Have to upgrade Nikon D200 HELP!!!!

[AUZambo]

I'd try to find a good used D300 if money is an issue, or the D300s if you want to buy new.

The D700 is an awesome body, but it's $2500 so it depends on your price range. Also keep in mind it will be upgraded in the next few months (probably announced this summer to be released in the fall) so if you buy it now, you will have the lesser model in just a few months.

D300/D300s gets my vote. I love my D300 and will be keeping it even after the new D700 is released as my back-up body.

Or you can wait 'til the new model is announced and get the D700 for a lower price.

 

[Rayne]

I started at ISO 100 at 1/8000th and droped the shutterspeed all the way down with the lens cap on and I see no dead pixels just black. Is this because the lens cap is on?

I'll do it again without the lens cap and see what happens.

 

[Garbz]

If it's a dead / hot pixel then the lenscap has nothing to do with it. Can you replicate the original problem.

If not then yay

 

[KmH]

Dead pixels will still show up even better with a lens cap on because there is a solid density image to contrast with the pixel(s). If you're not seeing dead pixels with the cap on, I'd say there are no dead pixels on your image sensor and there is nothing wrong with your D200.

It would still be helpful if you were to post sample images that have what you are calling dead pixels. I'm beginning to wonder if what you are seeing and calling dead pixels, could just be noise.

How many dead pixels do you think your images sensor has?

 

[Rayne]

I would just like to say thank you guys for helping me out. I took alot of shots yesterday of just random anythings. Only saw a few when ISO was at 400. And a few on ISO 100 but i'll let you guys tell me. Im going to post some sample images.

 

[Rayne]

 

[D-B-J]

are you sure its not stuff on your sensor?

 

[Rayne]

The first photo is pretty obvious bottom of the shell to the left. and the second has a white streak above the left eye. This is what I tend to get now. Problem orginaly started with a big red + sign. That problem was fixed. However, when I call Nikons service department they tell me to send it back to get fixed, I ask what is it im seeing? and the service people tell me to just send it in for repair. So i assumed this was a major problem. Im feeling like it porbably isn't now.

 

[Rayne]

Yes, I think some is from the sensor. But what is the bright spots I listed above?

 

[Garbz]

Can you provide full zooms of the spots you're talking about.

The streak above the eye looks like a hair.
The spot under the shell appears to have a purplish sheen to it. This is a form of chromatic aberration nicknamed purple fringing, and if this is the case it was just an awkward shot of the light with the fringing caused by the lens.
Those actual blobby looking things would be light bending through something either on the lens or the sensor.

This is not related to dead pixels. Dead pixels are tiny single dots, often due to interpolation if you zoom REALLY close it'll show up as a tiny cross 3pixels high and 3 pixels wide. The fact that the problems disappeared with the lenscap on further indicates that it's something to do with light going through the lens to the camera rather than any actual problem with the camera itself.

1. Try another lens, see if you can replicate the problem. It is most likely to show up at higher apertures where the light rays are projected more parallel to the sensor.

2a. If it's there with another lens the set the camera into cleaning mode and inspect the sensor. You'll likely find smudges, specs, or something that looks like a liquid stain on the sensor. You can remove this with a simple sensor cleaning kit and save a whole lot of money

2b. If it's not there with another lens, have a good look at the front and back elements of the problem lens. Take specific care to look for signs of mould through the lens. If it shows up that big in a picture then you are not looking for small specs of dust you're looking for something rather large. If it's your 105mm macro causing the problems then send it back to Nikon. If it's either of the other ones then bin them an buy real glass

 

[Rayne]

Is this what you meen (full zooms...

 

[Rayne]

I am not getting any type of streaking with the 50mm lens. Dont ever use the 18 - 200 but today i pulled it out and took some shots and no streaking aswell.

Do you think that if it is a form of chromatic aberration would a lens hood help? also it was a super bright sunny day when the shot was taken could have anything to do with it?

 

[KmH]

No, a lens hood will not mitigate CA (chromatic aberration).

Dead pixels will be there all the time, regardless the lens used, and they are always, everytime, in exactly the same place.

 

[Garbz]

Yep those are just bright spots of light reflecting. Due to their brightness compared to things around them they are bringing out the chromatic aberration in the lens. Nothing you can do about this. Some lenses just exhibit this problem when used in extreme fashions or used in ways outside their intent.

In this case it's a bit of both. The 105mm macro shot here is at f/2.8 with a long focus (the worst possible situation for a lens designed to be used stopped down and at its nearest focus point).

I think you'll find if you raise the aperture to f/5.6 it'll all go away. Those other big gobs of spots on the original images will likely go away if you use a lens hood. Your 50mm f/1.8 will exhibit the same problems at f/1.8 but you may find that at f/2.8 it's fine.

A good place to have a play is at a river or some lake. The reflection of water is always a great source of purple fringing.

I do the same thing with my 50mm f/1.2. It's a horrid lens that I never use at f/1.2, but it's sharper than my 50mm f/1.8 @ f/2 so I never use the 50mm f/1.8 anymore.


If you really must shoot wide open (portraits) and the CA is worrying you it's actually very easy to make it disappear in photoshop. Heck even some raw converters have a "de-fringe" option which works with varying degrees of success.

The method I use is this one here: Photoshop How-to Remove Purple Fringing
Basically it involves de-saturating exactly the shade of colour that the fringing causes. If you have other cases of blue and purple in the image then layer mask the hue saturation adjustment layer so it's only affecting the purple fringing.


By the way how are you post processing these images? Do you shoot RAW? And if so do you use the Camera profiles options in Adobe CameraRAW / Lightroom? I ask because it looks like you've clobbered your black values on that shell. It's not very smooth, there's lots of surrounding detail and then black.

 

[Rayne]

I use cs4 for editing. Have not shot in RAW yet and I did not do any editing to the shell. That's it, straight out of the camera lol... Been messing around alot with the camera settings tryng to figure them out. Anything I shoot are all over the place and now I am understanding more and the reasons why.

Gonna mess around and see if I can remove the purple fringe on the shell with that link and info. But hopefuly i'll improve and won't have to worry about that as much.

I feel so much better that it's not the D200 or the lens and that it's just me :lmao:

Thank you so much :hug::