| Joined: | Wed Apr 18th, 2012 |
| Location: | United Kingdom |
| Posts: | 4583 |
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Thanks Chris I have had a look at the link - it has jogged some of the grey matter which remains and is very informative. It's a step beyond Michael Langford's film photography books which I still have.
Eric: I agree it's not a fair comparison, and at the moment I am not fully up to speed with the ISO function. I have been concentrating on image sharpness, and altering the ISO settings to get what looks like the right exposure. I will address this more thoroughly,
While I was looking at these shots in NX Studio, I was able to view the exact location of the focusing point at the moment the shot was taken. I discovered that the focusing point was not where I thought it had been especially with the bird feeder. So there is an issue of technique.
Apart from the ISO settings in the dragonfly shot, and bearing in mind Chris's suggestions, your comments would be appreciated.
It can be a nightmare evaluating BOTH a new camera and lens at the same time…got several Tee shirts.
I would say your issue is not locking down the camera to default settings to give it a fair chance of delivering what you want. The settings you choose will have more impact on the lens performance than you might expect.
Chris is always right….I wouldn’t dare disagree with him.
All lenses have a ‘zone’ of maximum sharpness.
Typically they are sharpest from 1stop down from maximum (in the case of your f2.8 lens that would be f5.6) to 3 stops down (that’s f11 for yours). Now the apparent sharpness doesn’t drop off a cliff…so f16 and f22 are still usable but rarely as sharp as f5.6-f11. The very best lenses may give you a wider zone of sharpness and probably a better performance wide open at the maximum aperture. (In my experience these are usually the lenses with f1.8 or f1.4 max apertures)
So keeping in the f5.6 to f11 zone would be my starting point to test a lens….after all it’s the most likely range you will need to use the lens in UK lighting anyway. I would also say, if the lens doesn’t deliver at f8 it won’t get any better at any other settings.
Having fixed your aperture for the test using Aperture Priority you need to set a sensible iso for the lighting.
In film days you never considered 400 or 800 ASA on sunny days…..more likely 100 or less!
In digital terms, for your camera, I would apply the same logic….but slightly higher numbers to film.
Sunny day 400 or less! …..Dull days 1000 but ideally below 2000!…..Dark miserable days ………go to the pub!
OK a bit of a joke but actually ….NOT.
If the weather/lighting push you and your camera out of there comfort zones, you are unlikely to ever be happy with the results, which makes the exercise pointless.
Once you have set the aperture and iso the camera will dictate the required shutters speed, provided the selected metering mode is suitable for the use (ie matrix as opposed to spot metering) and no other settings are interfering.
Of course if the lighting is poor and you can’t wait for the sun, you need to be mindful of slow shutters speeds introducing camera movement. Even with VR when hand holding I still prefer to use the inverse law ….shutter speed = 1/focal length
As previously mentioned, it seems on your images, the D600 was set (I am guessing inadvertently) to -0.7 exp comp which will mess with your setting choice. Nikons exposure is usually very good and for general photography like the bird feeder and dragonfly it needs to be set at 0. The pigeons on the wire being backlit +1.0 (could be +1.5) exp comp.
Hope that helps.
Last edited on Wed Aug 13th, 2025 09:56 by
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Eric