Nikon problem, someone to the rescue

Tharhawk

I've been taking a lot of shots with my fairly NEW nikon d700 (2.8 17-35mm), but all long exposure photos have been problematic. Very much so. There are 100's of colored pixels on my photos (in shorter exposures they aren't colored, but still there, say in the one minute range). I'm at a loss? Is there something wrong with the camera sensor or with the way I'm taking the image? This is with or without NR. I've shot thousands of images with the D200, no issues like this for similar shots. I'm worried about my d700, which I've heard is great for night photos, but I'm not finding this to be so.

Here's a cropped example.

kres

I submit to you, a second hand hero. This is from Thom Hogan on the topic of the D700 and long exposures:

Thom Hogan wrote:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Let's start with amp noise: very good. But there's a caveat. Generally, we aren't worried about amp noise until we start shooting long exposures. The problem with the D700 is that it will absolutely start producing very visible colored hot pixels on long exposures unless you turn on Long Exp NR. This is actually very disappointing performance, and about as bad as the D80. I will note that my D700 is not quite as bad as my D3 in this respect, but compared to most other Nikon DSLRs, it's in that same category of "hot pixler" that the D1x, D80, and D3 are.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

See here for his full review
[/FONT]

Tharhawk

kres wrote:

I submit to you, a second hand hero. This is from Thom Hogan on the topic of the D700 and long exposures:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

See here for his full review
[/FONT]

Bummer. Thanks.

kres

Tharhawk wrote:

Bummer. Thanks.

Don't be too bummed - flip that setting and see what you get. If your a hard core night shot junkie you might think about having a profile tweaked out for star trails anyway.

Also, look into Neatimage - it's an insanely wonderful noise reducing utility. A real photo saver.

Tharhawk

Thanks,

I do have noise ninja, which works well, but it is several years old, so perhaps the software has improved.

I appreciate your help.

ziggy53

Either enable the Long Exposure Noise Reduction, suitable for a few images but it does double the exposure times, or construct sample "Dark Frames" to be used later to subtract the noisy pixels. See the following for procedures:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_frame_subtraction

http://www.takegreatpictures.com/HOME/Columns/Digital_Photography/Details/Dark_Frame_Subtraction_using_Adobe_Photoshopby_Chris_Limone.fci

Tharhawk

Seymore wrote:

I can't see the EXIF data... please share.
Also, ISO 100? ...did you turn off Long Exposure NR?

ISO 800, f11.

No NR turned on with this pic.

kres

So 'Hawk - got any before & after shots to share?

Pindy

Agreed, no need for high ISO and just turn on long exposure NR—that's what it's there for. Don't let Thom make you think you have a bum camera; he's kinda good at being technically critical where is doesn't matter practically.

Long Ex NR is standard operating procedure for star trails. It's either that or deal with reciprocity failure, your choice!