Digital Artform

I found the banding issue the first day I shot
with the camera, On my camera it seems to be in the ranges of iso 200-400 at shutter speeds 1-500 using f/1.4-8 on a range of different lenses at all focal lengths. The effect is easily highlighted when using Adobe Photoshop's CS2 highlight/shadow filter, when you try to recover detail in the shadow areas of shots taken with backlighting, or strong contrast photos. The effect shows up in both Raw and JPG formats. Looks like it's going to be a sensor/camera replacement for me.

Thanks for starting this log. I have a D200 on order and will be following your experiences with great interest.

My D200 (SN 3004xxx) exhibited mild type 1 banding, (mostly discernable only at 200% and above magnification) but also seemed to miss focus once in awhile under conditions where it shouldn't have been a problem. It arrived in the Melville, NY Nikon repair facility last Friday. I'll be interested to compare notes with you after we both have our cameras back to see if the solution in CA is the same one being employed in NY for the banding issue. I am almost wondering if Nikon will state that mild "type 1" banding is simply a characteristic of the camera when pushed to it's limits.

I'm wondering the same thing. They may say it's normal behavior. I had no particular investment either way; I suppose I should have waited to see what the Canon 50D or 30D would have been like. Now I have some expensive Nikkor glass - the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF - plus the (not expensive) Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

I'm also wondering if I may have to set up a standard photoshop selection of 2-pixel wide alternating on/off columns in a repeating pattern just so I can even out the banding myself when it crops up from time to time.

Interesting that your camera seems to be fixed!! Looking forward to hear more about it. (thanks for sharing your experiences)

Just to update my experience with the banding issue, Sent my D200 off to a nikon repair facility
here in Australia, they did not know how to fix it, so they were going to send it to another nikon repair centre (where it was supposed to go in the first place) I have since told the place of purchase, I will not accept the camera back as the camera has been dismantled once, and here they were going to take it apart again to try and fix the problem. They have now offered to replace the camera with new stock, which I'm waiting for.
It seems with the hundreds of D200's sold here, I was the unlucky one to have the banding issue.

Update; I just recieved my 2nd D200 today,
and it has the same banding as the previous D200,
I did a backlight test on 3 bodies available in store, every one of them has a banding problem. The last one I tested had a serial number 7100 units later, than the previous ones I tested. The banding is still there but I can work around it as it seems to be only show on really aggressive backlighting within the chromatic abberrations of the shadow edges. This was an improvement on the previous bodies.
I clearly shows nikon has a problem that needs to be addressed on bodies from 60008XX to 60071XX.

The sales guy's were most interested when shown in store that there is a real problem. And the nikon rep is not saying a word. But for 95%
of my pics it should be okay with the body I have
now. All I can say is test the camera in store before buying. It is a great camera that is built like a brick, nice and solid, generally I'm happy with it, I just won't use ISO 200-400 with aggressive backlighting.

Darren, my guess is that the speculation at the bottom of this page http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/D200/D200A.HTM is correct - the chip is divided into two zones in alternating columns, each with its own dedicated, nearly matched (but not perfectly matched) circuitry.

That suggests to me that this is as good as it's going to get with this camera.

regarding the extended exposure range, using that luminous landscape article (on your 1/20 update): instead of tediously painting a mask to blend the two photos together, put the darker image on top, and paste a copy of the lighter image into a mask of the darker image layer, and blur (the mask) maybe 40-50pix. Wherever the lighter image is blown out, the darker bleeds through its mask. Touchup is generally needed a la' the article you posted, but it's usually minimal after that first mask.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/notsnot/73219215/ has an example.

That's a good suggestion. And that's some beautiful photography in your flickr stream.

The idea of using a blurred version of the photo itself reminds me a little bit of Jeremy Birn's Photoshop Luminance Equalization tutorial -
http://3drender.com/light/EqTutorial/index.htm

. . . which works similar to the relatively new Shadow/Highlight tool in Photoshop.

