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What is "antibanding" in photography? I read this term in Android documentation for the android.hardware.Camera.Parameters.setAntibanding() method.

Jasper
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Chris.Zou
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2 Answers2

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Antibanding function should decrease fluctuations in brightness of frames or images, caused by a light source oscillations and exposure control algorithm. If light source oscillates with 50 Hz, and exposure needed for the image or video is not fold (divisible) of 10 then you should see brighter bands across the image. They demonstrate frequency mismatch.

Harold
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Alexander
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Nice example from this website:

Gradient effects may suffer from banding (contouring)
where noticeable steps can be seen from one shade to another.

enter image description here

Apparently this artifact can be typically caused by jpeg compression.
The Antibanding() feature tries to prevent this artifact.

Anne
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    the solution to this is called dithering (not antibanding), and is only needed in 16 bit color or less. Alexander's answer is much more likely what is meant in the android camera api. note that the available options are 'auto', '50hz', '60hz', and 'off' http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/Camera.Parameters.html#getAntibanding() – fuzzyTew Jun 29 '12 at 21:59