Originally posted by fryad Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.
Yeah, cover your viewfinder with a piece of tape, even if you're shooting in LiveView mode. This band and this wash out is cause by light coming into the camera from the viewfinder.
When the mirror is up, it does not completely cover the "opening" going to the viewfinder, leaking light in the camera. Also, the mirror has a partially translucent area (for PDAF) that will also let some light through.
They make special covers for it but a $0.000001 piece of duct tape does the job #1