ANATOLY IVANOV PHOTOGRAPHY : THOUGHTS
Canon 1Ds Banding

Symptoms

• horizontal and sometimes vertical banding on every image
• similar to a xerox photocopy running out of toner, or a fax transmission, or some Nikon CoolScan and Imacon scanners banding in dark areas
• banding visible on images with uniform and dark backgrounds
• banding invisible on images with bright and variable background
• banding independent of exposure time or any other factors
• apparently, banding on uniform and dark background inherent to all 1Ds bodies

Technical details

• repeatable banding pattern
• banding present in Red channel (worst) and Blue channel, Green channel is clean
• banding present on ISO from 50 to 1250
• banding present on all aperture settings
• banding present on all shutter speeds (from 30 seconds to 500th of a second and above)
• banding present when using different CF cards
• banding present when using different CF card readers, USB and FireWire
• banding present when using Adobe Camera Raw and Canon File Viewer Utility
• banding present with Autofocus One Shot off and on
• banding present when mirror lock up is on and off
• banding present with Noise Reduction and without Noise Reduction
• banding present in JPEGs and RAW files
• no flash, including radio controlled
• no cell-telephones operating nearby
• same banding with different lens

JPEG images online

• 1000px width
• compression set to 10
• embedded AdobeRGB profile
• images may appear dark and dissaturated when viewed in the browser
• If your browser supports ICC profiles, please turn ICC profile support on. To my knowledge, currently, Internet Explorer 5 for Mac and OmniWeb 4.5 for Mac support ICC profiles via ColorSync.
• You can view these JPEGs directly in your browser, or right click on the image and select "save as" in order to view the image in Photoshop.
• These JPEGs are showing 3 channels at a time, the Red channel and the Blue channel.

RAW files

• I am considering putting the RAW files.

Viewing conditions

• Please note that the overall noise is coarser due to the current implementation of Adobe Camera Raw. There is no post-production noise removal.
• Also, please view the images in dimmed lighting conditions, the brightness level of your monitor should be higher than the brightness level of overall lighting.
• Please do not view the images in front of a sunlit window.
• A calibrated and, or, characterized (profiled) monitor is welcome.

Images

Exposure time: 1/250 sec; F-Stop: 6,3; Exposure program: Manual; ISO: 100; Composite, 3 channels. Right click and "Save as" to open in Photoshop.

Exposure time: 1/250 sec; F-Stop: 6,3; Exposure program: Manual; ISO: 100; Red channel. Right click and "Save as" to open in Photoshop.

Exposure time: 1/250 sec; F-Stop: 6,3; Exposure program: Manual; ISO: 100; Blue channel. Right click and "Save as" to open in Photoshop.

Exposure time: 20 sec; F-stop: 14; Exposure program: Manual; ISO: 100; Composite, 3 channels. Right click and "Save as" to open in Photoshop.

Exposure time: 20 sec; F-stop: 14; Exposure program: Manual; ISO: 100; Red channel. Right click and "Save as" to open in Photoshop.

Exposure time: 20 sec; F-stop: 14; Exposure program: Manual; ISO: 100; Blue channel. Right click and "Save as" to open in Photoshop.

Exposure time: 30 sec; F-Stop: 11; Exposure Program: Manual; ISO: 50; Composite, 3 channels. Right click and "Save as" to open in Photoshop.

Exposure time: 30 sec; F-Stop: 11; Exposure Program: Manual; ISO: 50; Red channel. Right click and "Save as" to open in Photoshop.

Exposure time: 30 sec; F-Stop: 11; Exposure Program: Manual; ISO: 50; Blue channel. Right click and "Save as" to open in Photoshop.

Similar cases

• Ian MACDONALD in England has the same problem. He has tried three 1Ds bodies so far, and they all display this problem. For further details, please read the discussion on Rob GALBRAITH's forum. I am presently waiting for his RAW images to present them here.
• On the same forum, poster Climber writes that he has identified the problem on six 1Ds bodies.

Solutions

• Canon France has helpfully acknowledged the problem and quite rapidly replaced the CMOS sensor with its circuit board. Unfortunately, it did not solve the problem.
• Canon France have also acknowledged that the CMOS sensor replacement did not solve the problem.
• Canon France officially state that they have no solutions.

Contact

Anatoly IVANOV, aivanov (-() anatolyivanov () com