What kind of battery are you using? Some batteries may produce more heat than others.

How was the camcorder supported? Anything unusual to limit air flow around the base?

Thanks so much Lloyd, that's exactly what I needed! The bottom of my unit 'does' get warm, and the banding noise is epileptic strobing at 18-36db (when the camera is fully heated up) .. note that if I have the camera on -3db for ~20 mins, then switch to 18+db, I get the banding strobing effect .. it's 'not' caused by running high gain for prolonged periods, it seems to be heat. The banding becomes visible all the way down to -3 (although it's faint).

I'll post footage for reference, just in case someone else has the same frustrating search for answers. I'm certain now that it's faulty. I was delayed in capturing footage as the cam won't communicate with windows 2003- I've now checked that the banding interference 'is' indeed recorded to tape.

Thanks for the help narrowing it down Don, but the cam was in normal conditions, hand-held or on a tripod, battery was the standard one that it came with ... This is in Scotland, so ambient temperatures are pretty low, including footage outdoors at night (with gain tested between -3 and +12).

Sorry to everyone if this wasn't explained clearly, but got there in the end.

"the cam won't communicate with windows 2003"

I'm not familiar with that version of Windows.

"I've noticed a phenominon that affects all levels of gain, that is linked to how long the cam has been on, and that is 'extremely' visible at 36db, and becomes more subtle as you go down."


Same with my camera, definite horizontal banding effect, that diminishes as gain is reduced. Thought it was a normal tradeoff but clearly makes everything above 6db unusable other than for "special effects". its visibe with the camera on power supply or battery, so don't think it has to do with heat, its there anyway the moment I switch on the camera.

Kurt, very interesting ... I'm currently arranging to return my cam, as Lloyd's message convinced me that it was a defect .. I figured that it's so obvious (at 12db+) that people must have noticed it, if it were normal ...

now I'm confused ;)

Agreed, it makes 12db unusable .. 12db on my XL2s was fine- bit noisy, but certainly didnt 'band'... I can handle the noise no problem, but the banding sticks out for me like a sore thumb

No surprise. Not all versions of Windows have equal driver support, and from what I've seen, server versions often may not have the same level AV driver support as desktop/workstation versions. All this is market driven no doubt.

Kris, affirmative, will do the same and bring it in, in 3 weeks , once back from a tour. Please post an update if your cam gets fixed in the meanwhile, very curious if Canon knows of the problem, there are probably a few more "noise bands" out there.

did you your the camera fixed?
 

Hi Kris,

was wondering whether you got your camera fixed in the meanwhile, respectively what Canon's comment was reagrding the banding issue?
I still haven't had time to send mine in.

thanks

Kurt

I shot a big, early fireworks show on June 30th. I used -3db and had the camera on for about 2 hours and 30 minutes. Towards the end, I could *easily* see the epileptic inducing strobing bands, which was very annoying. The noise did seem higher than usual as well.