O.K., I got my new D200 on Tuesday, and haven't had any time to really play with it, other than some random shots. Unfortunately, it looks like my new toy is going to have to either be returned or go for repair. Banding is visible in mid tone areas, especially smooth ones, in nearly all images. If you know what you're looking for you can even find it in higher detail areas. It's consistant at all ISO's, though it's more pronounced at low ISO, the noise reduction seems to also smear the banding at the higher ISO.

If any of you other new D200 users could take a close look at your images and report back, that would be great.

Gerald

Can you post some sample pics? A post like this gets unnecasary rumors started.

HankB wrote:
Can you post some sample pics? A post like this gets unnecasary rumors started.

It's not an unnecessary rumor, it's a fact. I had posted a picture, but it looks like there may also be bug in NC 4.4 when converting to jpg from D200 NEF's. I'll have to look into that... (perhaps I did something wrong in my haste). Had to use PS to convert. Here's the original of my junky random test pic.

Gerald



Edited by chemprof on Dec 22, 2005 at 07:19 AM GMT (Reason: NC 4.4 is Fine - user error - too much compression)

This is 100% crop from the upper right corner (shade, window frame, smooth wall). Note that this is NOT an anomaly. Now that I know what I'm looking for, I can find it in ALL of my images, including out of focus areas in any image. It's most noticable in mid-tone areas.

Gerald

Sorry, can you explain to me where i can see it?
I've seen banding on the canon 1 D so i know what banding is ....

wesley wrote:
Sorry, can you explain to me where i can see it?
I've seen banding on the canon 1 D so i know what banding is ....

Vertical, throughout the image. Perhaps your Canon's banding was worse, but this is new for Nikon, and is therefore a significant concern. I don't know if this will show up in a print, but as I said, it's consistant and can be seen in all images at all ISO's, though high ISO's seem to be not quite as bad due to loss from processing.

Gerald

wesley wrote:
Sorry, can you explain to me where i can see it?
I've seen banding on the canon 1 D so i know what banding is ....


The banding is really obvious on that pic. If you can't see it it must be a monitor issue or some other issue.

Wow Gerald, that looks really bad. It must be your particular camera or else we would have been hearing bloody murder by now wouldn't we?

I guess the Asian sites have been discussing this?

Software update #1.

Cheers,
Craig Ryder

Ryder wrote:
wesley wrote:
Sorry, can you explain to me where i can see it?
I've seen banding on the canon 1 D so i know what banding is ....


The banding is really obvious on that pic. If you can't see it it must be a monitor issue or some other issue.

That is really bad. It must be your particular camera or else we would have been hearing bloody murder by now wouldn't we?

I guess the Asian sites have been discussing this?

Software update #1.

Cheers,
Craig Ryder


Agreed, I think it's bad. I also don't think all cameras are affected, but from some of the discussion, I believe, that there may be varying degrees of this, so anyone who has a D200 should take a very close look at all of their images. I'm not sure this is a software update problem, more likely electronic, I think. I have to look into what to do about it know. I'm considering either returning it to B&H for a refund and repurchasing when the air clears, or sending it in to Nikon. One post in another forum said that Nikon wasn't sure what the problem is, but are replacing camera. No clue if that's rumor or truth.

Anyway you cut it this isn't my idea of fun.

Gerald

Please bear with me but I'm not an expert photographer - but what exactly
is, " Banding " ? - that is a term that has eluded me so far in this hobby of
mine. (photography)

Thanks...

butch350 wrote:

Please bear with me but I'm not an expert photographer - but what exactly
is, " Banding " ? - that is a term that has eluded me so far in this hobby of
mine. (photography)

Thanks...

As far as I know, banding is just an occurance of regular stripes in an image. I suspect it could have a vareity of causes. The image crop in my post above shows regular vertial stripes in all regions of the crop. This would obviously diminish the detail in a print because additional processing would be required to make the stripes not show in the final output.

