Banding simulator
See how sensor readout and flickering light create bands.
Shaded windows show each row’s exposure. At very high frequencies the yellow envelope replaces unresolved cycles.
Camera readouts: Horshack’s Camera Sensor Readout Speeds ↗ · source updated 1 August 2025; imported 17 October 2026. These are the source’s highest-quality full-sensor settings for each category, not every camera configuration. Missing modes are omitted. See the linked detailed measurements for bit depth, compression and other conditions. The Sony A9 III global-shutter preset uses Sony’s specifications: 0 ms means no exposure timing offset between rows, not an instantaneous sensor data readout.
An experiment in motion & time
Panning skew calculator
See how a vertical line tilts during a horizontal pan. These settings are independent of the banding simulator above.
Blue: simulated line · Dotted: without skew
Approximation using horizontal field of view and a constant pan, with a 36 mm-wide reference frame. Focal lengths are 35 mm equivalents. A 0 ms global-shutter setting represents simultaneous row exposures. Very large shifts are scaled down to fit the diagram; the numerical result retains the full estimated shift. The photo above is not warped by this calculator.
Try these experiments
- Set 100 Hz flicker and 1/100 s shutter speed. Each row averages one complete light cycle, so the bands disappear in this model. Try 1/1000 s to reveal them again.
- Increase sensor readout time to fit more light cycles between the first and last row. Move phase to shift the bands vertically.
- Choose Custom / global shutter and set readout to 0 ms. Every row receives the same exposure; the whole image can still be brighter or darker depending on phase.
- In the Panning skew calculator below the banding simulator, increase pan speed or focal length to exaggerate the tilt. It has its own camera and capture mode settings. A shorter exposure does not remove the time difference between rows.
What the simulator models
Light intensity follows a sine wave from zero to full brightness. Each image row records the average intensity during its own exposure window. Rows start sequentially from top to bottom; readout time here means the delay between the first and last row starting their exposures. The waveform highlights both exposure windows. The phase control chooses where the light cycle begins.
Flicker frequency is the light’s brightness cycle frequency, which need not equal the electricity supply frequency. The frequency presets are examples, not measurements of a particular lamp. Real LED drivers can use different waveforms, modulation depths and frequencies.
The 3:2 preview multiplies a neutral surface or your photograph by each row’s calculated brightness. Images stay in your browser. This is an illustrative brightness model: it does not simulate RAW processing, gamma-correct light integration, automatic exposure, sensor noise, motion blur or camera anti-flicker timing. Very fine bands may be limited by the preview’s pixel resolution.
Compensate average light loss (+1 EV) is enabled by default. The sine wave averages 50% intensity, so the preview applies a fixed ×2 gain. At 120 Hz and 1/120 s (or any whole number of light cycles), this restores the original image brightness without bands. At other settings, the bands and phase-dependent brightness remain; bright regions may clip. Turn compensation off to see the uncorrected intensity. This is a display adjustment, not a prediction of the exposure settings needed for a real lamp.
Panning and rolling shutter
The blue line shows the estimated skew of a vertical subject during a constant horizontal pan. The dotted line is its position without skew. Focal length is entered as a 35 mm equivalent, so the calculation uses a 36 mm-wide reference frame for every camera. It uses horizontal field of view to approximate displacement. It is a schematic approximation, especially at wide angles or large pan angles. The uploaded photograph is used only for the banding preview; panning does not warp it.
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