Canon Issued Service Notice On 5D Mark II "Banding" And "Black Dots" Problems

Last week, Canon USA technical adviser Chuck Westfall briefly addressed the 5D Mark II owners that having the Black Dots issues to stay put for an announcement. Today, it came though; a service bulletin has been posted on Canon Australia web site addressing the increasingly heated topics. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide solution nor a firmware fix to the problem, but does provide steps to reduce the appearance of the clustering spots. On a positive note, Canon has acknowledged the issues and said there's a work in progress to investigating both the vertical banding and black dots problems.[update : Canon is working on a Firmware update according to this service notice from Canon Japan ]

EOS 5D Mark II Body support

Support & Service

Black dot phenomenon and Vertical banding noise

Posted on: December 17, 2008

To Owners of the EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR Camera :

Thank you for using Canon products.

We have learned that some users of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR camera have indicated two types of image quality phenomena that appear under certain shooting conditions.

• "Black dot" phenomenon (the right side of point light sources becomes black)
• Vertical banding noise

We are currently investigating ways to improve and/or mitigate these phenomena. An announcement will be made on the Canon Website when measures to address these phenomena have been decided.

The phenomena are likely to occur under the following shooting conditions.

• "Black dot" phenomenon (the right side of point light sources becomes black) When shooting night scenes, the right side of point light sources (such as lights from building windows) may become black. The phenomenon may become visible if the images are enlarged to 100% or above on a monitor or if large prints of the images are made.
• Vertical banding noise If the recording format is set to sRAW1, vertical banding noise may become visible depending on the camera settings, subject, and background. The following camera settings can reduce the phenomenon.
• Set the recording format to RAW or JPEG.
• Set C.Fn II-3: Highlight tone priority to 0: Disable if the recording format is set to sRAW1.
• The vertical banding noise is not noticeable if the recording format is set to sRAW2, but please set C.Fn II-3: Highlight tone priority to 0: Disable if you are concerned about noise.

Canon always strives to provide the highest quality products to our customers. We apologize for any inconvenience these phenomena may have caused. We appreciate your kind patronage and support.

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[via RG]