D2x meets its maker

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George61d
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p.1 #1 · D2x meets its maker

Regular viewers to this channel will know that I got a D2X way back when. You may also recall my dismay when on the first day nothing was in focus, but the on the second day all seemed ok.

Since then to be honest I have struggeld with the focus on this beast. I have shot and sold alot of good sports photos with it during the summer. But low light shots have always been a problem. At F2.8 on my AFS 80-200 my hit rate has been very low.

Last week a friend of mine asked me to shoot an indoor show jumping event at their yard. They have had numerous pros/semi pros to their yard who have failed to make it work cos the lighting is nothing short of ... well crap to be frank. To make the shots I had to use f1.4 on an 85mm lens (not the ideal lens for sport but needs must). At subject distances of 50-60 feet this gives a very narrow DOF which has highlighted a severe backfocus issue. Out of 50-60 shots I think I got about 10 that kinda worked.

I have done extensive tests since then and there is no way arround it. For short ranges i.e within 2-20 feet focus is perfect. From there on backfocus at the wider apertures takes over and is much more obvious on the 85mm than on the 80-200. This is true on both the AF and manual settings which points out where the flaw may be.

Thankfully though this now explains what happened on the first day. It was pouring rain so all the shots were in doors with available light = wide ap's = well you get the picture.

So its back to its maker tomorrow...they say they will have it back within the week...fingers crossed.

Edited on Oct 11, 2005 at 08:22 PM

Oct 10, 2005 at 05:16 PM

andylaiphoto
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p.1 #2 · D2x meets its maker

Good luck my friend

Edited on Oct 11, 2005 at 08:22 PM

Oct 10, 2005 at 06:29 PM

Tony_E_Scavo
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p.1 #3 · D2x meets its maker

WOW

i just dont understand?? I shoot professional Motocross and Supercross ( Indoor and Outdoor ) The outdoor stuff is stellar, have sold tons with my D2X, but the same is true for my SX images, i shoot regularly at hi-1 ( 1600 iso ) at 3.2 or 3.5 and process jpegs sending them through noise ninja...i will admit,at full size they look pretty noisy but in print at full page or less ( have had several hi-1 double trucks that were perfect ) they are beautiful, dont get me wrong, they dont look like fine art or high fashion prints but they look like darn good sports photos...did i just get lucky? i dont think so, i think there is a method to the madness.

The D2X has such a high resolution that i think slow shutter speeds show flaw much more unrelentingly than say the d2H would, thats why i get as high a shutter speed as i can when shooting action ( unless im going for a pan, and event hen i more than double what i used to do with film ) anything under 1/800th/sec doesnt work for me, but when i can get above that magical mark...presto, the images are SHARP, noisy yes, but sharp and acceptable for sports with great color.

I think alot of people are expecting the D2X to be like the F5 which could be handheld in low light conditions and get great images, this isnt the same beast...nope, not even close in low light regard, the D2X does everything well except shoot beautifully in low light, you really gotta work for those low light shots if you have a D2X but it CAN work...me personally, im buying a canon strictly for the high iso stuff just to make life easier on myself, but everything else...belongs to the nikon.

To you guys who say you cant get sharp images during daylight with the D2X...look at my slideshow of pics i made with mine this summer and tell me the D2X cant make sharp images....ill call you a liar!

www.TonyScavo.com/slideshow/slideshow.html

Edited on Oct 11, 2005 at 08:22 PM

Oct 10, 2005 at 07:29 PM

George61d
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p.1 #4 · D2x meets its maker

Tony_E_Scavo wrote:
WOW

i just dont understand?? ......

To you guys who say you cant get sharp images during daylight with the D2X...look at my slideshow of pics i made with mine this summer and tell me the D2X cant make sharp images....ill call you a liar!

www.TonyScavo.com/slideshow/slideshow.html

Of course you can get good shots with a D2x. Like I said I have sold a ton of shots this summer from it. What I said was under certain conditions I get significant backfocus. I never stated that I can't get sharp images in daylight. Although in my case the backfocus issue is visible there too but its compensated by the enhanced DOF.

And yes of course for sports you need high shutter speeds. For the record in the example I gave above I was shooting at 1/640 and 1/800 at ISO 800 indoors. Not only was the horse out of focus, but the fence which isn't moving was not in focus either. Now the EV value was at 0, which is probably on the hairy edge of what the D2X AF can do as its rated to -1 EV. Thats why I did some follow up tests with AF and Manual in better lighting conditions and found the same results.

Dont get me wrong I think the D2X is a magnificent camera...just mine is a bit sick at the moment and needs some TLC :-)

Edited on Oct 11, 2005 at 08:22 PM

Oct 10, 2005 at 09:07 PM

George61d
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p.1 #5 · D2x meets its maker

andylaiphoto wrote:
Good luck my friend

thanks

Edited on Oct 11, 2005 at 08:22 PM

Oct 10, 2005 at 09:17 PM

tazo
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p.1 #6 · D2x meets its maker

Multiply the time they say they will get the object back to you by 3, and you have a good representation of the time it takes to get repairs done!

Good luck George!

daniel

Edited on Oct 11, 2005 at 08:22 PM

Oct 10, 2005 at 10:32 PM

George61d
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p.1 #7 · D2x meets its maker

tazo wrote:
Multiply the time they say they will get the object back to you by 3, and you have a good representation of the time it takes to get repairs done!

