EDIT Just seen @sam_stickland comment above. I personally think 8-bit is the cause but equally @sam_stickland may be right.

@Maxwell77My suggestion is to force a higher ISO (but stop down or use some ND filters) to introduce some noise to dither the image and then noise-reduce in post. Not ideal, I know, but I have shot something to deliberately provoke banding, with both low and high ISOs, and have seen the higher ISO apparently reduce the banding, which is why (like you) I have come to believe 8-bit is the cause. It might be my monitoring, of course, so take this as just an experiment. The problem is that you don't necessarily know when banding will be a problem, but I'm sure you will recognise those situations once you become aware of it.

I'm pleased you like the GH2 - I think it's great too - so why not try this idea and see if it helps.

@LPowell Aha, that's interesting about Rec.709. It didn't occur to me that the colour space might be encoded in a non linear fashion. I was thinking in RGB terms. But Rec.709 is the colour space used in HDTV, so why doesn't the banding occur on HDTV signals? E.g. broadcast or non deep colour bluerays?

if I create a sky like gradient in after Effects (blue to dark blue) in a 8bit timeline and render it into a h264 .mov, banding is very evident. If I do the same but out of an 16bit timeline, the banding effect is much less evident although the result is the same 8bit h264.

As for the GH2, could it be that there is already banding before the image hits the encoder? Panasonic uses this "pulling-extra-sharpness-from-the-green-channel" trick. MAYBE this method produces the GH2 color problems because there is some serious internal color correction needed to bring the image back to natural. In favor of green, they sacrifice on red. The GH2 might have very shallow red info that gets stretched back to normal causing the banding.
Do other AVCHD cams also have these green/yellow/banding problems like the GH2? To me it feels more like a "shit in shit out" problem (AVCHD not being the cause for the banding)

the trick to fight banding in After Effects is to add some noise that dithers the banding away. Just like people suggest here for for the GH2. So pump up ISO and let there be noise and stop whining about a $900 cam not being the perfect no compromise film making tool.

@LPowell
"It's because they have skilled technicians to master Blu-ray and broadcast video using professional multi-pass equipment that squeezes out maximum quality from the available bandwidth."

But does that mean that if I had a 10 bit camera, and recorded something that would cause banding in a 8 bit camera, and then naively rendered that to an 8 bit Rec.709 file the banding would return?

If I had access to a 10 bit camera I would test this, but I don't.

I don't ever recall seeing it on my old DVX100B, but perhaps that was just dumb luck.

@oscillian
Yes, high exposure and low contrast gives you the best chance to avoid banding in dark areas.

@sam_stickland
Yes, if you casually render a low-bitrate, 8-bit Rec. 709 video, you can readily produce banding in areas of smooth, dark gradients.

Banding isn't usually as visible in old-school videotape footage. The interlaced 60i footage tended to obscure gradients with jitter and random noise.

@sam_stickland No, but a lower bitrate increases block size and therefore banding, just like a colour gradient compressed into a jpeg set at a low quality level creates more banding.

I'm surprised this troll thread is still open... Really all complaints and no substance. Sounds like a case of buyer's remorse, and it's not the GH2! LOL

If one make a product, there will always be hapy and unhapy customers. GH2 is good cam, but it is not RED.
Hack improves cam a lot, but do not make miracles. It is pointles to say that there is a problem, if you can not show where. My friend said that GH2 is no match to canon eaven he was not ever seen or try GH2. I think he is wrong, but it is not my problem anyway. I have shoot lot of nature clips with just 14-140 lens and banding has never been a problem. Of course i can make situation wher it will be a broplem, but most probaply other cams would also fail there. And yes i can show it.

pass: GH2

Like this. But it could be corrected quite easely.
Right camera settings (everything is auto and zoom is full)
Lightning (light is just in bunny)
post (no post here)

@Mihuel
Hey, I got my GH2 from my father and not from my mother... ;) Ha, ha... But seriously...
I guess we can close this topic... Any further discussion will make no sense.

Will the film modes @cbrandin is working on have any effect on the banding issue?

Example: The sunset profile on the Sony NEX-5N as tested by @EOSHD.


Can Panasonic "Film Mode" and Sony "Profile" be compared functionally, or are they dissimilar beasts?