My fiancee bought me a Nikkor AF f/1.8D yesterday, and I'm finding it a bit...odd. first port of call after walking out of the shop yesterday was the dimly lit Fremantle Markets, and I was getting hand-holdable shutter speeds on Aperture Priority, which is to say 1/100 and upwards. Later that day at home, after the sun went down, I was getting 1/250 inside with the residual light from the well-set sun.
Tonight though, in my brightly-lit office, I'm lucky to get 1/4. I've got three of those flouro light globes burning, and it's almost like daylight in here. It's SERIOUSLY bright. But even so, my D40 just doesn't want to play ball.
To put it to the test, I walked out into my almost pitch black backyard just now, and pointed it at the streetlight 100m away over the back fence, and it gave me 1/25. Not exactly hand holdable in my mitts, but a heck of a lot better than I'm doing in my blazing bright office.
The only thing I can think of is maybe it's the globes, or perhaps the colour of them. They're those warm yellowy ones, and images taken in here with my other lenses + tripod all come out in a tone surpassing warm and diving headfirst into HOT. Seriously, shots in here are almost sepia in tone. Is it possible that my camera's getting confused? I've tried all the available metering modes, though in my inexperienced state I still don't fully understand their respective purposes. The shots I've done in here to test the new lens don't seem to be overexposed, so I suppose the metering's working like it should. But why does it take such a slow shutter speed to capture what is otherwise a bright almost sunny office, when it can go out the back into the darkness and perform (by comparison) brilliantly?
For the record:
Nikon D40
Nikkor AF f/1.8D
Thanks in advance