GH2 banding--anyone had complete success getting rid of it?

[Jeff Gibbs]

I have seen a few comments on several boards about the banding issue.  However, I have not really seen a full solution.  I notice how severe or sometimes nearly invisible my banding is especially with blue skies varies from day to day.  Once I began to notice banding, now I see it in a lot of footage, especially in sky or dark solid colors.

I am sure there might be some combination of patch, polarizing filter, iso, f-stop, shutter speed, color profile, lens , etc. that makes a difference.  But still I wonder if anyone has been able to banish the banding especially the blue sky stuff from their GH2 world with say a particular patch or adjustment?  Or is this just life with the GH2?

Here is some stuff I shot with the Sedna AQ1, but the latest EOSHD patch does the same thing.  Thanks for any help!

[url=http://vimeo.com/user2329906]http://vimeo.com/user2329906[/url]

[Axel]

[quote author=Jeff Gibbs link=topic=418.msg2645#msg2645 date=1332120314]I am sure there might be some combination of patch, polarizing filter, iso, f-stop, shutter speed, color profile, lens , etc. that makes a difference.  But still I wonder if anyone has been able to banish the banding especially the blue sky stuff from their GH2 world with say a particular patch or adjustment?  Or is this just life with the GH2?[/quote]

I asked, and it seems, it is a matter of quantization. You probably have, like me, found some typical scenarios for banding to show up, and tested them with different AQ-settings (only within "enduser"-options). Only to find, that touching the AQ-settings at all, always seem to cause [i]more[/i] banding ...

You are right with the "combination"-theory. I experienced the grey-shades-grades in dark scenes to cause less to no banding at all with nostalgic, low Iso and them not jostling at the left corner in the histogram (and [i]if[/i] they do, rather go down to 1/25 shutter than higher Iso, or use a reflector or some kind of fill light).

There must be a similar solution for the sky. Probably [i]cinema[/i] is too flat a curve (or whatever, you know what I mean) to provide enough steps for the midtones. Maybe [i]standard[/i] or [i]smooth[/i] work better. If it is indeed a quantization issue, you should watch the histogram. A combination of filmmode, aperture and ND-filter could solve the problem. I just saw your vimeo-landscapes. I never filmed such a gradient myself (never tried to top David Lean with a Lumix  ;)), but I guess, it uses a too broad spectrum for the 256 (or actually less) shades of 8-bit. Do more tests with different filmmodes and note (i.e. by voice), how the banding appears with the change (aperture) of the spectrum represented by the histogram. Tell us about your findings.

BTW: I never figured out the difference of iDynamic-levels. Any influence from there?

[Jeff Gibbs]

Wow thanks for the in-depth response.  I am a run and gun documentary fellow trying to get beauty shots as well and not really able to manipulate all those parameters readily (even if I understood them all, still learning)--just hoping for an easy fix and alas there appears to be none.  For what it's worth I see the banding in a lot of footage from various sources, even the C300, though less pronounced.

I wonder if Neat Video can clear it up?

[Axel]

[quote author=Jeff Gibbs link=topic=418.msg2662#msg2662 date=1332168862]For what it's worth I see the banding in a lot of footage from various sources, even the C300, though less pronounced.[/quote]

Less pronounced, because people do not like to publish the rejects. But in Laforets big fat [i]Mobius[/i] you can see banding (5:54 ff).

These are the limits of 8-bit, and they can only be respected. I like your images, almost like the nature in [i]The New World[/i]. Don't give up. I was very disappointed on my first afternoon with the GH2, because banding was everywhere in the dark corners of my poorly-lit flat. Today I shoot almost everything in lowlight, but never do I get banding.

[quote author=Jeff Gibbs link=topic=418.msg2662#msg2662 date=1332168862]I wonder if Neat Video can clear it up?[/quote]

No. Not Neat and not a hack. Does it comfort you, that it is also not very pronounced in your clips, and only few (like us) will notice?

[Jeff Gibbs]

Well, that other people might not notice is a little comfort I guess.  Once I learned to see the jello and the other DSLR artifacts I see them in most all the famous videos that helped launch the frenzy.  I like to get things right, or as right as possible, because I think flaws in image or sound detract from the audience's experience whether they are aware of it or not.  Thanks for your input, I will just need to take care and look closely when shooting and try it different ways when possible.