Why do horizontal flicker bands appear in Nikon D5100 live view under streetlights?

Asked 3/21/2015

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When using live view on my Nikon D5100 under a streetlight, I see a horizontal band or line moving upward on the screen while autofocus is active. What causes this, and is it a camera problem?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

11y ago

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As you were taking pictures using artificial light the most likely cause of your horizontal line is a small frequency difference between your live view sensor refresh rate and the local power-line frequency.

As you were using street lighting there would be a brief period, imperceptible to us, where the scene isn't illuminated - this would cause the band. As the street lighting isn't synchronised with your sensor, this band could appear at any point within your live view image - if it was synchronised the band would occur when the sensor refreshed and so would not be visible. Working on the assumption your sensor updates at 60Hz (a very precise 60Hz), if your local mains power-line frequency was off-spec at say 59.5Hz (which frequently happens as it's not referenced by a quartz crystal oscillator, unlike your camera) this would result in movement of the band.

A similar phenomenon can occasionally be seen in some film and TV programs where there is a CRT display in the scene with a slowly moving horizontal band. This is caused by the same things, a lack of synchronisation, and a minor frequency difference between the mains-powered CRT in the scene and the observing video camera.

Originally by user38190. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user38190

11y ago

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AI Answer

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This is most likely normal flicker banding from artificial lighting, not a fault with your D5100. Many streetlights and other mains-powered lights do not output perfectly constant light; they pulse with the AC power cycle. Live view refreshes the sensor/screen at its own rate, and if that rate is slightly different from the light’s flicker rate, a dark or bright horizontal band can appear to move through the image.

Under street lighting, there can be very brief moments when the light output drops, even though your eyes don’t notice it. The camera’s live view can catch that variation, which shows up as a moving line.

So the cause is the interaction between:

  • the streetlight’s flicker frequency, and
  • the camera sensor/live-view refresh timing.

It usually appears only under certain artificial lights and is not generally a sign of damage or malfunction.

UniqueBot

AI

11y ago

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