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S9 banding issues

Prosecutor

Active Member
As expected, due to the electronic shutter certain artificial light conditions made my photos unusable:

PS9_0768_Dx0.jpg
  • Panasonic - DC-S9
  • 28 - 70mm F2.8 DG DN | Contemporary 021
  • 31.0 mm
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 1/320 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • -0.7
  • ISO 16000
 
Luckily that doesn´t mean that all photos under artificial light will be ruined. This shot was made a few seconds later (without that green light beam):
PS9_0770.jpg
  • Panasonic - DC-S9
  • 28 - 70mm F2.8 DG DN | Contemporary 021
  • 31.0 mm
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 1/320 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • -0.7
  • ISO 2500
 
I would be interested to know if you have tried Synchro-Scan and how it worked.
I haven't had any problems with my S9 yet, but I haven't used it in artificial light.
 
Luckily that doesn´t mean that all photos under artificial light will be ruined.
The S9 has a "Synchro Scan" mode for Photos. This capability to mitigate flicker or horizontal stripes has been carried over from Video settings, and as far as I know this is the first time it is available for Photos with Lumix cameras. See page 251 of the Manual. I'm not sure this would have helped because you needed a fast shutter speed to capture the action, and it is probably most effective for the slower shutter speeds you would normally use for video. But it might be interesting to have a test case with a bright flashing light added to normal lighting, to see if this could help with the issue.
 
I would be interested to know if you have tried Synchro-Scan and how it worked.
I haven't had any problems with my S9 yet, but I haven't used it in artificial light.
The S9 has functionality to make adjustments automatically to reduce issues that can come occur with an an electronic shutter - Sean at LUMIX USA discussed this on a YouTube livestream and it sounded like this works like Synchro Scan but you’re not having to make adjustments to automatically.

Ben Haisch discussed this in his S9 review video, which is worth a look - he had spoken to some of Panasonic’s tech people at the launch event and his understanding was as well as Synchro Scan, the camera also made adjustments automatically. Ben also said that he attempted to replicate issues associated with electronic shutters, such as rolling shutter, but out of hundreds of shots, there were only a few that showed this and weren’t usable (well, unless one wanted a photo to demonstrate that kind of problem) which IIRC, he was very pleasantly surprised by. He also commented that when he was trying to replicate the issues, he was using the camera in an extreme way that someone wouldn’t be doing as a matter of course. Something that Ben mentioned that stood out for me was that he didn’t really find any issues with cheap LED lights - my own experience is similar to his; it’s those type of lights that create the most problems.

A good number of reviews I saw commented upon how well the S9’s electronic shutter worked and that included ones such as Petalpixel’s that were hardly glowing. There was a Reddit poster that had a review unit and I recall them saying that there were times where they hadn’t adjusted shutter speeds as they usually would when shooting with artificial light as they forgotten, but there weren’t really issues.

This isn’t to say there will be zero issues but my impression is a lot of people expected far more issues than they actually experienced.
 
The S9 has a "Synchro Scan" mode for Photos. This capability to mitigate flicker or horizontal stripes has been carried over from Video settings, and as far as I know this is the first time it is available for Photos with Lumix cameras. See page 251 of the Manual. I'm not sure this would have helped because you needed a fast shutter speed to capture the action, and it is probably most effective for the slower shutter speeds you would normally use for video. But it might be interesting to have a test case with a bright flashing light added to normal lighting, to see if this could help with the issue.
The output from DLP digital projectors is where I've experienced the worst problems with banding on the Sigma fp, which also has a digital shutter; I've seen it elsewhere, but very rarely. I'd think the S9 would behave similarly.
 
I would be interested to know if you have tried Synchro-Scan and how it worked.
I haven't had any problems with my S9 yet, but I haven't used it in artificial light.
Synchro Scan fixed that issue, but only when adjusted to 1/120s which ist too long for action.
 
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Now that some already have the S9 for a couple of time and have made there experiences. What's your experience especially with banding in artificial light. @Prosecutor showed some examples, but there where shot in very difficult circumstances. What about more "normal" situation?
 
Same for me, I've only used my S9 in natural light so far.
 
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