Nikon D200 Banding Problem

#1 Hans

super camera , geen problemen mee

9:26 pm - Friday, February 10, 2006

#2 AA

Finally!

Nikon actually admits to the problem - but they won't really specifically say that they will replace the camera, nor will they say that the problem will go away completely. Both situations, I am sure, that will not satisfy a lot of the original purchasers.

One look at the DPReview forums and you can get an idea of the seriousness of the problem. And let's not forget the massive amounts of groans and moans of disappointment of the owners who experience said problem.

Shame that this camera's sensor has such problems.

It definitely stoppped me from buying it. I had decided on waiting to hear that the problem had been completely fixed and eradicated, but alas, it looks like that may never happen, except that the problem may be "reduced to a minimal level" - or to put it in another political way, "siginificantly" reduced - but not fixed.

Just make it go away completely, Nikon! Fix the damned problem and stop installing a faulty sensor!

6:19 am - Saturday, February 11, 2006

#3 GARY POGODA

It sounds like Nikon did fix the problem, and that the adjustment they
are offering is only for early production models, to which the problem
is confined. Have you heard otherwise?

4:58 pm - Saturday, February 11, 2006

#4 AA

Reducing it to a minimal level is not fixing it.

They're very careful to say that it won't go away completely, but that it can be reduced. Adjustment, optimisation and reduction - they're band aids, not complete fixes.

Oh yeah by the way, Mark - this first link you've got up there to the US site is broken:
http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin/nikonusa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=13872

12:50 am - Sunday, February 12, 2006

#5 GARY POGODA

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought the adjustment was only for
early production models, and the problem was completely eliminated
for later production models.

10:31 am - Sunday, February 12, 2006

#6 Mark Goldstein

I have now corrected the US link...

12:22 pm - Sunday, February 12, 2006

#7 Foof

Gary,

Nikon has clarified that the same "reduction to a minimum level" fix is what is being applied to both new cameras at the factory, and current cameras being sent in for repair. In short, no, there is no 100% fix for new or aleady-sold cameras, there is no change in hardware, and all D200s new and old may be prone to the occasional bout of banding in extreme exposures.

1:44 am - Monday, February 13, 2006

#8 Philip

The Nikon announcement says, "Nikon has discovered that a limited number of early-production D200 cameras may..." Where is Foof getting his information that "a limited number of early-production" D200 cameras means "all" D200 cameras? If it is supposition, it is hard to agree with his conclusion from the Nikon language. On the other hand, if it is based upon response directly from Nikon, then I think the D200 has a serious flaw that is not going to go away without a design change.

8:42 am - Monday, February 13, 2006

#9 GARY POGODA

So, basically what you are saying is, the adjustment is needed ONLY
for early production models because the adjustment is applied at the
factory for later production models. Pretty sneaky, Nikon, if true.

10:48 am - Monday, February 13, 2006

#10 Angus

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.

9:20 am - Monday, February 20, 2006

#11 GARY POGODA

Is it fair to say that the banding problem was far more prevalent in the
D200 than in the 5D, but now that Nikon has 'fixed' the problem, it's no
more prevalent in the D200 than in the 5D?

10:35 am - Monday, February 20, 2006

#12 Rob

And how is one to know if they have an early production model?

2:09 pm - Wednesday, February 22, 2006

#13 John

Does anyone know when the new fixed D200's will be available in stores?

9:22 pm - Thursday, February 23, 2006

#14 Mike

I think Nikon is looking at the dollars and cents behind the issue. If they release a set of serial numbers that could possibly exhibit this problem then everyone with those units will send them in to Nikon -- whether the camera has a problem or not. They must feel that it's cheaper for them to not release specific information. However, I won't take the gamble. I don't want to spent 1700 on a camera, and chance having to send it in to get fixed. That would make me very unhappy. It's too bad, because I really had wanted to buy one.

1:24 am - Sunday, March 5, 2006

#15 Cayuga

Me too, I thought the banding issue would only be sporadically present in what Nikon called "uncommon shooting conditions" or some synthetic chart shootings...

I've been using the D200 since in Jan'06 without any problems until NOW:

I recently shot a normal portrait picture under NORMAL daylight conditions with the 18-200 VR lens but when I got the photo printed 8x12" from a local Fuji Frontier shop, I noticed banding patterns running all across the background which I first thought (and contended with the staff) was due to the printer’s machine improper setup like "running out of ink."

