@lolo - it's a hardware issue. firmware won't be able to fix it. just watch your exposure if you shoot 1/50 above ISO 1250. If you've got a slightly underexposed image and the band is an issue, drop your shutter down to 1/40 for 2.35 aspect ratio or 1/30 for 16:9 ratio and you'll be fine.
I contacted Panasonic support Sweden through e-mail about this. No response. Waited a couple of weeks. Resent the same mail - no response. Then I sent a mail with HELLO WORLD - DOES ANY HUMAN BEING READ THIS.
I finally got a short reply saying they never heard of this problem, They told me to contact Service center in Sweden (outsourced to some private company here). I still haven't contacted them. It seems a bit futile.
"FYI, I've been able to significantly reduce the visibility of this banding in After Effects like this:
- Create an adjustment layer over your footage, masking out the band - Raise the gamma in the adjustment layer until the band is less visible (I used Colorista, and it's a very slight raise in the midtones 1 -> 1.0321) - Duplicate the original footage, place it above the adjustment layer, then set the adjustment layers Track Matte to "Luma Inverted"
The final step is necessary because the band is more visible on dark areas than light areas. If you don't do this the raise in the gamma will brighten the lighter areas of the image too much."
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.
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?
@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.
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.
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.