There is a band in the M9 in near darkness

[raid]

Hi,
I used the M9 at ISO 2000 or so, and at near total darkness. I see a faint band then. Is this usual? In a similar set-up, and with slightly more light, there is no band.

What is the cause of the band?

 

[f6andBthere]

Sounds normal to me. Most digital sensors will produce some minor banding at their theoretical ISO limit in the described scenario.

 

[raid]

OK then. Tnis is a relief.

 

[jaapv]

If you push it even further you will see tartan-style banding. I can even provoke a grid on my Monochrom. We are far beyond usable photographs then.

 

[raid]

Is your exposure correct or no more than one stop under? Regardless of illumination level, if you are correctly exposed or there about, there should not be banding.

I only see banding with the M8.2 @ ISO 2500 and at least one stop underexposed. If correctly exposed at ISO 2500 the image is noisy but no banding in the shadows.

Can you offer a sample image?

The exposure must have been three stops underexposed by the flashing lights of fire engines and police cars.

 

[jaapv]

If you underexposed three stops you were shooting at an actual ISO 16.000.

 

[raid]

If you underexposed three stops you were shooting at an actual ISO 16.000.

This cannot be "good" for the camera performance.

 

[santela]

i think that's normal, the D700 has the same issue, just at much higher iso.

 

[willie_901]

i think that's normal, the D700 has the same issue, just at much higher iso.

Absolutely normal, a low signal-to-noise resulting from gross under exposure makes every digital camera look bad because... well there's just a lot of noise and artifacts present from numerous sources. The noise and artifacts are there all the time but usually they're not digitized because there aren't bits available after digitizing a high-level signal.