Strange red line across GH2 footage; occurs out of nowhere and disappears on it's own

[bodressler]

Hello,

 

I have been experiencing a problem every so often with my relatively new GH2 in which I will see this strange red line going across the frame.  Please see the attached image for a visual reference (in this still the line is on the upper third of the image if you are having trouble finding it).

 

This line moves about and varies in width and position, depending on how the camera moves.  The problem seems to occur out of nowhere, although I haven't seen it enough times to say that for certain, and seems to also go away on it's own.  It hasn't wrecked any shots for me yet, but it's not good and I was wondering if anyone else had a similar problem.

 

I had some work done on the camera recently and I'm wondering if in the process of this job the sensor may have been damaged in some way.  The camera is NOT hacked. 

 

Thanks for your time.

[MOONGOAT]

How long have you had the GH2? Does this happen in all modes? It looks like you might have gotten a defective unit.

[GravitateMediaGroup]

have you tried a pixel refresh?

[powderbanks]

from that one picture, it seems like it is some sort of chromatic abberation from the fisheye, or something similar to lens flare; although i've never seen red lens flare. since you can see what should be behind the red bits and you also said it moves around, it doesn't seem like it's an artifact from digital issues, but the light itself. if it were a dead pixel or something like that with the sensor, it'd be in the same spot on every picture

[nahua]

I think powderbanks is right.  Especially with that fisheye lens.  I get flares all the time, although they're purple (mostly panasonic lenses).  This seems to be much different from banding or sensor problems which look like a pattern and constantly in the same place.

[bodressler]

How long have you had the GH2? Does this happen in all modes? It looks like you might have gotten a defective unit.

I bought over this past Summer... when the problem does occur I don't usually have much time to experiment because I am in the middle of shooting something so I can't say for sure if it happens in all modes or not.  Can you elaborate more on why you think I have a defective unit?

 

have you tried a pixel refresh?

No, strangely after a few minutes the problem vanishes, but next time it comes up I will see if that is an easier fix than waiting and hoping.

 

from that one picture, it seems like it is some sort of chromatic abberation from the fisheye, or something similar to lens flare; although i've never seen red lens flare. since you can see what should be behind the red bits and you also said it moves around, it doesn't seem like it's an artifact from digital issues, but the light itself. if it were a dead pixel or something like that with the sensor, it'd be in the same spot on every picture

It seems like the way it reacts with the movement of the camera that it could be light.  However by the same token the issue will present itself in the middle of a shoot, despite there being no change in lighting conditions at all, and the result looks horrible.

 

I think powderbanks is right.  Especially with that fisheye lens.  I get flares all the time, although they're purple (mostly panasonic lenses).  This seems to be much different from banding or sensor problems which look like a pattern and constantly in the same place.

It is true that I have only experienced this problem while using the fisheye lens.  I shoot a lot of fisheye though.

 

I've only seen this problem on two occasions, and have used the camera a few times in between, NOT with the fisheye.  During these shoots I did not see any problem at all.  The second time I did see the problem it only occurred at one location and not again at any of the three other locations we shot at that day.

 

-Also, I don't know if it's too obvious from the image shown there, but the red line goes all the way across the frame in case anyone missed it.

[simon]

Hiya. (this is my first ever post in a forum, no kidding!)

I've experiences the same red lines in my camera. It bothers the heck out of me, and would of course love to have the problem resolved. Did you find out more?

It's not a problem with all shots, but every now and again it starts "flickering" in a subtle red.

I hardly ever use a fisheye, I use the panasonic leica summilux dg 1.4 25mm mostly, and the quantum x hack.

I've had other hacks in the past, and they've all had the same problem. Sensor faulty maybe?

Thanks!

[Axel]

I bet you have iDynamic "on". Then, in shots with great contrasts that would indeed require high dynamic range, the shadows get separately boosted with gain. They get noisy. This gets particularly annoying with brownish tones and with some film modes more than others. Apparently, it's like noisy colored banding, combining all major weaknesses of the GH2. The phenomenon is reproducible under similar conditions.

Solution: Turn off iDyn in menu, have no fear to underexpose shadows slightly (watching the histogram) and to bring them back in post (3-way CC, midtones). Use an ND. Outdoors: 'standard' or 'dynamic', everything dialed down.

[simon]

Axel, you are absolutely correct. I have noticed that most of the red lines do appear during high contrasty situations with iDyn cranked all the way up. From now on though I'll try more of the suggested settings. Thanks!