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GH2 showing fixed darker band/stripe 20 pixels high across footage
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  • I contacted Panasonic support Sweden through e-mail about this. No response. Waited a couple of weeks. Resent the same mail - no response. Then I sent a mail with HELLO WORLD - DOES ANY HUMAN BEING READ THIS.

    I finally got a short reply saying they never heard of this problem, They told me to contact Service center in Sweden (outsourced to some private company here). I still haven't contacted them. It seems a bit futile.

    @dkitsov: try this in AE:

    "FYI, I've been able to significantly reduce the visibility of this banding in After Effects like this:

    - Create an adjustment layer over your footage, masking out the band
    - Raise the gamma in the adjustment layer until the band is less visible (I used Colorista, and it's a very slight raise in the midtones 1 -> 1.0321)
    - Duplicate the original footage, place it above the adjustment layer, then set the adjustment layers Track Matte to "Luma Inverted"

    The final step is necessary because the band is more visible on dark areas than light areas. If you don't do this the raise in the gamma will brighten the lighter areas of the image too much."

    credits to: @sam_stickland - Thanks!

    p.s. it needs some tweaking ofcource. I think if you move the camera around you might need to do some slight automation to get it perfect.
  • Hi! I just bought GH2, and this dark band/stripe AND bluish low(est) level noise (all ISO range) are the most annoying things with this camera.

    Has Panasonic still commented these issues in any way?
  • They probably want it to stay buried under the rug I guess. ;)
  • I've only notice the band intermittently... the last few shoots I've done, it wasn't there. I wonder if it's a boot error/glitch or something?
  • I do have the same thing... sad thing at high iso!
    Did anyone test the solution said at the beginning of the post.... long exposure at highlight?
  • @alcomposer: So the 1/25 shutter would result in more motion blur right?
  • PS Forgot to mention I also hate this stripe problem!
  • Just a quick note for anyone who is interested: if you're framing for a 2.35 aspect ratio, use 1/40 shutter and the band becomes a non-issue.
  • does anyone know if this issue gets fixed on the flast firmware update?
  • @lolo - it's a hardware issue. firmware won't be able to fix it. just watch your exposure if you shoot 1/50 above ISO 1250. If you've got a slightly underexposed image and the band is an issue, drop your shutter down to 1/40 for 2.35 aspect ratio or 1/30 for 16:9 ratio and you'll be fine.
  • are you sure is hardware? why exactly?, because i think is related to the electronic shutter
  • Got my GH2 last week - serial WE1HA so pretty recent. Noticed the banding today when shooting a 25p test using the 1.1 firmware (I just updated - not hacked yet). Really annoying as I see it all the time now.
    I'm just concerned now that I may have a gh2 which shows this up quite badly. It's obviously part of all GH2's out there but a lot of people may not notice it. The main attitude of dpreview seems to be one of; "I don't have any banding on mine!!" but surely it must affect all of them as it seems a fundamental flaw. Just wondering if the fault is worse on some people's GH2's.. Wondering whether to return mine to Amazon and try for a replacement.
    Haven't had a chance to properly film anything yet and was pretty excited - this has put a dampener on things. Although as has been pointed out, shooting at 1/30 solves it. Same with 1080i50 - you get banding at 1/100 so need to shoot at 1/50 to avoid it.
    In my tests I see the banding from ISO1000.. :|
  • I have the same issue in my GH2 I just got from panasonic.com (u.s. model, made in china, serial WE1SA00****). So far I've been able to detect it down to 400iso. My GH2 also seems susceptible to interference from my computer monitors (rolling pinkish lines are recorded at 12800iso even with lens cap on, regardless of shutter speed). I think the single band is likely an issue with every GH2.

    For instance, Andrew from eoshd.com has a japanese model, and doesn't notice any banding, but you can see it starting at 0:50 here (bottom forth of frame),

    as he pans up the building. It's noticeable a few other times in the video as well.

