. This may explain why some people don't see the band at all, if they are not using Panasonic len's.

    I think my concern is that even on EOSHD's video above, the banding isn't seen that often and when it is, it's fairly subtle. On my cam, I see it a lot more and it's much more obvious...

    I would still like to know if the issue varies camera to camera though. I am in the 30 day period with Amazon at the moment and know I can get a new one sent out immediately and return this one.. It's tempting but no point if the fault is the same on everyone's unit.

    I am putting together a video of shot's where the line show's up which I'll post when done. Be good if people can compare what they get to me.

    BTW, I found that - as mentioned above - if you put the lens cap on and start recording with a 1/50 shutter speed the line should be clearly visible. Good test for people who haven't seen it yet maybe...

  • kanintesovakanintesova

    It seems to be most visible in the midrange on flat surfaces. I've had it show up with manual FD-lenses too. For static scenes indoors, or scenes with little motion I can get away by keeping shutter at 1/30th (1/40 with 2.35:1 crop). I also gain a little light then. Not optimal as lights will cause slight flicker (50Hz country) 1/30 seems fine - just too smeary. But the stripe is clearly visible on the LCD when there's a problem and you know what to look for. Can also mask it out in post - but tideous. All in all it sucks.

  • mozesmozes

    I dident see them here, but i have just one lens. the olympus 14-150mm same options as the pana 14-140, just no stabilization...

  • csynccsync

    I have the banding on mine at a somewhat low ISO (800), and I have looked at others' raw MTS files and haven't seen it, so I think it probably varies from sensor to sensor

  • driftwooddriftwood

    I'm seeeing a trend here. A lot more problems it seems arise on the Pansonic OIS controlled lenses.

  • exilenorthexilenorth

    No Lines.Clean so far. I have been shooting in very low light using prime lensing. 50mm, 24mm, One thing I rarely use the the Lumix 14mm to 45mm. The Lumix seems soft. I will try using the Lumix and see if it may be and issue with that, otherwise clean.

  • shaunshaun

    I have the same issue in my GH2 I just got from panasonic.com (u.s. model, made in china, serial WE1SA00****). So far I've been able to detect it down to 400iso. My GH2 also seems susceptible to interference from my computer monitors (rolling pinkish lines are recorded at 12800iso even with lens cap on, regardless of shutter speed). I think the single band is likely an issue with every GH2.

    For instance, Andrew from eoshd.com has a japanese model, and doesn't notice any banding, but you can see it starting at 0:50 here (bottom forth of frame),

    as he pans up the building. It's noticeable a few other times in the video as well.

    And it's true the 1.1 patch doesn't fix it, as I just updated to it and tested it. It may have slightly reduced it, or it may just seem that way since I can't go above 3200iso in video mode anymore.

    The band cycles up the screen as one decreases shutter speed, until about 1/250, then its movement seems random, but it's hard to tell. It's easiest to see at 6-7 bars under exposed against a gray background. It's more noticeable on the lcd than in the evf.

    At 24fps, using 1/25 or 1/30 makes it so the bar isn't visible. 1/40 will put it near the bottom, and would be cropped out if cropping to 1:2.35. In live-view the positions of the bar (and, subsequently, the shutter speeds that don't exhibit the problem) are different, so there seems to be some tie to frame rate

    In ETC mode, I can see no traces at any iso of this. But maybe it's just too small to see then.

  • JamesAllenVisualJamesAllenVisual
    Got my GH2 last week - serial WE1HA so pretty recent. Noticed the banding today when shooting a 25p test using the 1.1 firmware (I just updated - not hacked yet). Really annoying as I see it all the time now.
    I'm just concerned now that I may have a gh2 which shows this up quite badly. It's obviously part of all GH2's out there but a lot of people may not notice it. The main attitude of dpreview seems to be one of; "I don't have any banding on mine!!" but surely it must affect all of them as it seems a fundamental flaw. Just wondering if the fault is worse on some people's GH2's.. Wondering whether to return mine to Amazon and try for a replacement.
    Haven't had a chance to properly film anything yet and was pretty excited - this has put a dampener on things. Although as has been pointed out, shooting at 1/30 solves it. Same with 1080i50 - you get banding at 1/100 so need to shoot at 1/50 to avoid it.
    In my tests I see the banding from ISO1000.. :|
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