Is high iso banding present in all M cameras???

[AceVentura1986]

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My experience is only with the M9, M9M, and M10M.

Years ago, I read an article stating that M9 cameras were effectively ISO invariant. I was very intrigued by this and started shooting only at ISO 200 and 800 on my M9 and 400 and 1600 on my M9M, and then pushing in Lightroom as necessary.  Note, I only shoot raw images. For me, this was a game changer, especially coming from the Canon system which is not ISO invariant. 

Throughout this time I’ve treated all three camera as ISO invariant, ie, a pushed image looks comparable to one shot natively at a higher exposure. I’ve encountered very little banding over the years. I’ve found that I can push an M9 image 3 stops, an M9M image 4 stops, and an M10M image 5 stops. The latter is limited to 5 stops because of Lightroom. I don’t know if it would actually be possible to push higher with an M10M and other software.

The only banding I experienced was w the M9M when shot at its base ISO of 320 and pushed several stops. This was never consistent, tho. I’ve also found that shooting the M9M at ISO 400 instead eliminated any banding when pushing. 

In essence, other than the weird 320 ISO situation w the M9, I’ve experienced no banding at all in any of the three. Not saying others haven’t, just that it’s not been my experience, especially w the M240 as I have no experience w that camera at all. 

Of course, YMMV. 

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[Tsvetelin Monchev]

UPDATE:

 

So I forgot to submit the pictures (Unfortunately I have to put the instagram ones that are under 2mb) but I got away with NO BANDING problems. It was really surprising how good it felt to use this camera in a gig environment, and even if I pushed it, shooting mostly at 6400 and 12500 sometimes, still got the results I was hoping for. Its weird because in less demanding situations I've had banding, and on this gig almost 0, very weird. 

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[Anthony MD]

On 6/5/2024 at 9:20 AM, ramarren said:

It's actually easier to design and build an APS-C or FourThirds sized sensor than a FF or larger sensor ... the distances on the smaller sensors make signal control easier according to my engineering buddy who designs these things. 

I don't tend to be mucking with exposures brushing the lower limits of possibility at the highest sensitivity settings very often, so I've hardly ever seen any banding at all with any of my cameras, including M9, M-P240, M-D262, M10-M, and M10-R. Or Hasselblad 907x/CFVII 50c, or the various different Sony, Pentax, Fuji, Konica, Olympus, and Panasonic I've used. But in digital capture, noise and artifacts always surface at some point with ALL of them when you brush with the lower limits of possibility ... And the math involved in 'pulling up the shadows' exaggerates those things. 

My current Ms are the M10 Monochrom and M10-R. The M10-M in particular has extremely good performance with very good dynamic range and minimal pixelation at ISO 50,000 ... presuming you keep the limitations of that dynamic range in mind and expose *enough* to stay out of the deep water. It's actually marginally cleaner than the Hasselblad 907x/CFVII 50c, but of course the latter is a color camera so shooting the same boundary scene at the same settings is pushing the Hassy a bit harder to achieve that smooth tonality despite its larger pixels. 

You just can't beat fizziks.

G

My M-D 262, always shot at 200 ISO, never exhibited any banding especially on blue cloudless skies…📷

[Marac]

I still shoot with my beloved M9M always gives me what I want