When I went back to check the photo image in details, I was surprised that the banding on the photo background was actually caused by the D200 instead.

GEEZ, I ordered and waited so long for my D200 and 18-200 VR hoping this would be my first nice D-SLR camera to replace my venerable FA and F100 of the film days.

When I take my D200 back to Nikon for checks, I hope they can really fix the problem rather than doing some tentative workarounds to suppress the banding's presence AND ruin the photo quality of the camera!

6:35 am - Wednesday, May 3, 2006

#16 Laurie

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

I am new to digital and bought and Olympus E300 in Sept of 2005. It was incredibly amazing right from the box even though the camera itself was so cheap compared to other 8mp DSLR's. I never did post processing (no software or the knowledge if I did.) I used Picasa to sort and save all my images. It was adequate for me. I shot JPEG and the images were great straight from the camera.

Months down the road I figured if this cheap DSLR was that good and having come as far as I had, and getting more work, it was time for me to get a serious camera. So I got a D200.

Right away I had issues...OK chalk it up to a learning curve. Called Nikon every day with new issues. Nikon convinced me that it was something in the computer, 3 comps had the same issue seemed unlikely (arched banding Not the vertical that I had read about and weird color abberations, 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, still issues, call Nikon this time they blame the fact that I wasn't using their software. I loaded up their software (including Nikon Picture Project (no good) Nikon View (no better), Nikon Capture (same issues). Contact Nikon again. They start getting rude; 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 it, 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 and distressed. Now I am mad. I call and ask for a supervisor; they respond that there is none, which is BS. I finally get another tech on the line and he starts blaming the card reader I was using which still works fine with the Olympus. I stop using the card reader, I still get the noise even in daylight with ISO of 100 and 200, color banding, soft hazy photos that have become the norm for this D200.

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 processors that were in the Mac I originally got.

Several months into owning the D200, a new Power Mac G5, CS2, and I still get inconsistent, disappointing results from this camera. Rare conditions yield OK results but not without lots of post processing, which I hate. 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. My passion is landscape, nature photography, which shouldn't require gobs of post processing, at least with the Olympus 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 Sept 7th at 4pm...we'll see if they honor it this time. I have my doubts.

6:57 pm - Tuesday, August 22, 2006

#17 Gary's Parries

Wow, Laurie, what a nightmare!!! If you email a full-resolution example
photo to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), I would be happy to
post it, along with a link to the above comment, in this Sunday's Gary's
Parries column.

1:32 am - Wednesday, August 23, 2006

#18 Thomas Zaworski

Hi
It's horror to me reading that!
Ive had my d200 for a month now- sice start - showing short banding.Have send it to nikon ireland - and nikon ireland (if i understand it well)-decided to send it to england - so obviously there was a problem - with which n,ireland couldnt cope.
Nikon england called me and they say its OK - and cant be fixed and sometimes it may occure and be visible.
To me - this is balloney - since I see it at 100% - so what if I want to crop and develope a4 or a3?

4:19 pm - Monday, November 13, 2006

#19 Rob B.

About a month ago I discovered that my D200 (ser no. 3004249) had some midtone banding problems at ISO 400. I brought the camera into the Nikon's Melville, NY repair facility and several days later it was returned to me, cleaned and updated with the latest firmware. Exposures seem to be more accurate since then, and so far, I haven't seen any banding. So far, my experience has been positive; I'll keep you posted.

1:13 pm - Tuesday, November 14, 2006

#20 Thomas Zaworski

Rob B.-
tell me - if it was long banding fixed od short?
They told me in UK short cannot be fixed cause it is 'normal' digital artefact.
thanks

9:25 am - Wednesday, November 15, 2006

#21 Rob B.

The banding that I experienced affected about a quarter of the frame, and NOT only in sharp transitions between bright highlights and deep shadows. Although I'm a little confused about the terminology, I believe this describes "long" banding (sorry). I'll have to make many more images at ISO 400 before I'm totally convinced that the camera is totally cured, but so far, so good.

2:05 pm - Wednesday, November 15, 2006

#22 Thomas Zaworski

fine. looks to me like long banding.
ive got type 2 short - in transitions between dark/light - it seems all of d200 are like that:(
thanks

2:25 pm - Wednesday, November 15, 2006