    And it's true the 1.1 patch doesn't fix it, as I just updated to it and tested it. It may have slightly reduced it, or it may just seem that way since I can't go above 3200iso in video mode anymore.

    The band cycles up the screen as one decreases shutter speed, until about 1/250, then its movement seems random, but it's hard to tell. It's easiest to see at 6-7 bars under exposed against a gray background. It's more noticeable on the lcd than in the evf.

    At 24fps, using 1/25 or 1/30 makes it so the bar isn't visible. 1/40 will put it near the bottom, and would be cropped out if cropping to 1:2.35. In live-view the positions of the bar (and, subsequently, the shutter speeds that don't exhibit the problem) are different, so there seems to be some tie to frame rate

    In ETC mode, I can see no traces at any iso of this. But maybe it's just too small to see then.

  • No Lines.Clean so far. I have been shooting in very low light using prime lensing. 50mm, 24mm, One thing I rarely use the the Lumix 14mm to 45mm. The Lumix seems soft. I will try using the Lumix and see if it may be and issue with that, otherwise clean.

  • I'm seeeing a trend here. A lot more problems it seems arise on the Pansonic OIS controlled lenses.

  • I have the banding on mine at a somewhat low ISO (800), and I have looked at others' raw MTS files and haven't seen it, so I think it probably varies from sensor to sensor

  • I dident see them here, but i have just one lens. the olympus 14-150mm same options as the pana 14-140, just no stabilization...

  • It seems to be most visible in the midrange on flat surfaces. I've had it show up with manual FD-lenses too. For static scenes indoors, or scenes with little motion I can get away by keeping shutter at 1/30th (1/40 with 2.35:1 crop). I also gain a little light then. Not optimal as lights will cause slight flicker (50Hz country) 1/30 seems fine - just too smeary. But the stripe is clearly visible on the LCD when there's a problem and you know what to look for. Can also mask it out in post - but tideous. All in all it sucks.

  • I have a feeling this probably is related to the lens being used. I have both the 14-140mm and 20mm Panasonic len's and both show this issue very clearly indeed. I haven't filmed much yet but went out for a shoot on Saturday and as soon as it got darker outside the line was there - as clear as day. It even shows up when shooting at night in a very well lit main area of the city. This may explain why some people don't see the band at all, if they are not using Panasonic len's.

    I think my concern is that even on EOSHD's video above, the banding isn't seen that often and when it is, it's fairly subtle. On my cam, I see it a lot more and it's much more obvious...

    I would still like to know if the issue varies camera to camera though. I am in the 30 day period with Amazon at the moment and know I can get a new one sent out immediately and return this one.. It's tempting but no point if the fault is the same on everyone's unit.

    I am putting together a video of shot's where the line show's up which I'll post when done. Be good if people can compare what they get to me.

    BTW, I found that - as mentioned above - if you put the lens cap on and start recording with a 1/50 shutter speed the line should be clearly visible. Good test for people who haven't seen it yet maybe...

  • The stripe is a "feature" of the GH2. All of them have it to a degree. Degree being that if it is hardware related, which I think it is, then maybe some more and some less - just like all hardware.

  • I thought as much.. Just that annoying decision now whether to return it and try another or just stay put with this one.. Bloody awesome camera.. Just be nice to have one which had this 'feature' as minimal as possible. ;)

  • I believe that I read somewhere that the reason why this is happening is because there is a power draw from the live lenses and the cameras sensor / processing units are not properly protected from it. Somewhere there is the equivalent of a capacitor missing in the design. This is clearly instanced by the presence of the band even with the cap of the lens on. Whether or not this is actually true is anyone's guess.

  • @yoclay If this is true, it wouldn't be seen on completely manual lenses? I'll try and test this tonight.

  • Excellent test Sam - be interested to hear the results.

  • Lens have nothing to do with it. I noticed it and I've never owned a lumix lens but had the problem with a leica 50mm summicron and voigtlander 40mm M-mount lens. The common denominator seems to be high ISO.