I dont consider this camera as a contender for my hard earned cash. Banding fixed wrote one user! I can still see banding, which is totally unacceptable and I will urge others not to tolerate this from Nikon. I dont see any banding on a $100 point and shoot. Totally outrageous from a company who up to now has been a legend.

Jeff M, that's a perfectly valid position.

I bought my first D200 (body)in January from Best Buy. It had type 1 banding and 2 hot LCD pixels, so I returned it. Then I got my 2nd D200 (18-70 Kit) in early February, from Camera World. It had type 2 banding (!!), so I returned it. The D200 was to be the DSLR that allowed me to retire my film gear, but at this time my F5 and N90s are more predictable as my primary bodies. I sold my other digicams to buy the D200, so have now bought a D50 to do digicam duty until something else comes out. It's very frustrating to be getting better results with the entry level body than with the prosumer unit.

This banding is by no means unique to the Nikon D200. As the link provided shows even the Canon 5D displays this artifact. This seems to have been forgotten somewhere.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos5d/page25.asp

The only difference with the D200 appears to be a belated response by Nikon as to the bandings cause and some rightfully expressed hysteria as to how and why so many people have spent good money only to experience this issue in a camera that most expected to be closer to perfect.

The moral of the story? No mass produced item is without initial issues. The D70 had it; the Canon 10D and 20D had them. It's not the end of the world as these issues get sorted out and life goes on.

The big question is has Nikon done all it can to relay our fears that the D200 is now problem free.

I agree with you.

One minor detail:

The Canon EOS 5D banding seems to be electrical interference from an external source.

The Nikon D200 banding seems to be related to the design of the chip itself, which is divided into regions of alternating stripes.

I noticed a severe banding on my D200 even at an ISO setting of 100, which Nikon says does not exist at this setting. My picture was correctly exposed as far as the histogram showed and the white balance was spot on.I must say that it did not manifest itself until it was enlarged to 200%. But then again this is what some of us have to do in photoshop in order to see what we want to do. I never had any problems with the D100 under the same conditions. To me I think Nikon were trying to meet a deadline and get it on the market before chistmas. It was not tested thoughly enough otherewise they would have found it.I have now sent it back to Nikonfor the update,and I shall take the same picture under the same conditions when I get it back and see if the problem has been resolved.

Of those of you that had or have a D100, are you still impressed with the D200 over the D100? I've waited for the first surge of cameras with intent to purchase the next release. The banding seems to be worse than my CoolScan 5000?

Banding Not Resolved by Nikon fix
Actually just as bad. Here is a sample of banding after Nikon repair. This is a stained glass window at Kate's Big Nose Saloon, Tombstone, AZ. No overexposure, no modification, shot in "P" mode, no extreme light. Look at 100 % in colored window pains on left. No Extremes in photo just lots of TV effect action.
Photo
Read the exif data before you judge for yourself if Nikon tech is full of, well you know.
Nikon tech response was" Every camera, given the right combination of settings, can be forced to produce some type of artifact. I have taken well over 100,000 photos with the D70 and can make it produce artifacts at will. Service has already determined the camera is within specifications using sophisticated testing equipment and software. Please read the full text of your warranty for details on what your options are. "

So far I haven't been bothered by any banding since the repair. I'm certain that I will see it again in some photo I care about, and when that happens I'll have to repair the banding somehow, but until that happens I'm enjoying the camera.

There is a rumour floating around that Nikon has a new FF sensor in the works:

http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCForumID38/15591.html

Tthe german magazine(5/2006 Page 11) "COLOR FOTO" quotes from a speech held by Yasuo Baba, Manager Professional Services of Nikon Germany, that was held at a conference of the work group Digital Imaging from the initiative hamburg@work on 30. march in Hamburg:
"2007 will see a sensor revolution. NIKON will announce a full frame sensor in the next 18-24 months"

Let's hope that one doesn't band.

Sigh...I've had a D200 for about 3 months and I've done nothing but fight with it and Nikon since the day I got it.

