# Canon R5 horizontal band/stripe of shadow under dimmed lighting



## jasoncng (Nov 28, 2020)

Hi. I got my Canon EOS R5 in the first batch in late July this year. I primarily use two lenses, R5 35mm F1.8 Macro IS STM, as well as EF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS II w/ an EF-RF converter. 

The other day I was just shooting my daughter's new gold fish under the fish tank's "moonlight" LED light w/ the RF Macro lens, and to my dismay there were horizontal stripes/bands of shadow that would be in the final images saved. 

A few days later I tried both lenses shooting the Christmas tree, and the horizontal shadowy bands appeared again, again under dimmed light. It appears to be most pronounced when using the Fv mode, and least pronounced w/ the Av mode. I also noticed if the ISO is high, the shadowy bands show up (even when auto ISO is selected, and when it results in high ISO). If I manually select ISO 100 or 200, then it's barely there. Once you hit ISO 400, then it starts to show up prominently. 

I was wondering if anyone has had similar experiences? I am not sure if this is an inherent limitation of R5 under dimmed lighting and high ISO? Or the R5 I got is defective and I should have it fixed?

Thanks.


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## YuengLinger (Nov 28, 2020)

jasoncng said:


> Hi. I got my Canon EOS R5 in the first batch in late July this year. I primarily use two lenses, R5 35mm F1.8 Macro IS STM, as well as EF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS II w/ an EF-RF converter.
> 
> The other day I was just shooting my daughter's new gold fish under the fish tank's "moonlight" LED light w/ the RF Macro lens, and to my dismay there were horizontal stripes/bands of shadow that would be in the final images saved...
> 
> ...



Have you tried different shutter modes? Anti-flicker on and off? I just tried it on one TV, any setting was fine. But then I tried it on another brand of TV and, and with anti-flicker disabled and EFCS saw it a little, with mechanical a lot. But more big blotches than bands.

I'm guessing it has to do with the frequency of the LED's you are photographing.


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## zim (Nov 28, 2020)

Isn't that a function of the lighting frequency and using anti flicker setting will resolve?


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## zim (Nov 28, 2020)

YuengLinger said:


> Have you tried different shutter modes? Anti-flicker on and off? I just tried it on one TV, any setting was fine. But then I tried it on another brand of TV and, and with anti-flicker disabled and EFCS saw it a little, with mechanical a lot. But more big blotches than bands.
> 
> I'm guessing it has to do with the frequency of the LED's you are photographing.


You type way faster than me


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## jasoncng (Nov 28, 2020)

YuengLinger said:


> Have you tried different shutter modes? Anti-flicker on and off? I just tried it on one TV, any setting was fine. But then I tried it on another brand of TV and, and with anti-flicker disabled and EFCS saw it a little, with mechanical a lot. But more big blotches than bands.
> 
> I'm guessing it has to do with the frequency of the LED's you are photographing.



Yeah, I mainly use electronic shutter. Earlier I did try switching from electronic shutter to mechanical and EFCS, and the shadowy bands still showed up. With your recommendations, I switched it to mechanical shutter and enabled the anti-flicker, and the shadowy bands disappeared! Tried that on EFCS w/ anti-flicker enabled, also good too. (Anti-flicker not available with electronic shutter.)

Thank you. Feel much better now. For the past week I was worried that I got a lemon.


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## jasoncng (Nov 28, 2020)

zim said:


> Isn't that a function of the lighting frequency and using anti flicker setting will resolve?


Thank you. Please see my reply to YuengLinger (saw your post after I replied to YuengLinger).


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## YuengLinger (Nov 28, 2020)

Good news! What a relief.

Also, which firmware? Your post reminds me that I used to see it a lot months ago when it was late at night, alone in the living room, everybody else asleep, and, with nothing better to do, I'd take photos of the TV with my R. Then I forgot all about it. Just tried it with the R again on the "bad" TV and don't see it nearly as much.


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## jasoncng (Nov 29, 2020)

YuengLinger said:


> Good news! What a relief.
> 
> Also, which firmware? Your post reminds me that I used to see it a lot months ago when it was late at night, alone in the living room, everybody else asleep, and, with nothing better to do, I'd take photos of the TV with my R. Then I forgot all about it. Just tried it with the R again on the "bad" TV and don't see it nearly as much.


I updated it to the latest firmware a few days ago, and yes, I did see a difference that the shadow was not as dark. But your solution of enabling the anti-flicker is the definitive fix. Thanks.


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