Personal View site logo
Make sure to join PV on Telegram or Facebook! Perfect to keep up with community on your smartphone.
GH2 showing fixed darker band/stripe 20 pixels high across footage
  • 186 Replies sorted by
  • csynccsync

    I only use completely manual lenses and I see it pretty easily. It definitely seems to vary from camera to camera, some are better than others. If you have a bad one, see if you can get it fixed or work around it.

  • JamesAllenVisualJamesAllenVisual

    I think in that case I may return it and get a new one from Amazon. Think they will send a new one out immediately which is cool. Nothing really to lose.

  • csynccsync

    If you do that, could you try to shoot something with the current camera and then recreate the shot/lighting with the next one? I don't think we have confirmation on the differences between sensors, that would be very helpful as a resource. I am going to try to do this myself in the next week with two GH2's.

  • nomadnomad

    Why don't we all make a test with the same (high) ISO and a cap in front of the sensor? That should be reproducible.

  • kanintesovakanintesova

    @nomad: That's a good idea. Any guidelines? Thoughts? Where do we upload?

  • csynccsync

    Agreed, good idea @nomad. If you post guidelines, I'll take some video and upload it tomorrow.

    @kanintesova - dropbox is good and easy to share files with.

  • JamesAllenVisualJamesAllenVisual

    Some superb ideas here. I like the idea of comparing like for like. I am putting together a video showing the problem in various shots I've taken. In fact, every time I've gone out to shoot at 1/50 I've had the issue in various places. If I do return I'll certainly ensure I get footage of a fixed test that I can then recreate.

  • kanintesovakanintesova

    Maybe if we render png stills from the NLE? Then we don't have to deal with multiple compressions that will smear things. Might be easier for comparison side by side also. What do you guys think, from which ISO should we start? 400?

    Also tell what camera serial batch.

  • spacewigspacewig

    I'd be happy to participate.

  • kanintesovakanintesova

    Guys. I tried with the lens cap on. It's just dark and black (duh) When I boost the mids/gamma in FCP I see it slightly but also lots of noise of course. There must be at better way to test I believe. Maybe shooting a grey card or something similar.

  • JamesAllenVisualJamesAllenVisual

    Interesting because when I tried that I could see it clearly. Will test again but it showed up without having to do anything.. hmmm. Also on mine it'll show up consistently when shooting almost anything is reduced light. Wonder if it's worse than other's.

    ** EDIT: I just tested with the lens cap on and couldn't see it either but then I found a way to get it to show immediately. Just take the lens cap off very slowly and move it away from the lens a little bit so that some light is allowed in - that should show the line really clearly.

    Here is a video to show it:

    Watch full screen in 1080p if you can. You might need to click to watch it on YouTube to enable full screen mode.

  • kanintesovakanintesova

    That works. I can see that it's 1/50 shutter by the place it is stuck. The noise is terrible anyhow. But noise is OK - it is really annoying with a fixed stripe though. If I was to do some serious stuff I would get some lights of course. But maybe documentary DIY style it sucks. Also B&W looks cool with the noise and you can go high ISO. So this band is annoying then. :(

    But the topic here is if EVERY cam has it. I think so. To more or less degree.

    I'm going to do a test this weekend. But this is not really scientific, we can not really se a big difference maybe?

  • JamesAllenVisualJamesAllenVisual

    I suppose for me it's knowing the degree to which it affects different unit's. If all units are the same and mine is no different I won't return my cam and get a new one but if mine is showing it worst than some than I think I'll have to swap it. Do love this camera but just want this resolved so I can get to enjoying it. ;)

    Would be good to know what other's see with their's.

  • RRRRRRRR

    The band is most prevalent in mid register..

    I saw a work-around for post production, I think it was further back in this thread? Actually, If you grade in AE then you could make a custom preset to remove it.

  • tblackmantblackman

    may be a silly question - but has anyone seen this issue on the out-of-the-box GH2? i'm seemingly unable to un-hack my camera this morning as i wanted to quickly test it on the vanilla version of the firmware...

  • MeierhansMeierhans

    Why would you be unable to unhack? Just load the original firmware, change nothing but version increment, flash this.

  • alexpj19alexpj19

    hwy guys seems like alot of people havin this "Line" issue, including me, i noticed it a few days ago and thought the new lens firmware is to blame, so i did tests with different lenses including Canon FD mounts, the problem remained. than i went to official firmware, old and new , nothing worked. Tried to clean sensor, refresh pixels... nothing worked. Than i went to my old footage before i hacked my GH2 and i managed to find the same issue on some shots, i just never notice it before. :( So the bottom line is if i keep this camera i'll shoot at iso 640 max at 1/50, if iso goes up 1250...... ond so on i shoot at 1/40 or even 1/30 shutter speed. at 1/40 line moves down where i can live with it and at 1/30 there is no line. hope it helps to those who just discovered and super frastrated with it like i was. :)

  • kanintesovakanintesova

    @alexpj19: This is my conclusion as well. Get some proper light rigs he he. Anyways cameras love light. Maybe also super fast lens, but in some situations we don't want shallow DOF - so bring in the lights I say. :)

  • driftwooddriftwood

    Check all REC modes too and report back here.

  • JamesAllenVisualJamesAllenVisual

    @kanintesova The problem is that even with a fast lens (I use the 20mm panny) it's really obvious in city night scenes. I filmed in an area with decent street lighting and cars but at certain points it is very distracting. Remembering to switch to 1/30 sorts it out but it's still quite annoying. Good lighting is definitely a must for most stuff you can control though. Can be worked around. Just be nice to know if every GH2 is the exact same or if some have it worse. Hate not knowing if mine is just one of those that has it bad.. 10 days left to return and get an exchange.. hmmm :)

  • TommyboyTommyboy

    @JamesAllenVisual just go for an exchange I noticed that not all of the GH2 are the same. Out of the three I own I can easily hack two whereas the third one is always giving me problems.

  • kanintesovakanintesova

    @JamesAllenVisual: I hear you, for sure. It shouldn't be there. I am thinking the same thing. I bought mine from a physical reputable store here in Sweden. So within 1 year I think it is possible to return it if there is hardware malfunction. I had contact with PANA rep here, but they had never heard of the problem (go figure) - so they advised me to contact the service department which is a third pary private tech firm outsourced by PANA. And as the communication from service dep was sluggish I hesitate. Maybe not worth it at all? Maybe if I can bring my cam to the shop and we can do a comparison between cameras? But its a hassle. Don't think they want to unbox brand new cameras either. It's a project. Maybe it's worth it? I would wish for this not being an issue though. :P

  • JamesAllenVisualJamesAllenVisual

    @Tommyboy Thanks for that. Have you tested the band stripe issue over all 3 of your cams as well to see if they differ at all? I would love to know the results if you have.

    @kanintesova Ah I can feel the pain there in going the service centre route - I have a feeling they would probably say there isn't an issue as it's pretty much a hardware flaw - aka a 'feature' - but you never know..

  • TommyboyTommyboy

    @JamesAllenVisual I didn't really have time to go thru a test on all of the cameras but I remember seeing it on one of them when I did 12800 iso shoot in black and white.

  • JamesAllenVisualJamesAllenVisual

    @Tommyboy Interesting that you only see it on 12800 iso. I see it on almost every shoot as soon as it's not perfect light regardless of iso.

Add a Comment