Canon has released an update for the EOS 5D Mark II, which solve the ‘black dot’ issue our pals over at Amateur Photographer brought to the manufacturer’s attention.

Here’s the release from Canon:

Important information for EOS 5D Mark II users.

We have learned that some users of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR camera (with firmware version 1.0.6) have identified two types of image quality phenomena that appear under certain shooting conditions.

   1. ‘Black dot’ phenomenon (the right side of point light sources becomes black)
   2. Vertical banding noise

Details of the phenomena and shooting conditions under which they are likely to occur (if the firmware is version 1.0.6) are as follows:

  1. ‘Black dot’ phenomenon (the right side of point light sources becomes black).

When shooting night scenes, the right side of point light sources (such as lights from building windows) may become black. The phenomenon may become visible if the images are enlarged to 100% or above on a monitor or if extremely large prints of the images are made.

  2. Vertical banding noise

If the recording format is set to sRAW1, vertical banding noise may become visible depending on the camera settings, subject, and background. The vertical banding noise is not noticeable if the recording format is set to sRAW2 and does not occur if the recording format is set to RAW or JPEG. The noise can be reduced if C.Fn II-3: Highlight tone priority is set to 0: Disable.

Firmware version 1.0.7. that addresses these phenomena is now available for downloading from this link.

Canon adds: ‘When updating to firmware version 1.0.7, please also update the Digital Photo Professional and Picture Style Editor software. For details, please read the Firmware Q&A section on the firmware download page.’

To read up on the background to this story, view our previous story by hitting this link.