Getting horizontal color banding on photo files on EOS 1Ds Mark II

[Ukieboy]

I recently turned over my EOS 1Ds Mark II to my youngest son, having replaced this with a 5D Mark III 4 years ago.  In taking some shots, he has noticed a horizontal color banding on landscape orientation shots, which I am at a loss to explain.  I purchased this old workhorse back in 2001 and submited it to Canon Repair in May 2006 for a totally different type of vertical banding, which I was told due to a defective CMOS controller problem.  This is the image my on sent to me:

   I have reduced it to 30% in Lightroom CC, as he sent it to me in a large format.

Any help is appreciated to propose some possibilities for the noise and how to proceed on solving the issue.

[Peter]

Looling forward to more samples.

[TTMartin]

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@Ukieboy wrote:

Spoke with my son this evening and he is over 2.5 miles from the nearest heavy duty power transmission lines.  I know, for a fact that the last cleaning cycle for the camera was almost two years ago and I can assure you, after 12 years of ownership, I was meticulous about my routine and used only products certified by the Canon pros.  I followed methods taught me by a Canon Pro at CES in Las Vegas.  In the last two years, the last time the camera was fired was by ME, in the condo, to test new batteries I bought for it, after fully charging them.  No such noise existed in those test shots.  They were crystal clear.  I find it hard to believe that the sensor could degrade that significantly.  It has been stored in a large professional backpack ... NO LENS CHANGES ... undesturbed, since it's last cleaning.  I gifted that bag to my son when i gave him the camera system.

At my direction, he has rotated CF AND SD CARDS and continues to get the same noise.  He is going to provide me with more test shots later today, including both portrait and landscape orientations and I will post them.  Any other thoughts of conditional test shots he could perform are appreciated.  Mahalo for your help, thus far.

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So the camera sat unused for 2 years?

Being a professional backpack does not guarantee the idea storage environment. If the camera and backpack were exposed to any temperature changes over the last two years it could have caused condensation to form on the sensor, exacerbating any residue left from a wet cleaning. 

Did you ask your son if he cleaned the sensor? 

Sitting unused isn't a guarantee it doesn't need cleaning.

[Ukieboy]

He has not cleaned the camera.  I was about to send him the cleaning supplies, but after he reported the problem, I have held off.  I live in Hawaii, on the Leeward Coast (dry climate) of O'ahu, where with trade winds, the humidity rarely exceeds 85%.  This is a very temperate climate for a camera of this ruggedized contruction. The camera was kept in a closet in the coolest room, on the north, shaded side of my condo.  Temperatures range from 65-80°F in that room.  

My son lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Temps there range from 20-85°F at 7,200 ft elevation with greater variation in wind, humidity, temperature, and types of precipitation/snow.  The camera has only been in his possession for 3+ weeks.  He has since stored it in his condo in low humidity (<80%) with indoor temps in the 68-72° range, except for the brief periods in which he captured the photos.  I sent him a PDF file of the large manual and he was beginning to try to master the basic and intermediate settings.

[TTMartin]

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@Ukieboy wrote:

He has not cleaned the camera.  I was about to send him the cleaning supplies, but after he reported the problem, I have held off.  I live in Hawaii, on the Leeward Coast (dry climate) of O'ahu, where with trade winds, the humidity rarely exceeds 85%.  This is a very temperate climate for a camera of this ruggedized contruction. The camera was kept in a closet in the coolest room, on the north, shaded side of my condo.  Temperatures range from 65-80°F in that room.  

My son lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Temps there range from 20-85°F at 7,200 ft elevation with greater variation in wind, humidity, temperature, and types of precipitation/snow.  The camera has only been in his possession for 3+ weeks.  He has since stored it in his condo in low humidity (<80%) with indoor temps in the 68-72° range, except for the brief periods in which he captured the photos.  I sent him a PDF file of the large manual and he was beginning to try to master the basic and intermediate settings.

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85% humidity and temperatures rising and falling from 65-80 degrees is ideal for condensation. 

Ruggedized and weather sealing has very little impact on 2 years of rising and falling temperatures in relatively high 85% humidity. 

Any contamination left from your last wet cleaning, would act as a magnet for condensation and those areas that attracted the condensation would get further contaminated getting worse and worse over 2 years.. 

Have your son take a photo of blue sky at f/22 and see what it looks like. 

My guess is it just needs another sensor cleaning. 

[Ukieboy]

I have a fresh cleaning kit being delivered to him this week. I have talked him through the cleaning procedure and will reinforce the lesson this weekend. I will have him post some sky shots at f/22.

[Waddizzle]

I wonder if this could be shipping related damage.  Was the package exposed to freezing temperatures in the belly of a jet's cargo hold as it flew across the ocean to the continental U.S?  You wouldn't think so, but who knows what happened.  Please, don't run with this thought.  It's just another possibility to consider, but an unlikely one.

[Ukieboy]

Thanks for weighing in.  My son carried the backpack with him.  He did not check it.  It was in the overhead bin, above his seat, in the cabin. 

[Peter]

Easy way to check the sensor is to open the mirror and shutter and take a look in bright light.

Have the batteries been stored in the bag for two years too without charging and uncharging them?

For the next sample, please tell your son to shoot at least one raw file at ISO 100, large aperture and unfocused. Doesn't matter if he has the camera on tripod or spinning around with it. Upload the raw at a filehost and a jpg here.

[Ukieboy]

Batteries were fully charged and tested, prior to his departure on Dec 1st. The batteries are only 6 months old. Bought them and charged them to full capacity in July 2016. Both were stored separately from the camera, in the backpack, with caps applied to the contact points.

I have sent him specific instructions on how to make RAW and Lg JPEG images in both portrait and landscape orientation ... one set blurry and one set crisply focused. I would appreciate guidance in how to upload the 14-20+ MB files.

[Waddizzle]

"I have sent him specific instructions on how to make RAW and Lg JPEG images in both portrait and landscape orientation ... one set blurry and one set crisply focused. I would appreciate guidance in how to upload the 14-20+ MB files."

You cannot upload files that large.  Larger files can be uploaded to a service like dropbox, and a link posted.  The 4-5 MB files have sufficient detail to see what's going on, though..  The original small image made it really hard to see the issue you're having.

Okay, we can rule out freezing temps during shipping to the continental U.S.  Do you ever use canned, compressed air to clean the camera?