Nikon D3 In Low Light - Working Great Now

I've recently mentioned here that I was having quite a time getting my loaner Nikon D3 fitted with the 70-200mm VR lens to focus quickly and accurately in those very low light wedding reception situations. Problem solved! I got great results at this weekend's wedding. Here's what I did to make it work.

I have to say having a real working ISO 6400-12,800 just blows me away. It's a great ISO range for a wedding shooter. That's why I was so disappointed when I couldn't get the D3 and long lens to focus quickly in low light reception situations. So let me again say thanks to all for all the suggestions on how to solve the problem.

Here is the low down on just what you need to do:
1. Change A3 Dynamic AF Area to 9 points
2. Change A8 AF Point selection for 51 points to 11 points.
3. Set Focus point wrap around set to "OFF"
4. Use center spot only to focus.
5. Set the camera to "Single" focus mode. I'm still experimenting with "Continuous" focusing in low light - I'll keep you posted.

That's about it - made the changes and things are good again.

One More Confusion Solution - Nikon Focus Low Light Issues

Ever been shooting the wedding reception with your Nikon D3 with your 70-200mm VR lens attached? You try to take the shot and the camera either locks or continues to search focus. You are mad as heck, and just ain't going to take it anymore. Well, here is your Confusion Solution.

Michael offered...
"Did YOU HAVE IT SET TO dynamic 21 POINTS? This seems to confuse the camera in my experience (in low light, dance scenes at weddings.) I had the same issue with flash in low light... the camera would not lock on fast enough, shutter lag, etc. I switched the setting to 9 Dynamic Points and Focus Lock on set to off. Now it much improved."

Again, a big High Five Thank You to Michael for a Confusion Solution. Some things they just don't teach you in the manuals. Thanks, Michael.

More Nikon/Canon Surprises At The Party

So I'm a big fan of Nikon's low noise capabilities - ISO 6400 is the old Canon 1600. That super low light sensitivity on the Nikon is amazing, but that's where I was surprised. I put the 70-200mm VR lens on the Nikon D3 - I wanted to roam the party unnoticed trying to get some great dance candids, etc. My experience here was that I (the camera) was having a hard time finding focus in the low light.

I put the 70-200mm IS lens on my Canon 40D and tried the same thing and all worked fine. Flashes were not attached to either camera as I wanted to check the low light focusing capabilities of both cameras without focus assist. I had much better luck with the Canon.

Anyway, back to the Nikon manual to see if I'm missing something here. If anyone has any suggestions for Nikon camera settings for optimum results in low light focusing situations, please let me know.

Quick News Notes

Real quick gang, then I'm out of here. DPReview just posted their full review of the Nikon D3 (which I still have in my hot little hands.) Here is the link. If you are a high ISO speed freak like me, you may just want to jump to the discussion about the usable ISOs up to 12,600 right here. And so we don't leave out the Canon fans, check out the full review of the Canon 1Ds MarkIII over at LetsGoDigital right here.

That's it for today everybody - clients arriving in minutes so I've got to get going. See everybody tomorrow, David

My First Real Peek At Nikon Noise Up Close And Personal

The way things are going with the Canon vs. Nikon, et. al. noise wars, I figure we will all be shooting at about 500,000 ISO in another year or 2. All kidding aside, the reduced noise we are seeing in the new cameras is truly phenomenal. I remember back in the '70's, I loved experimenting with how far I could "push" Kodak Tri-X in Diafine developer. Diafine claimed 2400 ISO, but my results were always way to "grainy" - that's "noisy" these days.

To make a comparison between the "noise" of today's cameras and the push-processed "film grain" of yesteryear, check out this link I found over at Flickr in the Diafine pool. It shows the "grain-noise" levels of Tri-X precessed at 2000 - 6400 ISO in six increments.

My observations - there "ain't" none. The new digital cameras blow film out of the water in the noise/grain department. We had arrived at Maeva resort on Saturday night and the first thing I did was grab the Nikon D3 and crank up it up to ISO 3200.

Nikon D3 at ISO 3200:

The images looked greater on the viewfinder and absolutely wonderful on my laptop as I viewed them on the plane coming home. I took a few more at ISO 6400 and found those very usable as well. Okay, okay, I know Nikon says you can take it up to ISO 25,600, so I did. Things were a bit dicey here. That is not to say that the images were not usable, they just looked like my old Diafine images of the 70's - grainy, but now I'm at 25,600 ISO, more than 10 times the best Diafine speed I got out of Tri-X!

Nikon D3 at ISO 6400:

I've been following the Nikon noise claims since the camera was introduced. If you missed it, here is my most recent article on the subject right here. Rob Galbraith published some hockey pictures he made last year (which, unfortunately, I have not been able to find) at the 25,600 ISO and on the surface they looked fine - all very high tonal values, hardly no shadows to speak of - it was impressive.

Nikon D3 at ISO 25,600:

When it comes to noise, they say "the proof is in the pudding." I'm talking chocolate pudding here - you know, low light values where noise can't hide. Check out the three images in the article, the first at 3200 ISO, the second at 6400 ISO, and the third at 25.600 ISO. Click on the image itself, and you will get a larger view for a closer inspection. I'm going to run the Nikon's through their noise paces this weekend at my wedding and I'll get back to you with the low down next week.