Andy,
The DNG convertor is stand-alone.
http://www.adobe.com/products/dng/main.html
Matt

It's more likely to be temperature related. CCDs are not very good for long exposures. CMOS sensors are much better since they have a much lower operating current.

The noise will increase with the temperature, therefore the longer you have the camera running, the more noise (and possibly banding) will occur. Banding does occur (in CMOS sensors too), and Capture One has a banding suppression that can help.

The other thing is that the higher the ISO, the more significant the noise becomes.

Also, watch out for devices nearby that emit EMI (such as mobile phones). It is possible for these to affect the CCD, especially when using long exposure/high ISO settings.

To be honest, I've never really tried long exposures at high ISO, though I wouldn't have expected much at ISO400... I'll see if I get a chance to take some long test shots to compare.

(You could email the RAW if you want. Shove it through Adobe DNG convertor to shrink it first though!)

Matt

What I meant was whether you were having to ramp up the exposure compensation in the RAW convertor.

For instance, in Capture One, there is the "EC" control (Exposure Compensation). If you've set that to +1, +2, or even +2.5 then you will get a serious amount of "grunge".

For instance, I took a 10s shot with the lens cap on at f22, ISO1600. There is some background noise at EC+0, but set EC+2.5 and I can see some kind of banding amidst all the terrible CCD noise.

With a RAW file, the shadows have noise. The further into the shadows you go, the more noise. So, 1stop under will be noisy, but 2stops under will be twice as noisy. That's one of the reasons people say "Expose To The Right" when shooting RAW (because CCDs have a linear response, whereas film and our eyes are logarithmic).

Another question to ask is: has this always happened?

Matt

Doesn't look right at all.

I regularly take images at ISO1600 and ISO3200 with the *ist-D and have never had any perceivable banding.

If your RAW image was correctly exposed (ie you're not trying to pull out deep shadows from an underexposed image), then I'd say it's a repair job - quite likely a CCD problem.

Matt

Or an extension tube
Even a rear lens cap will at least fit... but not tightly.
Matt

Andy: I've started a new thread - HERE

Hi Chris,

That's useful information for the forum.

However, these problems occur when you have two sets of fully charged NiMH as well. There's definitely something kooky when you use the grip.

I had it showing completely depleated battery, power off then back on, and it shows full. In the same session I took a shot, the shutter/mirror release sounded a "bit sick" and the camera powered off while saving the RAW file (losing it!). As soon as I removed the grip batteries, it was fine (From memory I had the grip on before powering up the camera... but I could be wrong!)

I'm gonna get to the bottom of this somehow...

Matt

The power switch on the grip doesn't seem to make any difference where the power comes from.
If you take out the body batteries, the grip powers the camera - even if the grip is set to off.

My guess is that the firmware is going a little kooky. Maybe it's in some sort of half-standby mode when you leave the grip on.

I'll try some combinations and see what I get...
Matt

That doesn't sound right to me.
Check your contacts between the grip and body.

But having said that, I'll double check mine.
Matt

Funny you should say that...
Since getting the grip, I've found the occasionaly time when it's confused. I've even had it declaring dead batteries and turning off while writing the RAW file. If I take out the batteries from the grip - no problem.

The last time it happened I had 2500mAh NiMH's in the body and 1800mAh in the grip - I've since put the same make and size of NiMH in both body and grip (just wondering if there's some strange thing going on here).

I've yet to try it with only the grip batteries...

Matt