Banding Issues with the Nikon Z6/Z7

[Fons Baerken]

I don't recall there was a banding issue with D700, do you have a link for that?

Under certain circumstances e.g. streetlights, iso 3200 and higher, highlights and contrasts i noticed banding.

Google search provided these links,

https://www.google.nl/search?client=opera&q=nikon+d700+banding&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

[Michael Erlewine]

I believe I will get my Z7 today, so I will quickly have something to say, because I shoot ISO 64 and like shadows. It will either be good enough or it won't. I like the idea of a more portable camera along with my other ones. An I love Nikon cameras.

[Jack Dahlgren]

I believe I will get my Z7 today, so I will quickly have something to say, because I shoot ISO 64 and like shadows. It will either be good enough or it won't. I like the idea of a more portable camera along with my other ones. An I love Nikon cameras.

It will be nice to hear results from someone who is deliberate and thorough like you. Good luck!

[Erik Lund]

Under certain circumstances e.g. streetlights, iso 3200 and higher, highlights and contrasts i noticed banding.

Google search provided these links,

https://www.google.nl/search?client=opera&q=nikon+d700+banding&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

OK, so not similar to the Z7 banding apparently.

[Erik Lund]

Michael, I'm sure that a photographer and videographer like you will appreciate the compact Z7! Enjoy

[Eddie Draaisma]

I can observe some slight banding in very dark areas on ISO64 shots which have been pulled up at least 4-5 stops. Something I never did before and might never do again, but of course YMMV.

If this banding ever becomes an issue, one get get rid of the banding by using DFine, which is part of the Nik collection (nikcollection.dxo.com). DFine has a horizontal/vertical banding removal tool (use the horizontal). It works well.

[Erik Lund]

If the camera firmware corrects the Raw file for pincushion or barrel distortion etc, and then the need to run a PP cleanup software, image quality will suffer.

[Eddie Draaisma]

If the camera firmware corrects the Raw file for pincushion or barrel distortion etc, and then the need to run a PP cleanup software, image quality will suffer.

By "painting" the PP cleanup on affected areas only, it shouldn't be that much of a problem other than work.


I wouldn't be suprised that a firmware update is in the making which solves most of the the issue in raw...

[Erik Lund]

I would be very surprised if Nikon could fix this with a firmware update. Since [/size]I think Nikon will stay away from 'messing' too much with such 'image degrading' corrections in the firmware on the Raw files.


It's quite clear that the image I posted in the Leica SL thread had been distortion corrected in the Raw file,,, one of the main reasons for staying away from the Leica SL for my part.

[schwett]

I believe I will get my Z7 today, so I will quickly have something to say, because I shoot ISO 64 and like shadows. It will either be good enough or it won't. I like the idea of a more portable camera along with my other ones. An I love Nikon cameras.

i too shoot iso 64 all the time in very high DR scenes and push shadows hard.

i've been able to see it with some very extreme pushing that i would not do in real use.

shooting directly into the sun, iso 64, f/4.


pushing by a couple stops, no noise reduction at all, shadows +100, and other abuse yields this in 100% crop at the top left.



if it is solely related to the PD sites on the sensor (i don't think it is) this might be something they can improve with firmware. i'm not too worried about it.

[schwett]

here's another illustration of the (tiny) magnitude of the problem.

full scene (resized) - z7, 70-200 f/4g, 200mm, 1/1000s, f/4, iso 64, processed in ACR.


1:1 crop of dark area of same scene but shot at 1/2500s then pushed 4.5 stops with shadows at +70, contrast, clarity, blacks all cranked.



i'm not worried about this. i shoot scenes like this a lot but tend to keep the dark areas dark and not push exposure so much, which eliminates this as a visible problem.

[Jack Dahlgren]

here's another illustration of the (tiny) magnitude of the problem.

full scene (resized) - z7, 70-200 f/4g, 200mm, 1/1000s, f/4, iso 64, processed in ACR.

1:1 crop of dark area of same scene but shot at 1/2500s then pushed 4.5 stops with shadows at +70, contrast, clarity, blacks all cranked.

i'm not worried about this. i shoot scenes like this a lot but tend to keep the dark areas dark and not push exposure so much, which eliminates this as a visible problem.

Looks very minor indeed.

[Eddie Draaisma]

And easy to get rid of with Dfine (from Nik collection)

[Patrick Berg-Pedersen]

Yes I agree, this may be different causes, but the point it that it makes it impossible to edit the image more than a few stops in PP, since it's nearly impossible to remove this banding.
Please note the the SL sample posted by me was at ISO 125 and not an uncommon scene where one would lift shadows,,,

To be honest, often in PP, and with my Long Exposures, banding isn’t a uncommon thing at all. I’ve still not used a camera which i haven’t seen banding in.