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GH2 showing fixed darker band/stripe 20 pixels high across footage
  • 186 Replies sorted by
  • @John_Farragut I'm also noticing some moving horizontal interference at 1/50th. When I switch to 1/40th it goes away. 1/30th it comes back slightly. You can really see the horizontal movement when you speed the footage up. I will post some video footage of this at a later date.
  • Or a problem with balancing of processors? AFAIK, the GH2 has three of them.
    I remember a similar problem, only vertical, with an early HDTV cam from JVC a free years ago, which had two processors. They fixed it for lower ISOs with a firmware update but it never went away completely at higher ISOs.
    BTW, that camera was a about 10 times the price of a GH2…
  • @RJH No, I've been working around it. When I first noticed it I was on the 14-42mm kit lens (3.5-5.6) using only available light, at ISO1600+. And still a bit under exposed at that. I've got lenses now that are all 1.4 - 1.7, and I typically light every scene so it's been a lot less of a problem for me.

    I haven't tried the new hack yet, but it would be interesting to see how under or over exposure affects it. I suspect it shows up more when it's 2 stops+ under exposed but I'll have to check.
  • Yes, it does show for me with high ISO under the new hack.
  • Same here using last patch Aquarius check out first couple of shots are iso 12800 at f2.8 ss50 last 2 shots are iso 5000 at f1.8.You can see clearly this band appearing on the lower part of the screen, as soon as I turned off an back on, changed lens and iso down to 5000 this band disappeared.

  • Hi!
    Same issue for me.
    So, for be clear, it's a generic problem of GH2 on bad situation, or only few models are concerned? It's a hardware or software problem? If it's soft, maybe the update of december can resolve it..?

    I am under warrantly, so i need to know what i must do : replacement, or post-prod?
  • Actually, good to know that it is more of a generic problem. I saw it, and I despaired. But now I know it is a more common problem, so everybody is in the same boat. Still bad of Panasonic. But you always have to live with these kind of things. Nothing ever is perfect.
  • In fact, I've found the band visible in 24p mode but not in 50i and 50p on my PAL camera with 1/50 shutter...
    It's there when the shutter is 100 with the 50i/p mode.
    The same case for 24p mode, the band isn't there if the shutter is 1/25...
    So it turns out, but not quite sure:
    1 x shutter + 1 x fps = no band
    (anything else) x shutter + 1 x fps = band
  • @exhardy Try higher shutter speeds and you'll see the band move up the picture.
  • Thanks John_Farragut. GH2 can have at least one bug, no problem^^.

    Anybody that want to see it have just to rolling the shutter speeds with the lens cap in high iso.

    Tested on 3 different serial numbers base.
  • Can anyone else confirm if this mainly happens within the first 10 seconds of a recording?
  • The 20 pixel banding becomes noticeable from 1250iso and up. The limit removal of the high iso is great, but with the removal, I think everyone sees that it isn't a batch of cameras but something Panasonic already knew about. In fact, when I tried to get Panasonic to address this issue, they pointed to a document that blamed it on CMOS sensor design, but I called them on it when I said that my Canon 7D never exhibited this behavior.
  • This is unfortunate. For the shoot I have coming up this weekend we have some night shots we were planning to do at ISO1250-1600. But tests do reveal this issue and now have to rethink the approach. I don't think low price of camera justifies this. This seems like a significant flaw.
  • @driftwood

    I just tested, and it makes no difference for me after 10 seconds of recording.. (seAQuake patch)

    The only thing that seems to help is 25 shutter speed.
  • @smsjr
    If you can shoot with 1/25 shutter then you should not have any trouble.
  • 1/25 shutter is breaking the 180º rule! (so use with caution).
  • @RRRR Very rare that I would ever shoot at 1/25.I shoot things in motion and that shutter speed would not play well a lot of the time.
  • @alcomposer
    @RRRR
    @smjsr

    "1/25 shutter is breaking the 180º rule! (so use with caution)."

    +1... If you're using a 1/25 shutter... you're probably not going to like the way your footage will look.
  • Well, each to his own in terms of the look of different shutter speeds.. And horses for courses.
  • @RRRR
    This is not about different look or house for courses. This is clearly a black and white topic.
    180º shutter is the gold standard.

    So this is basically
    1/50 for 24p and 50i
    1/60 for 60i etc

    Other than that you can shoot at 1/100 or 1/120 respectively for the 'Saving Private Ryan look', or 1/25 or 1/30 for the Tom Cruise scene in dark night club movie name that I forget.
    (please jog my memory anyone)

    Anything else is HIGHLY artistic and should be attempted at your own risk. I would suggest having a largish monitor so that you are able to see clearly what you will be getting, and once captured- play it back STRAIGHT away to confirm that it is watchable.

    It is a constant joke for me that for some strange reason DSLR(style) camera makers seem to think that having a shutter that is both variable and able to go up to 1/4000 is somehow a feature in Video Mode? Go figure.

    Also note that if you are using fluorescent lighting this will cause flicker if not synced with the shutter, (ie: 50hz power 1/25, 1/50 or 1/100 shutter etc). So unless you feel that flickering is 'desirable' I would restrain shutter artistic expression.

    Dial it in- like the look, set and forget.


  • @alcomposer
    Don't remember that one, but "Collateral" had the 360 degree shutter look on most of the wider night exteriors.
  • @nomad
    Thanks man - it is Collateral... scene attached...
    collateral-1.jpg
    431 x 300 - 42K
  • To bring this topic back (I was bitten in my ass by a stripe issue on a recent shot).
    Was anyone ever been able to resolve this stripe issue with panasonic?
  • You can't it's a hardware issue just fix it in post with AE
  • Rephrasing if not clear: was anyone able to resolve this issue by contacting panasonic and replacing the camera?
    Also: Fix in post with After effects is a bit vague. You know it is not like there is a "Fix GH2 stripe" plug-in in AE.