Nikon D7100 Shadow Recovery

So I got the D7100 today.  Among other things I tested was the shadow recovery.  I was guessing that the D7100's sensor was the same as that of the D5200, which although has slightly better high ISO than the D7000, is known to have horizontal pattern noise in extreme exposure adjustments.  My concern was therefore whether the D7100 had the same issue.

UPDATE: See also related post on Nikon D5200 and D7100 Band-Aid: Solutions for Banding

I took the shot below in raw (converted to black and white). 

To test the shadow recovery, I boosted the exposure +5 stops.  Here is what the shot looked like.

Here is a crop of the shadow area:



As I thought, there is horizontal pattern noise.  The noise doesn't go away even with +40 noise reduction in Lightroom (other noise reduction software may do better):

I tried to adjust the exposure to where the horizontal pattern noise would be barely visible.  I found it to be around +3.5 EV:



Of course this is just one factor among many, and a +3.5 EV adjustment will usually be more than enough.  I will continue testing the D7100.


RELATED POSTS
Nikon D7100 Hands-On Real World User Review
Importing D7100 Raw Files Into Lightroom
Nikon D7100 Low Light Teaser
Nikon D7100 FAQ and Helpful Links
Nikon D7100 Shadow Recovery
Nikon D7100 Real World Dynamic Range
Nikon D5200 and D7100 Band-Aid: Solutions for Banding
Sample of D7100 banding in a real world shot