December 6, 2008
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The 5D mk2 picks it’s poison…
I really have to begin this thread by disclaiming that EVERY digital sensor ever to be closely scrutinized has displayed one artifact issue or another. This is in no way a vendetta against Canon or the 5D mk2 in particular. All Nikon sensors have had their issues, in fact Nikon may win the prize for most notorious digital artifacts, with the D70 moire problem and the HUGE D200 banding issue.
ANYWAY, the 5D mk2 has picked it’s digital artifact poison. This time the victims are city night photographers. Good luck taking pictures at night with pixel-size street lights or spectral highlights. Especially at high ISOs…
Like I said, no sensor is perfect. You just have to pick your poison… Luckily for most 5D mk2 purchasers, this artifact will never be an issue. Architectural night photographers, however, be warned…
Take care! And fell free to ask me about what artifacts or issues YOUR favorite Nikon / Canon camera might have, it’s possible the data is rattling around somewhere in the back of my head. I’m not sure what the D3 / D700′s artifact issues are, but I do remember reports of severe banding in “pushed” images at HI+ ISO’s…
=Matt=
[EDIT] By the way, I misspoke when I said the D700 has moire. I meant the D70. It had a VERY weak anti-aliasing filter, and therefore certain cloths would generate incredible moire patterns. Google it.
And yes to clarify I am talking about the tiny black dots to the right of all those small lights. They do look like USM / CA artifacts, but neither of these explanations make sense given the direction and the fact that I believe they are RAW images…
Comments (7)
My 20D has banding =]
It looks good to me! haha
Matt, are you referring to the little dead spots to the right of the speculars? They look like sharpening halos typical of too much USM. There’s no explanation of what we’re looking at.
Do you have examples of the D700 moiré business? I’ve just about convinced myself it’s going to be my next camera.
Funny, doing more research, nobody’s saying if they’ve applied sharpening or not. The effect is almost like CA, or is affected in the same areas as CA.
yea I read about that all night yesterday…sucks. Aparently it effects the 30D, 50D and 5D also? I didn’t research those. What I did do was look at some of my multi-minute landscape photos I took with tiny lights in it as well, and my 40D looks good! I’m saddened to see that, I do hope it’s just a firmware fix…
@pindy - Hi Pindy, thanks for asking! I actually misspoke, I meant the D70 not the D700. I don’t know what issue the D700 sensor might have yet. So far, so good. I think. Both Canon and Nikon (and others) have consistently had either banding or moire pattern problems with their sensors. It’s the one big drawback of digital…
And you’re right, it (5D mk2 sample) really does look like black CA. I guess since it’s not chromatic, it’s just an aberration, period. But it’s *not* an aberration caused by any lens, since it can happen evenly throughout entire images as opposed to a radial, perimeter pattern.
I would also love to find that it is just the effect of some amateurs sharpening their images wrong, but my experience in scrutinizing images at close distances doesn’t give me much reason to believe that…
=Matt=
@dimsom - In the past there have been firmware fixes for sensor artifact issues. I know the D200 had a fix to *TRY* and lessen the banding issue, in fact I think they actually performed free service on severely afflicted sensors. So the chances are if this is a more simple issue, Canon will have the guts to either issue a service notice or a firmware fix. But don’t expect it to be immediate, they usually test these things to DEATH before they release a fix. Took forever for Nikon to fix the D300′s dead-battery-syndrome, (still happens every now and then, gotta keep my battery contacts super clean) …and for Canon to fix the 1D mk3 autofocus issue. (And some still swear that their “repaired” 1D mk3 totally craps out in hot weather using super-tele lenses…)
=Matt=