50D Noise - what is normal

[mikew09]

Not on either of my work monitors. But these probally not calibrated to be the best/most effective.

Hmm - I don't see it at all. This monitor was calibrated many moons ago by a friend by I have had a laptop crash since then so I imagine it would not be valid. I have had one of the shots printed for my daughter at 8" x 12" and nothing noticeable but not sure if it was this exact image.
Thanks Roosta, lets see if anyone else notices banding.

@pmack, is there a way of testing for sensor banding issues, I regularly take a shot to check the status of dust on the sensor and not seen any irregularities there. I have seen a couple of threads where members have had banding issues on there 7D but the samples I seen were pretty obvious.

[William]

Hmmmm, I cant see any banding either

[mikew09]

Hmmmm, I cant see any banding either

Thanks William.

[mikew09]

Hi pmack,
OK, i have been playing with the image and by pushing the shadow, brightness, sharpness and contrast pretty hard, the noise in the dark area is pretty bad (actually really bad) but I would expect that and I think the exposure on this shot was pretty poor actually. However, I can now see the banding you speak of, sort of like lines of noise. I am assuming this is not an abnormly effect or is this an indication of a not so perfect sensor. I will post a shot shortly.

[mikew09]

Sample of shot with exaggerated settings to show noise and banding. Still pretty hard to see I think but they are visible.

[mikew09]

Not sure I should be concerned but will leave that to the many more experienced members on the forum - thanks pmac for the input in this thread, makes for a some interesting discussion.

One thing I do know, at some stage when I am happy with my photography I will be looking at a 5D mkII - or maybe the mkIII will be out by the time I have the cash :-).

[pmack]

no problems, could be my monitor shows the banding more for some reason, as it's quite obvious to my eyes.
there is a very obvious vertical line in the middle when i look at it, go straight up from the tall tree in the middle.

[William]

no problems, could be my monitor shows the banding more for some reason, as it's quite obvious to my eyes.
there is a very obvious vertical line in the middle when i look at it, go straight up from the tall tree in the middle.

Paul , From what I'm told thats not banding, I get those Vertical lines if I'm trying to pull to much out of dark areas, , Banding usually shows up as Big coloured arcs across the sky , I'll try and find an example , But those verticles are'nt banding , I get it if I try to pull the dark corners of Vignetting to even the sky

[William]

Some examples of the banding I was talking about , http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...3&changemode=1

[mikew09]

Some examples of the banding I was talking about , http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...3&changemode=1

Thanks William - I was under the same impression of banding but thought the term may be the same. Can't say I am concerned though about what we are seeing, I only see it in this shot (which is poorly exposed) and only when I push the PP well past the point of what I would call acceptable processing. What does interest me is why Paul is seeing it so obviously - seems this is not the case for others and certainly not for me, even when printed at 12" x 8".

[pmack]

Some examples of the banding I was talking about , http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...3&changemode=1

ahh ok interesting. i've printed out a photo on a4 on a fairly basic canon printer (pixma mp640) and i got that type of effect on a sunrise shot.
i figured it was due to the limit of hue/colour variation of the printer, as i couldn't see it on the computer.
so i wonder what you call the vertical lines, maybe just sensor noise.

mikew09, did you lift this exposure at all or is the shot untouched?

[mikew09]

ahh ok interesting. i've printed out a photo on a4 on a fairly basic canon printer (pixma mp640) and i got that type of effect on a sunrise shot.
i figured it was due to the limit of hue/colour variation of the printer, as i couldn't see it on the computer.
so i wonder what you call the vertical lines, maybe just sensor noise.

mikew09, did you lift this exposure at all or is the shot untouched?

The last sample I have posted included a screen shot of the settings I pushed to reveal the noise lines - pretty extreme and not something I would usually do to a photo, the original (from memory), no changes apart from covert and the 100% crop.