I Actually Thought This Was Banding!

[Joe Mondello]

Actually I just thought it was a very weird artifacting problem with the M8 but upon closer reflection I believe that what I am seeing is actually safety netting put over the frieze in the area above the flag and below the roof line of the New York Stock Exchange!

So instead of being a sensor or camera defect it is showing the pretty decent resolving power of the M8 and the CV Nokton 40/1.4.

I was all set to return this M8 over this! Ha! I can be so dumb sometimes! 🙄

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicandlight/428493927/

Look at the upper right corner of the full size (original) image to see what had concerned me.

There are a few more test images (I wanted to see how the camera handled high contrast scenes) here . . .

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicandlight/sets/72157600012044441/

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I was all set to return this M8 over this! Ha! I can be so dumb sometimes! 🙄

It was just too much good performance for you, eh?

Don't worry, somebody will step in and explain why he didn't buy one but will buy one later...it's flawed, the owners make excuses for it, etc. etc.

Just as long as it performs over your expectations, it should all be fine.

 

[Joe Mondello]

It was just too much good performance for you, eh?

Yeah!😀

I just wish I could get Aperture to see the Leica RAW files.

 

[Iron Flatline]

That's not safety netting, it's a net to keep the pidgeons from nesting there. 😀

The only place you might encounter banding is if a light-source is pointing directly at the camera while shooting in a low-light situation, and that light source needs to be at the edge of the frame. I've got about 4,000 shots from my camera, and seen it in three different situations. It's a little annoying, but ultimately a non-issue.

 

[JoeV]

CCD Overdrive, not "Banding"

CCD Overdrive, not "Banding"

I'm uncomfortable with the term "banding", as it obscures the actual within-chip phenomenon, known as "CCD Overdrive". This has been a phenomenon with such image sensors since the inception of CCD technology; it has gotten better over the years, due to newer chip designs, but is not entirely absent, even in the most high-end, HD-grade video chips.

If you've ever used a consumer-grade video camera, you've probably seen "CCD overdrive" (or the Leica M8 'banding' euphamism).

In layman's terms, each charge cell (or array pixel) is only capable of storing a finite number of electrons (each electron charge occuring as a result of photon bombardment); when the cell gets full too quickly, before the 'read' cycle of the chip can reset the pixel voltages, because of an overly bright optical image, the charges 'overflow' along a row or column of the array, causing a vertical or horizontal smear of light (depending on which direction the array is oriented to the image).

 

[Artichoke]

very amusing post, Joe

very amusing post, Joe

I love how much we all are influenced by what we read
I have done this myself with my M8
I have encountered true banding on about 3 photographs out of the 4000 I have taken with the camera & only one was on a "keeper" which proved not a big problem to fix in PS
I have been fooled into thinking I saw banding or other anomalies much more often, but these proved to just be what was in the frame when I pressed the shutter

 

[Joe Mondello]

I love how much we all are influenced by what we read
I have done this myself with my M8
I have encountered true banding on about 3 photographs out of the 4000 I have taken with the camera & only one was on a "keeper" which proved not a big problem to fix in PS
I have been fooled into thinking I saw banding or other anomalies much more often, but these proved to just be what was in the frame when I pressed the shutter

Very true!

I decided to try the M8 based on previous Leica experience many years ago (my Dad had a studio with an M3, M2, M4, IIg, IIIf a blind M I think and lots of accessory gear like Visoflex I and II, Leica copy stand and enlarger, etc,)

. . . And my renewed interest in RF in general due to a certain Mr Jono Slack, who somehow has been leading me to various digital cameras overt the last 6+ years and his purchase of an R-D1 while waiting for his M8.

So after all the internet buzz about the M8s teething pains, I guess I just expected *something* to be wrong with it.

And in fact the famed magenta shift is certainly there in some shots, and apparently the infamously dusty sensor right out of the box, plus my one remaining Leica lens won't mount on it, but otherwise it seems to be a very very nice tool.