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Photo Forum / Digital Photography / DSLR Cameras / July 2006Exposure Not Consistent on D200
Group, I just got a new D200 last week and after shooting my first baseball game with it was in love. Then I shot another game last evening and was shocked at the photos once I looked at them on the computer. The exposures were real inconsistent, and I had even noticed the meter fluctuating irratically while I was shooting. The first game was on shutter priority at 1/1000, at 800iso to freeze motion, and spot metering. All photos were great. The second game I wanted to shoot aperture priority at f/4, 800iso because it was overcast and late in the day and I wanted to be be sure I froze motion. Metering was left at spot. The photos from the second game vary in exposure from one to the next with some being so dark they are nor useable and some being so light they are likewise. This is in the case of shooting at 4fps as well as singles on the same subject. In both instances I used my nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S ED-IF lens. I have been using a D70 and have used it on both A and S priority like this with no issues at all. If you can help I sure would appreciate it. I have to shoot a big tournment this weekend. Appreciate it, Dave >Group, > [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > >Dave This sounds like a problem I had with my D70. I had to return it for a new chip. The meter would just randomly change, and the picture would be the result of the randomness. Call Nikon. -- ****************************************** ***** Have a Spectacular Day! ***** ****************************************** John > This sounds like a problem I had with my D70. I had to return it for a new > chip. The meter would just randomly change, and the picture would be the > result of the randomness. > > Call Nikon. Yep, I had the exact same thing happen to my D70. Apparently it was a batch of dodgy AE sensors that got past QC. I sent my camera in and had it back in less than 48 hours. No charge, even though it was out of warranty.  SignatureGot a Nikon? Want to share your photos? Register on the forum and upload your pics to the gallery for free! http://www.nikongear.com/ >> This sounds like a problem I had with my D70. I had to return it for a new >> chip. The meter would just randomly change, and the picture would be the [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >it back in less than 48 hours. No charge, even though it was out of >warranty. You're lucky, I'm still waiting to hear from Nikon about my D70, it's been 2 weeks now... I'm thinking of switching to Canon... I had a Canon repaired and back in 1 week. > >> This sounds like a problem I had with my D70. I had to return it for a new > >> chip. The meter would just randomly change, and the picture would be the [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > I'm thinking of switching to Canon... I had a Canon repaired and back in 1 week. You won't want to hear that Canon are outsourcing their repairs to 3rd party companies then. Don't know if this is a global thing, but it sure is pissing off a lot of SA Canon users. Check out this thread: http://www.outdoorphoto.co.za/forum/showthread.php?t=2189 SignatureGot a Nikon? Want to share your photos? Register on the forum and upload your pics to the gallery for free! http://www.nikongear.com/ >> I'm thinking of switching to Canon... I had a Canon repaired and back in 1 week. > > You won't want to hear that Canon are outsourcing their repairs to 3rd > party companies then. Really? Funny that. All the USA repair orders to go a facility in NJ, not far from where I live. In fact a friend of mine once visited here to sightsee AND personally drop off his 20D to get it repaired there. It didn't leave that building until it it was fixed and picked up. > Don't know if this is a global thing, but it sure > is pissing off a lot of SA Canon users. Check out this thread: The outsourcing may be the case in South Africa, but not in the US. SignatureE-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. >> >> This sounds like a problem I had with my D70. I had to return it for a new >> >> chip. The meter would just randomly change, and the picture would be the [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > >http://www.outdoorphoto.co.za/forum/showthread.php?t=2189 Both Nikon and Canon do their own repairs, here... but farming out is the wave of the future... At work we farm out lots of electronic stuff we used to fix in house, and now we're getting stuff back labeled "Not economical to repair" and that's it! Garbage! I don't know what's coming, but it doesn't look good... I might set up a "fix it" shop when I retire... As for my Nikon, I called the store and they called Nikon and they say one more week, and no charge... even though the warranty is past... I think there is a chip scandal afoot, and some under rug sweeping is going on! >As for my Nikon, I called the store and they called Nikon and they say one more >week, and no charge... even though the warranty is past... > >I think there is a chip scandal afoot, and some under rug sweeping is going on! Did you get the BGLOD with your D70? Or was the meter just "acting up"? >>As for my Nikon, I called the store and they called Nikon and they say one more >>week, and no charge... even though the warranty is past... >> >>I