Band-aid for S40

I downloaded and tested NeatImage ( http://www.NeatImage.com ), to see if it would help in repairing the low-light or high-contrast images which fall victim to the S40's banding problems.

With a bit of tweaking, NeatImage does (IMHO) an excellent job - repairing the banding, but leaving all the delicate detail intact. For example, I have several long-exposure pictures of the night sky, and NeatImage removed the bands and preserved the stars.

In the off chance there are more of you interested, my NeatImage 'fine-tuned noise profile' is available for download: http://www.scottowen.org/files/Canon%20S40%20Banding%20ISO50.dnf (load the profile in NeatImage, then manually set the 'frequency' as indicated in the 'device mode' comments). Note: It's fine-tuned for removing only the banding in ISO50 images.

Regards,
Scott.

--
Later is too late.
http://www.ScottOwen.org

Hi Scott,

i have testes NeatImage and your profile. It takes a long time to calculate but the results are nearly perfect (with ISO 50 images).

Is there a possiblity to customize the profile for higher ISO (100, 200) images?

I wrote several email to canon where i described this problem, but i did not get any response from then.

Get somebody a statement from Canon to this problem?

Does anybody know the root cause for this bandings?

Thanks

s©tt said:

I downloaded and tested NeatImage ( http://www.NeatImage.com ), to
see if it would help in repairing the low-light or high-contrast
images which fall victim to the S40's banding problems.

With a bit of tweaking, NeatImage does (IMHO) an excellent job -
repairing the banding, but leaving all the delicate detail intact.
For example, I have several long-exposure pictures of the night
sky, and NeatImage removed the bands and preserved the stars.

In the off chance there are more of you interested, my NeatImage
'fine-tuned noise profile' is available for download:
http://www.scottowen.org/files/Canon%20S40%20Banding%20ISO50.dnf
(load the profile in NeatImage, then manually set the 'frequency'
as indicated in the 'device mode' comments). Note: It's fine-tuned
for removing only the banding in ISO50 images.

Regards,
Scott.

--
Later is too late.
http://www.ScottOwen.org

Click to expand...

Is it possible to show a pic before and after?
Thanks

s©tt said:

I downloaded and tested NeatImage ( http://www.NeatImage.com ), to
see if it would help in repairing the low-light or high-contrast
images which fall victim to the S40's banding problems.

With a bit of tweaking, NeatImage does (IMHO) an excellent job -
repairing the banding, but leaving all the delicate detail intact.
For example, I have several long-exposure pictures of the night
sky, and NeatImage removed the bands and preserved the stars.

In the off chance there are more of you interested, my NeatImage
'fine-tuned noise profile' is available for download:
http://www.scottowen.org/files/Canon%20S40%20Banding%20ISO50.dnf
(load the profile in NeatImage, then manually set the 'frequency'
as indicated in the 'device mode' comments). Note: It's fine-tuned
for removing only the banding in ISO50 images.

Regards,
Scott.

--
Later is too late.
http://www.ScottOwen.org

Click to expand...

Glad to hear it worked for you! Yes, it does take a while to calculate, but if you have a registered version of NeatImage it's a bit faster, and if all goes well, you should only see the banding problem in a relatively small number of your shots (unless you take a lot of night shots :-( ) For the best results, make sure you have the frequencies set as indicated in the 'device mode' comment.

I could make new profiles for ISO100 and 200, but I practically never shoot in these modes, so it will take me a while to build up a good test set.

Canon's 'official' statement to me (via email) was that Canon is "unaware of any banding issues with the G2 and S40". I responded by saying that can't be true, since several people on dpreview said they'd reported it, and in their response to me, they quoted some of the causes and workarounds I'd posted to this forum! Finally, they wrote at the beginning of June that my email and sample images had been forwarded to "senior level technicians", but I haven't heard anything from them since then.

The root cause of the banding? Ah, that's a difficult one. It's certainly internal (i.e. not caused by external interference), and the banding gets finer as the camera warms up. There was a similar problem in early Canon 1D cameras, and that was apparently a problem with an internal clock. The banding you see on the LCD viewscreen in low-light shots is the banding on the images - just try taking a low-light movie, and you'll see the banding going back and forth over the screen. The banding problem is present on every S40 I've tested, and on no S30 I've tested. It is apparently a problem only on some (early?) G2s.

