just went out and took these to show you.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/garethoneillphotography/sets/72157629052281771/

(right click original size, EXIF in there)

The D700 is a FANTASTIC camera, these photos are all hand held shot in basic JPG mode at ISO3200.

I see a bit of banding in the second pic, from the second light down on the right. also in the 5th pic where I shot directly into the light.

I had to go a long way out of my way to emulate your results, of course I would use 14bit RAW if these were going to be serious images.

go an get you camera fixed.

Tiled my monitor as well - yeah that is a f'ed up sensor. Lines are to straight and continual across the entire frame for it to be jpg banding.

yes, there is horizontal banding coming off the light on the top of the arch (i had to adjust my viewing angle to see it).

send it in and get it fixed. your camera is faulty.

That image look great! I don't see any banding. Is there suppose to be?

Blooming or banding issue even at low iso like 320 too :O
Camera Nikon D700
Exposure 0.6

Focal Length 155 mm
Focal Length 155.4 mm-[nikon 70-300mm vr ]
ISO Speed 320
Filter :No

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7022/6769780999_69bc360a3b_b.jpg

so doing bracketing at night is almost useless when scene is too contrasty ... wow

Recent Convert said:
Abhinav: One more comment, if I may. Every CMOS sensor experiences "dark current": some electrons get liberated in the silicone matrix of the sensor by thermal effects, rather than by photons that hit the sensor through the lens. This problem is exacerbated by temperature. For this reason, military style detectors are often cooled, sometimes with liquid nitrogen, to eliminate all thermal effects. Could it be that your camera was very warm (the manual defines operating range as 0 to 40C), when you took these shots? That would explain a reduced signal/noise ratio in the darkest sections of your picture, which contributes to the effect you (and I) have managed to create.

When it took these shots temperature was around 10 Deg Celcius or something .

NSXType-R said:
Perhaps the low price you got for the D700 is suspect?

Nope ,I told you earlier Nikon India didn't raised the prices of their products like US did after tsunami in Japan.

Abhinav: One more comment, if I may. Every CMOS sensor experiences "dark current": some electrons get liberated in the silicone matrix of the sensor by thermal effects, rather than by photons that hit the sensor through the lens. This problem is exacerbated by temperature. For this reason, military style detectors are often cooled, sometimes with liquid nitrogen, to eliminate all thermal effects. Could it be that your camera was very warm (the manual defines operating range as 0 to 40C), when you took these shots? That would explain a reduced signal/noise ratio in the darkest sections of your picture, which contributes to the effect you (and I) have managed to create.

i will take some high contrast shots today if i have time. i have seen noise at high ISO, but it is always pretty linear. i have never seen banding like that on a photo I have taken, even in similar lighting situations.

I have a D700 and I have tried to recreate banding as shown. It is possible, both in jpg (more so) and in raw (less so). In order to get results as shown here, I have to underexpose by three to four stops at ISO6400 (That is, I treat a low-contrast cubicle wall as if I used ISO 50000 to 100000). I was not able to create banding at ISO1600. It was next to impossible to create appreciable banding at ISO3200. When dialing in HI2, areas with low contrast tend to exhibit banding when underexposing by about two stops, but if I am critical, I can see some banding when underexposing by one stop. (On top of the banding, there is also significant amount of random noise at HI2, but that is to be expected)
I think Abhinav's pictures had huge contrast in them (night sky versus street lights). I understand the frustration when one hits the limits of one's tools, but this is no reason to abandon the world's number two low-light camera (after the D3S). Much worse banding has been reported from the Canon top products, so we have to deal with the issues.
In this particular case, there was ample room to get a bit more light onto the sensor, with 1/100s not being the limit of what can be hand-held with a 50mm lens. An aperture of f/2.5 on a 50mm lens also should not be the limit.

Based on my experience, Abhinav's camera is not defective, but has been operating at the outer limits (very few photons per pixel in the darkest sections).

Perhaps the low price you got for the D700 is suspect?

Any way to find out if that D700 had ever been purchased and returned in the past? When was it manufactured and how long had it been sitting on the shelf? Not that sensors should have a limited shelf life like drugs but I'd be curious. Much like the stuck pixel episodes of the early D7K's it's a shame to let one bad apple put a sour taste in your mouth.

