EXPOSURE FOR D80 and D3000 NIKON

[douglasdc8]

Help- any advice - I am using a D300S with a Nikon 70-200 2.8 Mkii attached and a Nikon D80 and D3000 as secondary bodies. I use a Sigma 150-500 on these bodies usually. I photograph mainly aircraft , most in the air. I set the A to f8 and let the camera do the rest. On the D300S I have -3ev set in, and the images seem to be ok most of the time, but with the D80 and D3000 with the 150-500 attached , still using A at f8, the images seem to be overexposed most of the time. I have dialled in -3ev but this doesnt seem to fix the problem fully, so next time I go out photographing I am setting the ev to -7 and try that.

Does anyone have any idea or suggestions. [I am a new boy on the block to Nikon having been a Pentax man for around 50 years] Any suggestions welcome. thanks in advance.

[ricktas]

Post some of the photos so we can see what you are talking about, it will help us answer

[kiwi]

-ev makes no sense to me really, you'd end up with a very underexposed plane, I usually go +ve ev, up to +2am

[ricktas]

I would like to see examples but would be interested to know what metering mode you are using.

[zollo]

Help- any advice - I am using a D300S with a Nikon 70-200 2.8 Mkii attached and a Nikon D80 and D3000 as secondary bodies. I use a Sigma 150-500 on these bodies usually. I photograph mainly aircraft , most in the air. I set the A to f8 and let the camera do the rest. On the D300S I have -3ev set in, and the images seem to be ok most of the time, but with the D80 and D3000 with the 150-500 attached , still using A at f8, the images seem to be overexposed most of the time. I have dialled in -3ev but this doesnt seem to fix the problem fully, so next time I go out photographing I am setting the ev to -7 and try that.

Does anyone have any idea or suggestions. [I am a new boy on the block to Nikon having been a Pentax man for around 50 years] Any suggestions welcome. thanks in advance.

are you trying to use the easy exposure compensation (turning the rear thumb dial)? that feature has to be enabled in the shooting menu so check that you have it on MENU>Custom Setting Menu>b Metering Exposure>b4 Easy Exposure Compensation

Also note that easy exposure mode does not work in Manual mode so use aperture priority seeing as you want to stay at f8. hopefully that will sort you out

[arthurking83]

and when you say -3Ev and -7Ev.. I'm sure you mean -0.3Ev and -0.7Ev.

not only is -7Ev and insanely underexposure setting, it;s not possibly on any current Nikon body in any of the programmed exposure modes.

of course you can set -7Ev of exposure compensation in Manual mode judging by what the camera's metering is indicating, but the indicator in the viewfinder is maxed out at +/- 2Ev either side anyhow!

Dxxx and Dx bodies can do up to 5Ev compensation as per programmed auto exposure modes, and bodies lower than that in the line up can only do +/- 3Ev compensation.

So I'm assuming that you're referring to 0.3(as 1/3rd) and 0.7(2/3rds) of compensation!?

Differences when using Programmed modes will most likely be in the metering ability.
Are you using spot or centre weighted or matrix mode?

In manual mode!!! (note manually exposing the scene).. I see a -0.7Ev difference in my D70s compared to the D300. That is: static light, same distances to subject matter, same lens fitted to cameras, all settings on camera set the same(ISO, shutter and aperture) and the D70s is -0.7Ev different.

This can only be attributed to the different sensors.
I then set the D70s to expose +0.7 brighter than the D300(via shutter speed) and the histogram is then close enough to identical(give or take 1/6 here and there due to some minor differences in tones).

I use Nikon's software to evaluate this, and with the D70s you can use the more modern Picture Control enhancements found in Nikons newer cameras(via their software) as well as the original camera enhancements available in the camera, but through the software. There are differences again, but once again not enough if you use similar settings.. ie standard neutral or vivid enhancement types.

The sensors therefore must capture light differently!


OK the obvious question(because I've never seen any info regarding the differences between a D80/D3000 and a D300s!... are you using the same ISO settings?

From memory... base ISO in a D80(and D3000 possibly as they use the same sensor!) should be at ISO100. Base ISO on a D300 should be set at ISO200(camera default, unless you've changed it).

While we love to think of digital sensors to be like film, the reality is that it's not! Digital sensor ratings are not the same as film ISO ratings(very rare for them to achieve parity). They come close, but can vary by up to 1stop(1Ev) compared to film's set standards.
That is ISO200 on the D300 can actually be more like ....
|EDIT: bloody slow internet lost this section of text!|
ISO200 according to DxO is actually ISO139. An ISO value of ISO139 is approximately 0.5Ev darker than a camera set at ISO200 which is actually ISO200.
Also according to DxO, the D300 and D80's actual ISO values at ISO200 are close enough to ISO200, to make much less difference!(ISO194 if you were curious!)

hence: if you set both cameras at ISO200 and used the same values in shutter and aperture, the D300 will come out looking darker!.. or alternatively! ... the D3000 and D80 will come out looking brighter!


I'd also hazard a guess and say your Sigma lens may be an issue here as well.

being an f/6.3 lens at 500mm, I can't remember exactly where the lens changes max aperture to f/5.6, but it may be about 250-300mm! Nikon warn of using lenses with a max aperture value of f/5.6.
Whilst this is for AF reasons, I suspect that some aspect of metering may be affected by a slower aperture too. If the lens is giving a dimmer view through the viewfinder, then the metering system is also seeing a dimmer view as well.. the natural consequence is that the metering system is telling the camera to exposure brighter!

Now!.. before anyone starts bleating on about hopeless thridparty lenses, I can tell you in terms of metering my NIKON!!! 18-105VR is the worst and most inconsistent lens in terms of exposure/metering.
It has nothing to do with the brand of lens, and I suspect more to do with accurate aperture control, and vignetting. This lens vignettes badly(as does my Nikon 105VR) I suspect that the metering system sees this and tries to compensate in some way. My only disappointment with these Nikon lenses, otherwise they work well enough. But I have learned to deal with their shortcomings.

Are these over exposed images at the same camera settings? You mentioned f/8, but what about shutter speeds? at the shutter speeds on the D80 and D3000 slower, much slower... significantly slower? Remember to check base ISO settings too.
D300s has a base ISO of ISO200. That is a calibrated ISO setting, and using ISO100 on a D300s is a psuedo ISO setting, where it's not a real ISO value.
What happens is that the camera automagically uses ISO200, but must set the shutter to overexpose by 1Ev, which the camera then processes with underexposure to not blow out the highlight detail.

Commonly accepted fact that when using ISO100 on a D300 sensor camera(or it's derivatives), highlight detail is harder to recover. This is why!.. it's already been processed by the camera. processing it again is going to lead a lower yield in terms of highlight recovery. Shadow recovery tho is a lot better at ISO100 than at ISO200.

hopefully what everyone else has mentioned as well as my comments can help lead you to an easy to find solution.. and I bet it is, just that you haven't thought of it yet!

[douglasdc8]

Hi all, thanks for all your comments - will play around a bit further. Arthur thanks for the explanations.
[I should have really said .3 and the images overexposed - not under as I said- bad day all round]
Once again thanks all for your advise