think there is a chip scandal afoot, and some under rug sweeping is going on! > >Did you get the BGLOD with your D70? In my best Steve Martin voice.... " What does THAT mean??" >Or was the meter just "acting up"? One day I set forth to capture my garden, and a few of the pics were white, a few were black. The next day, most were off, and I noticed the numbers were going crazy, also the brightness of the in-view display was bouncing around. The next day - total mayhem, not useable at all... I tried all my lenses and mem cards - no effect. >>> I think there is a chip scandal afoot, and some under rug sweeping >>> is going on! >> >> Did you get the BGLOD with your D70? > > In my best Steve Martin voice.... " What does THAT mean??" "Blinking Green Light Of Death". It is a common fault with the D70 metering circuit. One of the symptoms is what you describe. The other is thee camera stops working completely and just flashes the green LED on the back. Nikon have acknowledged the problem and are repairing D70 cameras with this problem for no charge, even out of warranty. -Mike >>>> I think there is a chip scandal afoot, and some under rug sweeping >>>> is going on! [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > >-Mike I didn't have the green light blink at all... just an intermittent in the camera... actually that can be any number of things from a bad chip to a bad connector... The fact that it just 'happened' all by itself ( the camera was just sitting in its bag the last few weeks) leads me to think that it was something 'hard' like a chip failure... possibly in the power stages that affect both the display lighting and the computer. Always suspect power supply when everything goes bad! According to <BobF@nospam.com>: > >>As for my Nikon, I called the store and they called Nikon and they say one more > >>week, and no charge... even though the warranty is past... [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > In my best Steve Martin voice.... " What does THAT mean??" I agree. AHA -- Found as the first hit in GOOGLE: ====================================================================== The Blinking Green Light Of Death is a common cause of failure for manyearly Nikon D70 digital SLR cameras. This typically affects cameras manufactured ... ====================================================================== And visiting the web site pointed by the GOOGLE link completes that with: "Mar 2004 and Sep 2004." and a bit more: ====================================================================== Symptoms of failure are a constant blinking green Compact Flash card access light and the camera does not perform any operation. The camera basically dies and does not perform any operation. The general reason for GBLOD is usually a faulty Flexible Printed Circuit Board. ====================================================================== There were a total of 19,500 hits on that single acronym. :-) > >Or was the meter just "acting up"? > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > next day - total mayhem, not useable at all... I tried all my lenses and mem > cards - no effect. [ ... Written before looking up BGLOD ... ] That sounds like an intermittent connection in the battery feed to at least part of the circuitry. It could have been that the battery contacts needed cleaning, or that there was a bad solder joint or connection somewhere inside the camera body. But it does *not* sound like the normal behavior of a firmware problem. [ ... and back to after the lookup ... ] And the BGLOD information above would suggest that it is an intermittent in the flexible PC board. Enjoy, DoN. SignatureEmail: <dnichols@d-and-d.com> | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564 (too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html --- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero --- According to <BobF@nospam.com>: [ ... ] > >You won't want to hear that Canon are outsourcing their repairs to 3rd > >party companies then. Don't know if this is a global thing, but it sure [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Both Nikon and Canon do their own repairs, here... but farming out is the wave > of the future... Hmmm ... I wonder what will happen to their stranglehold on repairs of gray-market items? If they are outsourcing the repairs, how can they prevent paid work on items which were not *officially* imported? > At work we farm out lots of electronic stuff we used to fix in house, and now > we're getting stuff back labeled "Not economical to repair" and that's it! > Garbage! I don't know what's coming, but it doesn't look good... I experienced that years ago when I worked for a Government lab, and they started outsourcing repairs of electronic test equipment. :-( > I might set up a "fix it" shop when I retire... A good thing to do, in my mind. > As for my Nikon, I called the store and they called Nikon and they say one more > week, and no charge... even though the warranty is past... Well ... that is good, at least. > I think there is a chip scandal afoot, and some under rug sweeping is going on! Oops! Good Luck, DoN. SignatureEmail: <dnichols@d-and-d.com> | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564 (too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html --- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero --- > spot. The photos from the second game vary in exposure from