It's coming
We know there's a firmware update coming. I've been told it'll arrive on Monday from one source, and another says the first week of January.
One interesting thing I was told is that a new functionality could be added in the update (24p). I'm not too sure about that, Canon hasn't really been know to add features in firmware updates. Welcome to the rumors.
Official Canon Statement on the Black Dot Issue
Service Notice
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.
1. “Black dot†phenomenon (the right side of point light sources becomes black)
2. Vertical banding noiseWe 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.
1. “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.
2. 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.
cr
22 Comments
I highly doubt they will add a new feature related to 24p. However, if they do do something like that, I’d put my money on 25p not 24p despite all the 24p fanboys running around the internets. Without 25p, Canon gave a big FU to Europe, something I’m thinking the Euros are not happy about right now.
@cr: about CA… you are right, but if we have the best l-lenses and get this issue, I don’t care, where the problem is – I just don want to see it on my images or at least fix it in pp. I am quite sure that my stock agencies will turn down some images of the 5DII…that never happened with the 5D … and this really can’t be the sense of this new camera. for now, I am back to good old 5D
also: lenses with A900 and D3 seem not to have this issue, so why do we canonians have problems one more time.
…I meant d3x above
As I understand it, there are two potential areas for CA’s.
1. The lens, of course. Any weaknesses are much easier to see because of the additional magnification that 21mp gives.
2. The 5D2 micro lenses over the sensor are smaller and generate their own CA. I don’t know if this is a real world issue or not.
I do know that lenses like the 24-105mm IS that is very sharp on my 40D does not produce as good of a image, particularly at the edges. For the first time, I notice viginetting on many lenses as well.
Use of primes rather than zooms makes a noticible difference, and the consumer grade zooms perform even more poorly than the “L” zooms.
Still, when reduced to normal viewing size, the images are excellent. However, if you have a publisher who checks photos at 100%, he is going to see more lens related issues.
24-105L CA and fringing.
135L No CA no fringing.
It may have something to do with the camera, but there is a lens component to this.