Background is that I am new to digital and bought and Olympus E300 in Sept of 2005. I found it incredibly amazing right out of the box even though the camera itself was so inexpensive compared to other 8mp DSLR's. In the beginning I never did post processing (didn't even have the software to do it or the knowledge if I did.) I used Picasa to sort and save all my images. It was more than adequate for my first forrays into digital. I shot JPEG only and the images were fantastic straight from the camera.

So a few months down the road I figured if this cheapo DSLR was that good with it's limits and having come as far as I had, and getting more work my way, it seemed it was time for me to get a serious camera. So I looked at the D200 and read great things about it etc. So I bought one.

I noticed right out of the gate that this camera was going to fight me every step of the way...OK chalk it up to a learning curve. Called Nikon almost every day with new issues. Nikon convinced me that it was something in the computer, 3 comps had the same issue so I found that a little more than co-incidence (arched banding Not the vertical that I had read about and color abberations that are hard to describe, hazy issues and focus problems, and Noise issues even at ISO 100 and 200 in daylight) So I get a new comp, this time a Mac...well, still issues, call Nikon...this time they blame the fact that I wasn't using their software, so I loaded up their software (several versions, including Nikon Picture Project (no good) Nikon View (no better), Nikon Capture (same issues). Contact Nikon again. Now they start getting rude. One even hung up on me. I was in tears having spent so much money on the camera and I cried to him that he had to help me fix this, his reply was "I don't have to help you with anything!" and he hung up on me! I hadn't yelled, I was upset and crying clearly distressed. Now I am pissed so I call and ask for s supervisor to which they respond that there is none, which is pre BS. I finally get another tech on the line and this one starts blaming the card reader I was using which still works fine with the Olympus, so fine I stop using the card reader, no change still get the noise even in daylight with ISO of 100 and 200, the color banding, the soft hazy photos that have become the norm from the D200 for me. Apple even exchanged the computer with full credit towards a G5 when it was brought to their attention that there may be an issue with the Intel based processors that were in the Mac I originally got.

So now several months into owning the D200, a new Power Mac G5, Photoshop CS2, and I am still getting very inconsistent, disappointing results from this camera. Rare conditions yield OK results but not without post processing the stuff out of the images (which I hate, I am not into post processing at all, I like the behind the camera work not the in front of the computer work, in fact I despise it (except for enhancing portraits of people to soften signs of aging, remove teenage acne and other blemishes...etc, that I enjoy. But My passion is landscape, and nature photography, which shouldn't require gobs of post processing, at least with theOlympus it never did for me.)

I am convinced based on what others have said that this unit is defective, which is what I had argued with Nikon from day 1. But of course now it is too late to return it even though I experienced issues from the moment I took the first shot. Kind of like leaving the shoe store putting on your new shoes only to have the heel fall of with your first step.

I have argued with Nikon that repairing isn't an option, I want a replacement since the issues had been documented from day one and it was the Nikon tech support that staved me off from returning the camera to the store to the point where it was beyond the stores return policy date...totally unfair.

I have since sent blind uneditted samples to people of identical shots taken with the Olympus and the D200 and as I expected the Olympus has been selected as the better quality image hands down over the D200.

I have a faulty camera and Nikon is not being fair about it at all. They could take a lesson from Apple. Apple stood behind their product, and it wasn't even defective per se, it was a language conflict, something about the Universal Binary Code with the Intel chip and some of the software I was using. Apple based the return, full credit exchange (I owned the comp for a month) on the premise that I should have been steered to a diferent model based on my needs. Apple Tech support actually contacted the store and arranged the exchange for me. Apple has even had their business team contact me to check up on things to make sure all is well with the comp, which it is. Nikon hangs up onme when I even suggest such a thing as exchanging the camera and have called me ignorant and said that I must be the one who is doing something terribly wrong for the camera to yield the results I get. They are rude and don not care about you after you purchase their products.

A few weeks ago the Nikon rep was supposed to meet with me on a specific Wednesday to look at and discuss the issues, well as you can imagine, they never confirmed the appointment and never contacted me again. I made another appointment with them for September 7th at 4pm...we'll see if they honor it this time. I have my doubts.

NIKON seems to be nothing but a crowd of cheaters.