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You are here: Home / Nikon Z6/7 / Nikon Z7 — banding, or not?

Nikon Z7 — banding, or not?

October 11, 2018 By JimK 1 Comment

This is one in a series of posts on the Nikon Z7. You should be able to find all the posts about that camera in the Category List on the right sidebar, below the Articles widget. There’s a drop-down menu there that you can use to get to all the posts in this series; just look for “Nikon Z6/7”.

DPR has observed banding on Macbeth charts 6 stops underexposed when pushed six stops in postproduction. I attempted to reproduce their tests, and I failed. I lit a Macbeth chart with a LED ringlight (sold by Adorama under their Flashpoint brand, and a nice light it is).

14-bit

I set the camera up for a series of exposures that were 6.5 stops under an ETTR exposure, at ISOs 64, 100, and 400, with both 14 and 12 bit precision.

Here is the histogram of the ISO 64, 14-bit “full exposure” image:

Here’s the histogram of the 12-bit ISO 640 5 stop under that image:

I gave them all a five-stop push in Lr. I cropped them the about the same as they did.

Here they are, at 1:1.

ISO 64, 14-bit, 5 stop push

 

 

ISO 100, 14-bit, 5 stop push

 

ISO 400,14-bit, 5 stop push

 

ISO 64 12-bit, 5 stop push

 

ISO 100 12-bit, 5 stop push

 

ISO 400, 12-bit, 5 stop push

I don’t see much banding at all.

Here they are at 200%:

14-bit, 5 stop push, ISO 64

 

14-bit, 5 stop push, ISO 100

 

14-bit, 5 stop push, ISO 400

 

12-bit, 5 stop push, ISO 64

 

12-bit, 5 stop push, ISO 100

 

12-bit, 5 stop push, ISO 400

 

Still very little that could be called banding.

[Added later]

By changing the lighting conditions, I managed to create the banding.

https://blog.kasson.com/nikon-z6-7/nikon-z7-banding-revisited/

https://blog.kasson.com/nikon-z6-7/nikon-z7-banding-in-dark-field-images/

 

 

 

← 24-70/4 S on Z7 — vignetting and bokeh Nikkor S 35/1.8 on Z7, Fuji 45/2.8 G on GFX 50S →

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  1. Nikon Z7 banding revisited says:
    October 13, 2018 at 8:48 am

    […] this post, I reported on my inability to reproduce the banding that DPR has observed with the Z7  in really […]

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