one to the next > with some being so dark they are nor useable and some being so light they > are likewise. This is in the case of shooting at 4fps as well as singles on > the same subject. In both instances I used my nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S ED-IF > lens. Did you check it's not set to spotmeter? Did you take some photos of something (both in single-shot and 4 or 5 fps) with manually set exposure to check that it's not eg the lens diaphragm? What tests did you do? You didn't say. Can you reproduce the problem while shooting a wall with the same settings? Some more information would be useful. > I just got a new D200 last week and after shooting my first baseball game > with it was in love.... [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > The first game was on shutter priority at 1/1000, at 800iso to freeze > motion, and spot metering. Spot metering? Umm, I gotta ask, were the players wearing dark/light shirts? Variable colored background? If the D200 has tight spot metering, you could be asking for big trouble.. Can you post some examples? They don't have to be big, but leaving them with Exif data would be good. > > The first game was on shutter priority at 1/1000, at 800iso to freeze > > motion, and spot metering. > > Spot metering? Umm, I gotta ask, were the players wearing dark/light > shirts? Variable colored background? If the D200 has tight spot > metering, you could be asking for big trouble.. I just noticed he said he used spotmetering and shutter priority! (I wrote a post before where I suggest that he may have left it on spotmetering by mistake). OK, maybe the OP has his own reasons for choosing spotmeter and shutter priority for such a situation, but I would be very surprised if this did not result in erratic exposures (and the D200 does have a very tight spotmeter). Unless he always placed the active focus point on an area with the same reflectivity, and had already set the appropriate exposure compensation (which, frankly, sounds rather unlikely to me). So probably that's the problem. Some photos (with indication of where the focus/spotmeter point was for each) will confirm (or falsify) this diagnosis. > ... > I just noticed he said he used spotmetering and shutter priority! [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > diagnosis. > ... The original poster clearly stated that the main problem is the inconsistency between the exposure stability in shutter priority and aperture priority modes. In shutter priority mode the exposure was _stable_. In apperture priority mode it started to float randomly. This cannot be explained by erratic placement of a tight spot meter. In both cases the pictures were taken by the same person. Why would it suddenly become more erratic in the second case? (Unless some alcohol was involved...) SignatureBest regards, Andrey Tarasevich > > ... > > I just noticed he said he used spotmetering and shutter priority! [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > become more erratic in the second case? (Unless some alcohol was > involved...) Andrey, It is possible that something happened to the meter or some other part of the camera. However, I would be willing to bet drinks (a whole evening's worth!) that the problem is spotmetering. To be precise, that if he shot a featureless wall in both aperture and shutter priority, there would not be more exposure variation between shots in shutter priority than in aperture priority. Of course, as I said, I may well be mistaken, and something might be wrong with his camera. I shot some tests after I made the post today, and it appears that the spot meter is very tight so when a subject moves through it metering changes substantially at the conditions I was shooting. I was not able to conduct any real scientific tests today but the camera appears to be okay. So it's opperator error! Once I find out specifically how I fouled this one up I will let you know. Thanks for the help, DS >> > ... >> > I just noticed he said he used spotmetering and shutter priority! [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > priority than in aperture priority. Of course, as I said, I may well be > mistaken, and something might be wrong with his camera. > it appears that the spot > meter is very tight AFAIK, the size of the spot can be set. -Michael > The original poster clearly stated that the main problem is the > inconsistency between the exposure stability in shutter priority and [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > become more erratic in the second case? (Unless some alcohol was > involved...) I understand your point, Andrey, but if it just happened by chance that the subjects had more variable brightness while he shot in one mode compared to the other, it would be very tempting to blame the mode, and completely miss the real reason. While there could be another issue, I would first *definitely* drop the spot metering, and then run some simple tests on a fixed subject. And while I'm no sports shooter, I can't see that spot metering would be a good idea at all for this sort of work. Black shorts, white shorts, colored tops, muddy faces, dark/light hair, white/black ball.... hmmm....???? I'll lay a big bet that the overexposed shots had some dark areas in the centre of the image, while those that are underexposed... er, you get my drift.. (O: |
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