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Nikon D800 Query


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I have the run of a D800 starting from today. I took it down to Cardiff Bay just now in bright sunlight and got the following, which to me seems slow?

 

100 ISO
f13

1/20th or 1/30th sec

Shooting on A mode and matrix metering

 

Admittedly the polariser was on and admittedly I was shooting at 100 ISO but I am damn sure the D300 and D600 gave me better shutter speeds at those settings than that?

 

Have I a learning curve ahead of me or does this seem a bit slow on the shutter speed front to you?

 

Nick

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Bright sun in UK = 1/125 at f/11 ISO 100 (f/16 only applies in very rare circumstances - everybody remembers f/16 for bright sun, but that was with 125 ASA film and 1/100th shutter speed on 1950s cameras!).

Polariser = loss of between 1.5 and 2 stops except with the latest low density Hoya types costing loads more, which are 1 to 1.5 stops. So call it 1.5 stops.

Result = expected shutter speed... around 1/30th.

1/125 f/11 - could be 1/100th f/13 or even 1/80th as f/13 could be either f/12.5 or f/14, different cameras report differently and just say f/13 (mine goes 11, 13, 14, 16 but some go 11, 12, 13, 16).

1 stop on 1/100th = 1/50th, 2 stops = 1/25th so polarized giving speeds around 1/25th is quite expected

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Bright sun in UK = 1/125 at f/11 ISO 100 (f/16 only applies in very rare circumstances - everybody remembers f/16 for bright sun, but that was with 125 ASA film and 1/100th shutter speed on 1950s cameras!).

Polariser = loss of between 1.5 and 2 stops except with the latest low density Hoya types costing loads more, which are 1 to 1.5 stops. So call it 1.5 stops.

Result = expected shutter speed... around 1/30th.

1/125 f/11 - could be 1/100th f/13 or even 1/80th as f/13 could be either f/12.5 or f/14, different cameras report differently and just say f/13 (mine goes 11, 13, 14, 16 but some go 11, 12, 13, 16).

1 stop on 1/100th = 1/50th, 2 stops = 1/25th so polarized giving speeds around 1/25th is quite expected

David, you blow me away with your knowledge.  :)

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Well Google could be your friend but Amazon will reveal more:

http://www.amazon.com/Light-Lighting-Photographers-library-Kilpatrick/dp/0240512030/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375454819&sr=1-1&keywords=light+and+lighting+kilpatrick

 

I am slightly disappointed that my book is now selling from one penny upwards! This one is of course now out of date, but I'm working on a complete revision as I purchased the copyright back from Focal Press in 1988 and have been considering conversion to a new e-book with fresh illustrations. However, the information about exposure and weather/geographical conditions still holds good in every way.

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I was intrigued to see, when clicking on David's author page on Amazon , that a new paperback on the Pentax K1000 by the man himself sells for a whopping $165. Must be a collector's item. Great camera by the way, my first decent SLR.

 

Dave

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I've bought two how-to camera manuals for my Kindle, but found them very awkward to navigate in that format. I do all my fiction, history and biography reading on e-books now, but manuals still work best on paper.

 

Anyway, the best of luck with your revision, David. 

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Nope. It's a well recognised phenomenon with high MP cameras because the Airy pattern spreads across more pixels. Some lenses were excellent at f/8 but IQ soon tailed off above this. My 500 f/4 had a very narrow sweet spot before diffraction effects set in at f/8 which made using a teleconverter tricky too (I always stop down at least 1ev when I use a TC).

 

Even the Nikon documentation on the D800 warns against stopping down too much on the D800 (see the Nikon Technical Guides).

 

My D700 and D3s don't suffer with this in the same way as the D800 did.

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