D200 Banding Confirmed by Nikon

[Mr. Pickles]

Nikon has confirmed the "banding issue" on "some" D200's. The Nikon USA and Europe sites both have KB threads abou tit. Here is the US version...

http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin...?p_faqid=13872

Hopefully not many actually have it and it doesn't effect the sale or reputation of this very nice camera....

[dougjgreen]

I gotta admit, that's about the lamest support note I've ever read.

[Mr. Pickles]

I never said it wasn't

[cyclohexane]

I think the camera's rep is essentially already ruined- at least, to anyone who frequents DPReview's forums. This might not be a bad thing, as the meter problem on the D2H drove prices down on the bodies. I got a sweet camera at a sweeter price; of course, the support for the meter problem was/is a lot better than this one for the D200 banding...

[dc2]

My local little camera store says they have sold a dozen and all there customers are pleased with this camera

[Nikonfreak]

Originally Posted by cyclohexane

I think the camera's rep is essentially already ruined- at least, to anyone who frequents DPReview's forums.* This might not be a bad thing, as the meter problem on the D2H drove prices down on the bodies.* I got a sweet camera at a sweeter price; of course, the support for the meter problem was/is a lot better than this one for the D200 banding...

There are quite a few nay-sayers on the dpreview forums. Most of them don't have the camera.

One wonders if they are professionally paid "bashers". One guy has a 4 page history of nothing but bashing the D200 and he doesn't even own one. (Gary Woodward on dpreview)

I have the D200 and I can reproduce the banding under certain conditions.

Where I have been able to produce it is shooting light bulbs at ISO 400 with EV compensation at +3 to +4. I can't even get the camera to do it when shooting directly at the sun with sunset shots, even at ISO 400.

How realistic is that? In none of my everyday, typical shooting have I experienced the banding. No matter what I've shot and no matter what settings. (I've not needed to go to +3 or +4 in any real shooting conditions.) Don't know that I ever did with the D100 either.

The issue of banding is getting far more attention that it should. If someone is experiencing the problem on everyday shots, then I say get the camera to Nikon so that they can do whatever it is they do to fix it.

I've not been on Dpreview much for the past couple of weeks because it's just been rediculous.

Of course, there are a few factors at play here. Is it really software and the processing of the image? Or is it stressing the ISO limitations of the camera to take ISO 400 and push EV to +4?? Nikon has acknowledged the issue / problem, but is it that prevalent? Or is everyone going crazy taking pictures of light bulbs so they can whine about it online? Who knows.

I still consider the D200 to be an incredible performer for the price and value. It's heads and tails above the D100 and chances are I'll probably sell the D100 and get a second D200 body.

Julio

www.pbase.com/loansharkx

[Mr. Pickles]

If you have to do that to get the banding, I wonder what other cameras have hidden away in their plus and minus options, when pushed that far

[Nikonfreak]

There's no telling what other cameras have little quirks tucked away somewhere in their software.

Some say this is a result of the way the camera processes the potographs (parallel channels) and minute differences in conversion causing it.* Who knows...

One thing is for sure, there hasn't been a camera yet that has been perfect out of the chute... although I don't know what issues the D2x had... I can't recall if there were any or not.

I'm sure we'll see a firmware update for the D200.

I'm equally sure that there are those out there systematically looking for exactly these such quirks to exploit them.

For most of us, I doubt we'd see the issue creep up in our photography.* I haven't had it in a single image where I wasn't SPECIFICALLY TRYING to make it happen.* Even then I had to blow it up to 200% to see the banding clearly and I started seeing it at about 80% zoom (What size image would that be?) LOL.* *Given that, I'd say it's the biggest non-issue that has been blown out of proportion.

One or two of those at dpreview.com (Gary Woodward and Adam Kmiec) have pages and pages of historical posts (Adam has 75 posts in the last 24 hours) bashing the D200 and neither one of those guys has bought the camera.

So take it with a grain of salt. How can you opine as to a product when you don't own it?

Julio

[cyclohexane]

I think I should have added that there's some inherent humor in referring to DPReview's forums, as it is "clearly" the end-all authority on all matters pertaining to digital cameras. =)

I have to say, the possibility of professional bashers is more than likely as even action figure companies have guys paid just to disparage a competitor's product. I remember on one forum the administrators traced one account's IP address to an office inside the company's corporate headquarters- and these are only small to medium-sized toy companies.

[Nikonfreak]

It really is somewhat comical.

At last count, Gary Woodward had a little over 575 posts bashing the camera. (23 pages at 25 posts per page)

Now honestly, who really has that kind of time to post that much over a couple of weeks bashing a product/

I wouldn't even do that with the crappy Chevy Trailblazer that I own and that's been in the shop about 8-9X for air conditioning alone and they still can't figure out the problem. LOL

I think they've replaced the blowers in the system at least 5X.

Anyway, I'm sure there are professional bashers out there. If they can turn off a brand via internet roumor mill, or at least give people reason to pause before they buy, then they've succeeded to some degree.

The measure of any company isn't whether something goes wrong. It's what they do to solve the problem. So long as Nikon stands behind it and repairs the cameras that are blatantly demonstrating the phenomenon (I use this word because it's not common to every unit and it must be pushed to make it appear in the images) then they are still a good company in my book.

We live in some wierd times. Many people turn to the pages on web sites like DPreview to find information on cameras and gear and just dignifying crazy posts and trolls lends credibility to what would otherwise be dismissed. Threads on banding or striping that go for 100 posts creates the illusion in people's minds that "Where there's smoke, there's fire..." and that's what these bashers hope to accomplish.

Folks need to take a step back and look at who is posting and what their history is. Was their login just created? Have they been using that brand? Do they have images to post? Knock these out right up front and the trolls lose their teeth pretty quickly.

Banding that you must push ISO 400 up by +4 EV compensation to produce is not really an issue to me. I've never yet pushed the EV compensation to +4 on any of my digital cameras.

Who thinks of these things?

Julio

www.pbase.com/loansharkx