I agree with adamz. I know several 5D MkII users who switched due to banding in shadow areas at many ISO sensitivities (something common to all Canon DSLRs that I've tried from the T2i and up).

abhinav - I know that You are upset but aren't You a little overreacting. It's Your choice of course but maybe try the canon before You buy it as it may behave worser in high iso tahn Your d90, not to mention d700.

Naah ,They haven't agreed to replace anything till now .he was just explaining me that they can change the sensor if required .Right now ,I've mailed them files ,where I saw lines to let them investigate .I'm leaving for Rann of Kutch[ will take my d90 as well] on 8th and will be back by 16th .If things doesn't go well there ,then I may well sell it off [those lines are visible under certain conditions ].I will wait for D800 and if its too pricey I will buy Canon 5D mark ii [I know it has problem at lower iso i.e 50,but it doesn't have this kind of problem like I'm having with D700] .. Say TATA to nikon after 6 years .

My recent experiences with Nikon customer service as a whole doesn't bring smile .

Wow, that is kind of awful if they don't have a policy to replace a broken camera. Well, at least, it seems like they agree that something is wrong, and hopefully they can fix it.

Abhinav said:
There engineer told me they cannot replace the camera because Nikon India doesn't have a replacement policy ,but they are ready to change the sensor if needed only after inspecting the files with lines carefully.. WTH

That is something ;) At least here in the US when Nikon "fixes" the camera, it always comes back cleaned and looking AND working like new. I have seen them even replace worn grips, replace covers and clean viewfinders along with any work. Only retail stores replace a camera that I have seen, and that is only within a few weeks and if it looks like it was never/barely used.

Hope it comes back fixed!

certainly never had that issue. i shoot iso3200 when i have to and it looks fine apart from lack of fine detail.

I feel with you. It would be similar here in Germany. If you buy something and it does not work properly the vendor usually has got the right to "try and fix it" (sorry, I don't know the proper legal term) up to three times before you got the right to ask for an exchange. But depending on the product/vendor/store they usually do it right away.

Anyways, I hope things will turn out fine and you will one day be as happy with your D700 as I am with mine. And maybe you will even look back one day and smile about the "rough" start of your relationship. :)

Today ,I visited Nikon India headquarter Service center .I showed them all the files where I saw lines/banding .Later they checked the camera using their software for mirror alignment and even cleaned the sensor .There engineer told me they cannot replace the camera because Nikon India doesn't have a replacement policy ,but they are ready to change the sensor if needed only after inspecting the files with lines carefully.. WTH

I have something similar on my d3100, when I have my Y467 chinese flash attached to it and I use iso 1600+ combined with an f8+ apperture. It makes no sense, but it really only happens then... (rarely an issue, but i can replicate it anytime at night)

Abhinav said:
between did you check the nef file I posted ?

I've looked at the NEF, and it looks just like what you posted. What were you hoping we would see by posting the NEF? I don't use Nikon software for RAW editing, so i cannot see the settings you used anyway.

That is jpeg artifacts that are pulled out. Push most dark high iso image to the limit on the dark shadows you will see banding start to appear. If you notice that the light areas the banding is basically not there. With white light (more blue tint) the banding always seem to appear more often. The exposure is high for that dark of a scene. The bottom image has a lower exposure for the setting for sure.

Part of the issue is "Gain Control-High gain up" = D-lighting @ high. - I have seen a lot of banding issues when you have the Active D-lighting set to high and shooting at high ISOs. If you set it to off or low it will perform better. Every camera model is different especially with the software inside the body. Don't assume the same settings work across bodies if that is how you have your D90 set that way. Check everything from contrast to saturation setting and try different settings to see what works best for that body.

If that doesn't help, then servicing it will be the last option left.

@PB PM: that's a beautiful image :)

yes ,second image is posted without any processing done on it .[nef->jpeg using capture nx 2]

between did you check the nef file I posted ?

@jerl :it seems like that to me as well .Something wrong with the image processing.

It looks like a sensor issue, so I'd take it back to have it looked at if you can. One reason why it looks like flaring is that the lines all line up with bright light sources- but my guess is that the bright lights are affecting the data conversion since it is constant straight line across the entire image.

Still seems strange. Are these exposures as is from the camera (meaning you didn't pull the shadows out in post)? Never seen anything like that from my D700, unless I try to pull too much detail from the shadows.

I see hints of banding like that at ISO6400 (see image below, out of camera jpeg with no NR), but it only becomes apparent when you try to pull a lot of data from the shadow areas (more than two stops).