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Canon EOS R5 - Banding Test

Started Oct 3, 2020 | Photos thread
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Quarkcharmed
Quarkcharmed Senior Member • Posts: 2,713
Canon EOS R5 - Banding Test
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I continue my tests of R5 focused mainly on landscape photography (tests on shutter shock can be found here https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4522811)

The banding issue on 5DMkIV is well known and it spoilt a few otherwise good high-ISO shots for me.

It's also known that 5DMkIV shows different banding patterns depending on the exposure time, so I tested the R5 with a lens cap on using the combinations of the following settings:

  • Shutter speed: [ 1/125s, 0.5s, 30s ] (each next exposure is ~60 times longer than the previous)
  • ISO: [ 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400 ]

The images were then pushed +5 stops in Lightroom and normalised with the same white balance. Noise reduction and sharpening were disabled. With the default NR in Lightroom, the shots look much cleaner, and don't forget they're pushed +5 stops.

Long exposures + high ISO are not uncommon in astrophotography.

As you can see, banding is there well controlled, it's drastically better than 5DMkIV. Basically it shouldn't be a problem were it could've manifested itself in 5DMkIV and other cameras.

However apart from horizontal banding stripes which are faint, there are irregular colour patches at some shutter speeds and ISOs (ISO 800 / 30s, ISO 3200 / 30s etc). That's something I can't explain - perhaps uneven heat distribution on the sensor from camera components/IBIS module.

It's also evident the longer the exposure is, the more prominent the noise is, likely it's the thermal noise.

You can also see the noise drops at ISO 400, likely it's were dual gain kicks in (if the R5 has dual gain sensor). This matches the DR measurements from Photonstophotos

https://www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/PDR.htm#Canon%20EOS%20R5

Perhaps ISO 400 will be very useful and clean option for astrophotography. Remember the noise you see at ISO 400 is pushed +5 stops. ISO 800+ shots are noisier and have more prominent magenta cast. It might be worth to try and shoot at ISO 400 and then push the exposure rather than shoot at ISO 800.

At 30 seconds, ISO 400 pushed +5 stops looks cleaner than ISO 800 pushed +4 stops.

At 1/125 seconds, ISO 400 + 5stops and ISO 800 +5stops look almost identical. So you can call the R5 'ISO-invariant' but it doesn't hold at longer exposures.

30s exposure:

ISO 100 / 30s

ISO 200 / 30s

ISO 400 / 30s

ISO 800 / 30s

ISO 1600 / 30s

ISO 3200 / 30s

ISO 6400 / 30s

0.5s exposure:

ISO 100 / 0.5s

ISO 200 / 0.5s

ISO 400 / 0.5s

ISO 800 / 0.5s

ISO 1600 / 0.5s

ISO 3200 / 0.5s

ISO 6400 / 0.5s

1/125s exposure:

ISO 100 / 1/125s

ISO 200 / 1/125s

ISO 400 / 1/125s

ISO 800 / 1/125s

ISO 1600 / 1/125s

ISO 3200 / 1/125s

ISO 6400 / 1/125s

 Quarkcharmed's gear list:Quarkcharmed's gear list
Canon EOS R5 Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8L IS II USM Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8L II USM Canon EF 16-35mm F4L IS USM Canon EF 50mm F1.8 STM
Comment & critique:
Please provide me constructive critique and criticism.
Canon EOS R5
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