Fuji F10 - "pattern noise" at ISO1600?

[sla]

Hi everybody
Is there something wrong with my eyes or image noise in this crop looks like subtle vertical stripes? What do you think about this?
This kind of noise is not on every 1600 ISO image from my FUJI, but it shows up from time to time.
Please help if you can, I'm a new F10 user and I'm not sure, maybe there's something wrong with my camera?

By the way, the noise at 1600 is stronger than I had expected, and even at ISO 800 is quite strong.

I use the camera since yesterday. I hope, that I haven't bought "worse than average" unit. Or maybe I had expected too much.
Regards
Slaw

[Nesster]

I've noted that as well, when pushing the sensor the noise tends to line up. This seems to be a function of the absolute level of illumination though, with more light the electronics cope and randomize noise better.

The other thing that may be going on is that Fuji's sharpening tends to latch onto thin lines - ie. hairs and such. Perhaps at times this works synergestically with the noise and what's in the image to heighten a certain noise signature.

Yes there is noise at 800 and 1600, but in comparison to other small sensor cameras, those speeds are way above the 200-400 ISO where other cameras start to get very noisy.

[P_Schneider]

I only see this when cropping. A quick pass through Neat Image cleans it up nicely. I'm not sure if this is an issue with the camera or a result of the crop.

[sjseto]

The noise pattern is normal for the F10. Several months ago I sent mine back to Fuji thinking that there was something wrong with it, but they returned it saying that everything was normal.

Stephanie

[sla]

Thank you all. I feel better, knowing that the camera is OK. I feel a little annoyed because of these subtle noise stripes though. :( I hope, it is not going to be visible on paper. Otherwise I'll use de-noise software. I prefer to do as little postprocessing to images as possible. But I'm quite a beginner in digital photography area. Maybe here image processing is good.
Nesster- searching for lines seems to be quite convincing reason of this kind of noise, although noise lines (if they are) have always the same direction. I have detected some pattern at ISO 400 shot too, but it's much less visible than at 1600.
I think, the reason of the stripes may be also non-conventional (hexagonal) CCD matrix and resampling process....
Thanks again to ALL of you :) It's nice to see your quick replies.
Slaw

P.S.
P_Schneider, I like your galleries, Harleys and Bleeding Hearts. And... Peppers 2006 - cool!
Stephanie, you have quite a lot photos in your galleries.I haven't seen all of them, but outdoor portraits and night photos are really nice. And I like nice and informative test shots (my camera has a little more harsh 1600 noise, but it's probably due to more difficult lightning conditions). Certainly there must be much more nice photos in your gallery, I sure shall see them too ;)
Regards
S.

[sla]

I just want to say, that Fuji writes about the problem in user manual: "...Streaking may also be visible in shots of scenes such as night sky..." (page 43).

[Koosla]

Not all F10s show this problem; mine does, but I've seen samples from other F10 owners with less remarked banding patterns, and some without any banding at all, not even at 1600 ISO.

[Nesster]

Thing is, mine doesn't always show this... essentially only when I'm boosting the sensor output (ie. via ps)

I've taken very beautiful and non-lined portraits at ISO1600.

[sla]

For me the problem is that I can't find the rule.
I sometimes find lines on ISO400 photos, not very dark. If I look very close, ocassionally I can find slight sign of it even at ISO200 shots with day pictures, somewhere between leaves. But often very dark ISO 1600 images, with really poor light, are "line-noise" free. :confused:

[P_Schneider]

P.S.
P_Schneider, I like your galleries, Harleys and Bleeding Hearts. And... Peppers 2006 - cool!
Stephanie, you have quite a lot photos in your galleries.I haven't seen all of them, but outdoor portraits and night photos are really nice. And I like nice and informative test shots (my camera has a little more harsh 1600 noise, but it's probably due to more difficult lightning conditions). Certainly there must be much more nice photos in your gallery, I sure shall see them too ;)
Regards
S.

Thanks, it's work in progress. I probably have another 4 gigs worth of photos to go through. As you can see my taste in photography pretty much covers the spectrum for subject matter.