February 13, 2006 - In a Knowledge Database entry, Nikon acknowledges the D200's image artifacting problem, and offers free adjustments for cameras that display it. The article at: http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin/nikonusa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=13872, says “a limited number of early production models” may exhibit “fine pitch lines” across the entire image, in uncommon shooting conditions.
In our experience, and according to mountains of web chatter, those uncommon shooting conditions are the ones where large areas of the image are blown out, and the ISO is above 125 and below 1000.
Nikon distinguishes between Long Banding, which creates lines across the entire image, and Short Banding, which appears only where two contrasting areas meet. The fix applies to Long Banding.
According to the Knowledge Database article, Nikon Technical Support will inspect sample files to see if the camera has the problem, and if the adjustment will fix it.
