PHotographers, I need your help

[MikeGTi]

I'm having a bit of an issue at the moment with my camera, excessive banding and the like. I was wondering if any of you guys would have any ideas as to how I'd be able to recover the image below, i.e. get rid of the hideous banding!

All help appreciated!


Jem by mike_thomas, on Flickr

Cheers!

[covboy]

What camera are you using ?

[gary71]

Buy a new camera Hope that helps;)

There is not much you can do with that, you'd spend hours trying to fix it, and the results may not cut it at the end.

[MikeGTi]

Canon 5D Mark 2.

The banding doesn't appear on video mode straight after it does this to photos. Nor does it appear in Live View. It also does the same thing on different memory cards. However it's very intermittent at the moment.

[covboy]

Do you shoot jpeg or RAW or both - and does it appear on both ?

[MikeGTi]

covboy said:

Do you shoot jpeg or RAW or both - and does it appear on both ?

I only shoot RAW so I couldn't say if it appeared in jpeg or not.

[JulianHJ]

So that is appearing in every shot? What software are you using to edit RAW files? Have you tried different software? I'd definitely take a few test shots in JPEG to check that as well.

[covboy]

Is the camera firmware up to date, or have you tried re-installing it?

[MikeGTi]

JulianHJ said:

So that is appearing in every shot? What software are you using to edit RAW files? Have you tried different software? I'd definitely take a few test shots in JPEG to check that as well.

Not every shot no. It's intermittent as I say, seems to be no pattern to it. It's like this straight out of the camera though, I've been using the Canon Digital Photo Professional and Adobe Camera RAW.

covboy said:

Is the camera firmware up to date, or have you tried re-installing it?

Good point, no, there's been a new update in the last month or so I think.. but it makes no mention of this type of affair. I'll give it a quick shot though

[JulianHJ]

Well, you have similar colour shots on Flickr that look fine, and apppear to have been taken around the same time. How did you process the B&W image?

[MikeGTi]

JulianHJ said:

Well, you have similar colour shots on Flickr that look fine, and apppear to have been taken around the same time. How did you process the B&W image?

They were, sequential infact, with about 5 in the middle that turned out this way. To recover it I pushed the exposure up about 5 stops, this brought out massive red banding though, hence the reason I made it b&w.

[jt racing]

In my experience, in repairs in the shop, the is the sensor about to give up.
Have never seen it on a CMOS sensor, more ccd based but I would get it to a canon repair agent ASAP.
Sorry to be negative.

[JulianHJ]

Might be worth joining Canon's Professional Service scheme - I've read they offer a fairly quick turnaround and reasonable pricing structure for repairs.

[MikeGTi]

jt racing said:

In my experience, in repairs in the shop, the is the sensor about to give up.
Have never seen it on a CMOS sensor, more ccd based but I would get it to a canon repair agent ASAP.
Sorry to be negative.

I think I'll just use it into the ground in this case.. Since it's only intermittent right now. Also I hear that sourcing sensors etc for repairs is difficult given events in Japan

JulianHJ said:

Might be worth joining Canon's Professional Service scheme - I've read they offer a fairly quick turnaround and reasonable pricing structure for repairs.

Alas, I don't qualify to join CPS at the moment.

Thanks for the help guys.

[itsnotarace]

Is the firmware up to date? If it is then the sensor is on it's way out and will need a proper repair. Hope it's under warranty

[MikeGTi]

itsnotarace said:

Is the firmware up to date? If it is then the sensor is on it's way out and will need a proper repair. Hope it's under warranty

I'm assuming the warranty is a 12 month affair. In which case, no, it isn't under warranty

[itsnotarace]

Ouch, sorry to hear that

[DIW35]

Before you consider binning the camera, have you tried using a different CF card, just in case that's the culprit?

[andy-xr]

Create 3 layers, run a dust and scratches filter on a new layer, invert it, gently brush it back in. Apply Image on a second layer, and add an unsharp mask set fairly high with the blend mode set to overlay, dropped to about 50%. Third layer for cloning on the subject. You'll be able to fudge the background, but the subject is going to be tricky.

At around 400'ish% zoom you may still have enough to clone with (it's hard to tell at web resolution)

[Oldred_V8S]

MikeGTi said:

I'm assuming the warranty is a 12 month affair. In which case, no, it isn't under warranty

It's a little known fact that European law states that you are entitled to a 2 year warranty if that helps.