5Diii landscape with pattern noise? Say what?

This is a completely unnecessarily provocative "test."

Higgs Boson wrote in post #14225528
But no matter how you slice it, I'm DOING IT WRONG.

If you take a picture that needs +2 stops of EV AND fill AND Blacks, etc then you have just failed as a photographer. Also, that's why you can do an HDR.....

I realize this is "just a test" but what's the point in testing a brain surgeon on his knowledge of geology and making assumptions about his intellect based on the outcome?

that's the thing, go dig up some of the original 5D2 complaints about noise in low ISO images and guess who you'll see complaining about it then... Daniel Browning (I think?) started the thread, but I was seeing it in my images at the time and never thought much of it. In the LIFE of me shooting my 5D2 I've seen it in maybe 10 images. Of those 10, ~5 were NOT exposed incorrectly and I was NOT pushing shadows ETC to extreme limits, the noise just showed up with pretty basic processing honestly. So because of that, I was and am curious to see if the problem is fixed with the 5D3. I shoot other things than just landscapes, so the upgrade here is well worth it for me on AF alone (even though I NEVER use AF on landscapes!). But I still wanted to test the sensor and it's limits so I'd know what it's capable of. Nothing more.

Anyone who say's you're "doing it wrong" if you need to push files this far simply doesn't shoot landscapes or other scenes with a lot of dynamic range where they don't want it to clip. Those of us who do know the issue and I was trying to help out that (very small) niche. Bear in mind, I'm already using GNDs on most of these scenes to control the DR, I'm just trying to pull up some detail in the shadows generally, on the back side of a rock where the sun is behind it. That's a LOT to ask of any camera, it's just with sony's sensors (in their cameras and the D7000/D800) you can push very hard on those shadows w/o much noise at all, never mind banding. Pentax files too (doesn't sony make their sensors too?).

Here's a file I processed today though, w/o seeing any banding:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/benjacobsen/7​053780197/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/benjacobsen/6​907689766/

Lovely shots, FWIW!!

beautiful shots, love that breakwater blue hour one!

1st shot is nice, second shot is amazing. great job on that one!

FWIW, your crazy fill examples in the OP look better to me than my former 5D2 did. In fact, I could try about a +50 fill light in LR3 on a decently-exposed shot (but still too dark in spots) and I would get pretty bad banding. The fact you're able to go to such extremes, and look better than my shots did with less fill, is pretty interesting.

And yeah, great shots on page 2 here

Those who dismiss the shadow banding issue, and those who think that the issue only arises due to photographer error or excessive PP are mistaken. I don't know if it's because the type of photography they do is not very demanding, or because they haven't been photographing for very long, or both, but in the "real world", we don't always get the ideal exposure we want, due to:
- Dynamic Range limitations
- Time constraints
- Fast changing/moving subjects
- Photographer error, inexperience, forgetfulness, carelessness etc.


I will give you a number of scenarios where banding is a very real issue:

1. Flash Failure
At this awards presentation I was rapidly flashing award recipients. After about 100 presentations, even though I was rotating between 2 X 580EXII, they started failing on me due to the heat protection kicking in, and the flash either did not flash on certain shots, or started firing on really low power:

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

I'm curious how much did you push that indoor image smorter, where the flash failed?

OT, but why on earth do you work your flashes so hard they overheat at ISO100 anyway? Why not ISO400 and 1/4 the power on the flash for a fast recycle and less battery drain. BTW exif says 5Dm2, I know you wanted to show the badning issue but it was worth pointing out.

cputeq007 wrote in post #14228078
FWIW, your crazy fill examples in the OP look better to me than my former 5D2 did. In fact, I could try about a +50 fill light in LR3 on a decently-exposed shot (but still too dark in spots) and I would get pretty bad banding. The fact you're able to go to such extremes, and look better than my shots did with less fill, is pretty interesting.

the linked image in the OP shows 5D2 and 5D3 crops @ 100%. They look pretty similar to me?

smorter wrote in post #14228126
2. Live view usage
As you know, using live view heats up the sensor, which causes more noise. So even at ISO 100 with no PP whatsoever, you start to see the pattern noise:
http://www.clartephoto​.com/img/s9/v13/p97357​3034.jpg

any idea how long live view had been on for that shot? I've been using it for landscape shooting, but maybe it's causing some of my problems?

Xcelx wrote in post #14228911
BTW exif says 5Dm2, I know you wanted to show the badning issue but it was worth pointing out.

I think his point was to show real life scenarios where banding is and issue with the 5D2 so more people would back off on the "it's bad photography" standpoint when users point it out. I gave up on the thread back when the 5D2 came out because it got that ridiculous honestly. I know it's an issue, that's all I really care about. Educating people who want to defend their $2700 toy and or brand isn't for me, but helping people understand how their tools work is, if you know what I mean. And I mean no disrespect to anyone in particular with that, but yeah, the 5D2 issue left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

jacobsen1 wrote in post #14229570
And I mean no disrespect to anyone in particular with that, but yeah, the 5D2 issue left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

I understand what you mean. I sold my 5D2 early on and bought a 1Ds3 to replace it: hardly any banding at all compared to similar conditions where it would show up with the 5D2. I wondered why the difference, though? Better noise reduction in the 1-series, or something?

Xcelx wrote in post #14228911
I'm curious how much did you push that indoor image smorter, where the flash failed?

OT, but why on earth do you work your flashes so hard they overheat at ISO100 anyway? Why not ISO400 and 1/4 the power on the flash for a fast recycle and less battery drain. BTW exif says 5Dm2, I know you wanted to show the badning issue but it was worth pointing out.

Thanks for pointing this out, I usually use ISO 1600. If I recall correctly, because I had to keep switching my flashes due to overheating, in one instance I accidentally knocked the mode dial to C3 (from AV), which caused it to revert to ISO 100. Photographer error, but that's life Nikon would have yielded a more usable photo.

battling my 5dIII right now, im getting some serious noise in the shadows at 800 and 400...
blah

Phew! I'm glad I bought a D800.

I'm glad I bought a 5D3

Fricks wrote in post #14872509
I'm glad I bought a 5D3

Too bad you don't know how to use it.