Many/most people don't see the banding, because their monitors don't display such dark greys. My TFT monitor makes the bands scream out at me. Also, printing on my Canon S800 shows the banding very clearly - I'm sure most people think their printer is not working properly!

Scott.

rk27 said:

i have testes NeatImage and your profile. It takes a long time to
calculate but the results are nearly perfect (with ISO 50 images).

Is there a possiblity to customize the profile for higher ISO (100,
200) images?

I wrote several email to canon where i described this problem, but
i did not get any response from then.

Get somebody a statement from Canon to this problem?

Does anybody know the root cause for this bandings?

Thanks

s©tt said:

I downloaded and tested NeatImage ( http://www.NeatImage.com ), to
see if it would help in repairing the low-light or high-contrast
images which fall victim to the S40's banding problems.

With a bit of tweaking, NeatImage does (IMHO) an excellent job -
repairing the banding, but leaving all the delicate detail intact.
For example, I have several long-exposure pictures of the night
sky, and NeatImage removed the bands and preserved the stars.

In the off chance there are more of you interested, my NeatImage
'fine-tuned noise profile' is available for download:
http://www.scottowen.org/files/Canon%20S40%20Banding%20ISO50.dnf
(load the profile in NeatImage, then manually set the 'frequency'
as indicated in the 'device mode' comments). Note: It's fine-tuned
for removing only the banding in ISO50 images.

Regards,
Scott.

--
Later is too late.
http://www.ScottOwen.org

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Later is too late.
http://www.ScottOwen.org

In the top left-hand corner of the 'before' picture, the banding is most visible. Scroll down along the left-hand side of the picture, to see the banding and a few stars - note that in the 'after' picture, the stars are untouched.

(If you don't see the banding, your monitor is either not able to display very dark greys or it is not calibrated.)

Before:



After:

scorpian said:

s©tt said:

I downloaded and tested NeatImage ( http://www.NeatImage.com ), to
see if it would help in repairing the low-light or high-contrast
images which fall victim to the S40's banding problems.

With a bit of tweaking, NeatImage does (IMHO) an excellent job -
repairing the banding, but leaving all the delicate detail intact.
For example, I have several long-exposure pictures of the night
sky, and NeatImage removed the bands and preserved the stars.

In the off chance there are more of you interested, my NeatImage
'fine-tuned noise profile' is available for download:
http://www.scottowen.org/files/Canon%20S40%20Banding%20ISO50.dnf
(load the profile in NeatImage, then manually set the 'frequency'
as indicated in the 'device mode' comments). Note: It's fine-tuned
for removing only the banding in ISO50 images.

Regards,
Scott.

--
Later is too late.
http://www.ScottOwen.org

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Later is too late.
http://www.ScottOwen.org

Interesting, Thank you.

s©tt said:

(If you don't see the banding, your monitor is either not able to
display very dark greys or it is not calibrated.)

Before:



After:

scorpian said:

s©tt said:

I downloaded and tested NeatImage ( http://www.NeatImage.com ), to
see if it would help in repairing the low-light or high-contrast
images which fall victim to the S40's banding problems.

With a bit of tweaking, NeatImage does (IMHO) an excellent job -
repairing the banding, but leaving all the delicate detail intact.
For example, I have several long-exposure pictures of the night
sky, and NeatImage removed the bands and preserved the stars.

In the off chance there are more of you interested, my NeatImage
'fine-tuned noise profile' is available for download:
http://www.scottowen.org/files/Canon%20S40%20Banding%20ISO50.dnf
(load the profile in NeatImage, then manually set the 'frequency'
as indicated in the 'device mode' comments). Note: It's fine-tuned
for removing only the banding in ISO50 images.

Regards,
Scott.

--
Later is too late.
http://www.ScottOwen.org

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Later is too late.
http://www.ScottOwen.org

Click to expand...