5d banding issue

So, has anyone noticed this happening with their 5d classic?

This is ISO 800, and happens every 10-20 shots, just this miserable banding in the shadows, and highlights as well if i do any sort of post processing to the image. The next shot was totally normal, nice shadows, no banding, half as much noise as this. happens in tons of locations, with and without external radio flash transmitters. i've had it happen at home, in the woods, on vacation, in cities. i thought it was nothing but it's starting to bug me.

you might need to turn up your brightness to see it. i'm on a macbook pro with the brightness at about 3/4 full and it's clear as day to me.

The solution is to use neutral grad filter to hold back the brighter parts of the scene and allow the camera to grab more detail in the shadow. If you want the shadows that dark, its easy to adjust it back in post processing.

The problem is that the dynamic range of digital SLR's is still not as good as film. It will be in time, but not yet!

that is straight out of the camera. that's like a 50% crop.

the next shot is fine, nice blacks, no banding. happens intermittently.

i can usually push my shadows a stop or two and not get banding NEARLY as bad as this. there's no hope of cleaning this banding up in post.

believe me, i've been using this camera for two years and i've never noticed this happening until the last week or so, and i abuse the hell out of my files in post.

Its odd if it happens intermittently. I get it every time if I get deep blacks of any size in the frame. I've just learnt to get around the issue.

Yeah, I think the intermittent thing is odd too. No idea what would cause that, maybe a faulty connection?

Funny, it seems like the spacing is the same height as each floor on the building. I wonder if there could be some flare on the sensor?

I was all set to ridicule, but I opened it up in Photoshop, pulled the mid-tone curve up and--and yes, I think that that pattern is peculiar. I've shot thousands of frames with the 5d and mostly in low light at 800-1600 ISO and routinely push the exposure by a stop or two in post and while I do sometimes see very minor and spaced out regular patters, I've never seen this before. My thought: radio interference or something like this. Any radio tower or something akin to this in proximity ?

Christopher Steven b wrote in post #11291330
I was all set to ridicule, but I opened it up in Photoshop, pulled the mid-tone curve up and--and yes, I think that that pattern is peculiar. I've shot thousands of frames with the 5d and mostly in low light at 800-1600 ISO and routinely push the exposure by a stop or two in post and while I do sometimes see very minor and spaced out regular patters, I've never seen this before. My thought: radio interference or something like this. Any radio tower or something akin to this in proximity ?

WOO! Credibility! I was hoping this wouldn't just be brushed off, as like I've said, I've used this camera for years with no issues.

I've used it in the woods, on the beach, in the city, in my home, etc. I get the banding every now and then in all the locations, so I don't think it's radio interference.

Unless the body is that sensitive to a cellphone. The power levels change on the cellphone depending on how close or far away you are from the cell tower.

bcd01 wrote in post #11291380
Unless the body is that sensitive to a cellphone. The power levels change on the cellphone depending on how close or far away you are from the cell tower.

Aha! But the plot thickens - I have a number of shots from Muir Woods near San Francisco that exhibit this pattern, and I left my cell in the car because getting service there is horrible, so we were probably hundreds of feet from any type of radio interference at some points.

Was anybody with you with a cellphone?

Heat buildup of the sensor ? Does it get progressively worse while shooting or, as you suggest above, is it just intermittent ? if you have a case where the next shot is identical in nearly every respect (location, time, subject matter etc.) and it doesn't exhibit this then--then I don't know !

Do these show up on the RAW as well as the JPGs? If you are not shooting RAW, change the config show you shoot both. Try it out and see if it shows up on both. It could be in the processing of the JPG. I am still keyed into the spacing of the bands and how they line up with the floors in that building.

bcd01 wrote in post #11291544
Do these show up on the RAW as well as the JPGs? If you are not shooting RAW, change the config show you shoot both. Try it out and see if it shows up on both. It could be in the processing of the JPG. I am still keyed into the spacing of the bands and how they line up with the floors in that building.

I'm shooting RAW, but i will see if it happens to jpegs also.

And its just intermittent, doesn't seem to coincide with a heat issue.