Gerald

Wow... That image looks like corduroy

rocketpop wrote:
Wow... That image looks like corduroy


Not exactly what I had in mind when I bought the camera!

Gerald

Had it too - between ISO200 and 400 mainly towards the RH side of the image and it was totally random as you could take 10 shots and only 2 may have banding - this was in A mode (always shoot A mode) and with both AFS and normal D lenses, I never saw it at 640 or above or at ISO100, I had the camera replaced and have left the camera at ISO200 - so far so good ..

Adam-T wrote:
Had it too - between ISO200 and 400 mainly towards the RH side of the image and it was totally random as you could take 10 shots and only 2 may have banding - this was in A mode (always shoot A mode) and with both AFS and normal D lenses, I never saw it at 640 or above or at ISO100, I had the camera replaced and have left the camera at ISO200 - so far so good ..

Did your store replace the camera? I know that my store (B&H) now has them on backorder. Or did you get a replacement from Nikon?

You might want to examine ISO 100 images carefully... I see it most at ISO 100. Basically, the less noise there is in the image, the clearer I can see the artifacts.

Gerald

That's really bad. Can you show us some more?

Have you called Nikon and your store about it? They will exchange yours for another D200. It is faulty to me as I have not seen banding on other D200 pictures.

barnettgs wrote:
Have you called Nikon and your store about it? They will exchange yours for another D200. It is faulty to me as I have not seen banding on other D200 pictures.

I will be calling both this morning. Not sure there's any point in showing more of my lousy test pics - take my word for it. It's apparent in ALL images on close inspection.

Gerald

Just looked critically at what I've shot so far (since getting the camera yesterday)-- no banding in any of my images, ISO 100 through 800. For what it's worth, this seems to be an issue with only some cameras.

Tom

Tom Conte wrote:
Just looked critically at what I've shot so far (since getting the camera yesterday)-- no banding in any of my images, ISO 100 through 800. For what it's worth, this seems to be an issue with only some cameras.

Tom

That's what I'm thinking. Still, it doesn't make my day/week. Planned on taking the camera to Florida next week to shoot some birds at Merrit Island one day.

Gerald

sorry about this Gerald, I sure they will get it straightened out. geezers , I wish these companies would get a freaking clue. Give the darn camera to 20 trusted shooters for a few weeks , then get together and sort thru the issues, it would Have to be cheaper than all the returns etc and frustrations and loss of face of doing it this way



J

Gerald,
That is unfortunate, but at least it's not every D200 - so it can, and will be fixed for you. Just a bummer with your trip coming up.
-Tom

jmcfadden wrote:
sorry about this Gerald, I sure they will get it straightened out. geezers , I wish these companies would get a freaking clue. Give the darn camera to 20 trusted shooters for a few weeks , then get together and sort thru the issues, it would Have to be cheaper than all the returns etc and frustrations and loss of face of doing it this way



J

Yeah, it's amazing. The character at Nikon that I just talked to didn't know about the problem, had me reset the camera, take a picture and look at it (!!! On the LCD!!!) to see if it was "fine". Probably just like Direcway support over in India - read from a check list then forward it to the next level if they don't have a Dodo on the other end that doesn't know what he/she's doing. Perhaps I should really send it back to B&H instead, just that the don't have any cameras, and it'll just be a crapshoot trying to get a good one anyhow.

Gerald

I have no such banding on my pics. So far been shooting at all ISOs... even 3200. You should have your D200 switched out.

jmcfadden wrote:
...I wish these companies would get a freaking clue. Give the darn camera to 20 trusted shooters for a few weeks , then get together and sort thru the issues...

You don't think they do this already?

I have to believe this is an isolated incident. Otherwise, the forums all over would be full of nasty post about the D200. I will test mine against the Kodak SLR/n as soon as I'm allowed to open it. The evil wife wrapped it, but a bow on it and now it's lonely under my Christmas tree. Bah - Humbug!