Originally posted by SpartanWarrior Ok here are the images, now I have never done this under expose 4 stop and maybe I did it right you can download them here
also here is one i just did with my 5D II and 7D and the difference is big, just crops though ISO 6400.
5D II
7D
yes, your 5DII looks good, the trick is that not all bodies or sensors on the same model perform the same.
Some may call it faulty but if banding is only visible in some unlikely situations, like high ISO which has to be boosted 4 stops to see - such issues are just extremes... but as your sample shows - not all bodies have it, and most owners with "faulty" sensors will never get to know it as it is almost irellevant.
Similar situation was with K10D's just quite a bit worse as banding was visible at ISO 400 boosted on many cameras, while many other quiet users (with good implementation in camera) had no issues and are still showing great shots and usable ISO1600, while the others showed why they cannot shoot above 400, and from what I have seen they are both correct. One cannot rule out same model variation.
Sure some models are more prone to it, while others less, K10D was a notorious example, 5DII may be another one, but from what I have seen this is really a minority, and if anyone is buying it and aware of the problem, would do best to go in store and do a quick test... as I do not think that the manufacturers will deem this a defect worthy of warranty repair (dependable how bad it is I guess, but all that I have seen with 5DII is not really "serious" ) ...
In any case, your camera is clearly better than the example posted earlier (unless the banding is on the blue channel
)...
and to make this at least a bit relevant to the OP and Pentax... it appears so far that there are thankfully no such variations mentioned yet for K-5, and for OP - superb images, great to see K-5 perform so well in your hands