Ripples

The following describes the symptoms, cause and prevention of the Moire effect.

Symptoms of the Moire effect
When you are shooting a subject that has a fine regular pattern such as stripes or plaids, a ripple that does not exist on the subject sometimes appears in the image.

This effect is called the Moire effect.

Why does the Moire effect occur?
Digital cameras and camcorders are equipped with imaging devices such as CCD sensors and CMOS sensors that have pixels that are finely aligned horizontally and vertically that convert light into electronic signals. When the pixels and the pattern on the subject overlap slightly misaligned, an interference pattern occurs and a ripple that does not exist on the actual subject may appear. This is the Moire effect.


Preventing the Moire effect
You can reduce this effect by changing the distance, zoom setting or the angle of the image. If you are using a camera with manual focusing, the Moire effect can be reduced by simply changing the focus slightly.

Reference
You may find another Moire effect displayed on the LCD of the camera. As this is caused by the aligned pixels on the LCD, this effect does not necessarily appear in pictures you have taken.