Good luck George!

daniel

Thanks Daniel. The local shop has been excellent in keeping their promises but I agree I dont expect it any time soon....at least I have a D70 and an F5 to keep me going :-)

Cheers

Edited on Oct 11, 2005 at 08:22 PM

Oct 10, 2005 at 10:42 PM

mdborland
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p.1 #8 · D2x meets its maker

George61d wrote:
Since then to be honest I have struggeld with the focus on this beast. I have shot and sold alot of good sports photos with it during the summer. But low light shots have always been a problem. At F2.8 on my AFS 80-200 my hit rate has been very low.

George,

I had trouble with the D2X until I realized two things:
1. The AF sensors are much bigger than the focus brackets would make you believe. If the subject is lower contrast than something behind it, the D2X may well focus on the background.

2. The four corner sensors on my unit are all displaced diagonally toward the center of the frame.

Maybe you have other problems, but knowing these points helped me improve my results. Hope this helps and let us know how it goes.

--Michael

Edited on Oct 11, 2005 at 08:22 PM

Oct 10, 2005 at 11:58 PM

Terry D
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p.1 #9 · D2x meets its maker

Michael, I'm reading your post and can not visualize what you are trying to convey here. Can you submit a simple diagram of what you found in your sensor array in relationship to the finder area? I'd be very interested in seeing where they fall within the finder and testing what you are stating.

Thanks,

Terry

Edited on Oct 11, 2005 at 08:22 PM

Oct 11, 2005 at 01:25 AM

Greg Matty
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p.1 #10 · D2x meets its maker

Tony_E_Scavo wrote:
WOW

i just dont understand?? I shoot professional Motocross and Supercross ( Indoor and Outdoor ) The outdoor stuff is stellar, have sold tons with my D2X, but the same is true for my SX images, i shoot regularly at hi-1 ( 1600 iso ) at 3.2 or 3.5 and process jpegs sending them through noise ninja...i will admit,at full size they look pretty noisy but in print at full page or less ( have had several hi-1 double trucks that were perfect ) they are beautiful, dont get me wrong, they dont look like fine art or high fashion prints but they look like darn good sports photos...did i just get lucky? i dont think so, i think there is a method to the madness.

The D2X has such a high resolution that i think slow shutter speeds show flaw much more unrelentingly than say the d2H would, thats why i get as high a shutter speed as i can when shooting action ( unless im going for a pan, and event hen i more than double what i used to do with film ) anything under 1/800th/sec doesnt work for me, but when i can get above that magical mark...presto, the images are SHARP, noisy yes, but sharp and acceptable for sports with great color.

I think alot of people are expecting the D2X to be like the F5 which could be handheld in low light conditions and get great images, this isnt the same beast...nope, not even close in low light regard, the D2X does everything well except shoot beautifully in low light, you really gotta work for those low light shots if you have a D2X but it CAN work...me personally, im buying a canon strictly for the high iso stuff just to make life easier on myself, but everything else...belongs to the nikon.

To you guys who say you cant get sharp images during daylight with the D2X...look at my slideshow of pics i made with mine this summer and tell me the D2X cant make sharp images....ill call you a liar!

www.TonyScavo.com/slideshow/slideshow.html

Tony any chance I can get a copy of the MX pic with the roost perfectly distributed in front of him? I would like to post it at www.thumpertalk.com. I would of course credit you and all that.

Greg

Edited on Oct 11, 2005 at 08:22 PM

Oct 11, 2005 at 03:36 AM

Tony_E_Scavo
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p.1 #11 · D2x meets its maker

Sure, its already linked on another thread i started on here a few days ago...d2X slideshow, Thanks greg

post the whole slideshow if ya want

Edited on Oct 11, 2005 at 08:22 PM

Oct 11, 2005 at 05:07 AM

George61d
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p.1 #12 · D2x meets its maker

mdborland wrote:
George61d wrote:

George,

I had trouble with the D2X until I realized two things:
1. The AF sensors are much bigger than the focus brackets would make you believe. If the subject is lower contrast than something behind it, the D2X may well focus on the background.

2. The four corner sensors on my unit are all displaced diagonally toward the center of the frame.

Maybe you have other problems, but knowing these points helped me improve my results. Hope this helps and let us know how it goes.

--Michael

Michael

Thanks for this input. I am aware of both of these points and have commented on them in other posts. I agree that a lot of people believe that they have a back focus issue due to poor AF technique and not understanding the limitations of AF, particularly in dynamic modes.

However they are not the cause of my problem. In my initial post I indicated that I can see my focus issue in manual mode as well and that this hints at where the problem might be. For instance I have had situations where, in manual mode, the subject was clearly in focus in the viewfinder but out of focus in the photo. In shots with a relatively large DOF (relative to the size of the subject) this issue is masked, when you shorten the DOF the problem becomes highly visible. The fact that this occurs in manual mode when the subject is in focus in the viewfiner makes me suspect that there is an alignment issue.

As I look back over the images that I have sold this year I can see a lot of them are what I would call acceptably sharp within the limits of the print sizes requested by my clients, but only a few are really critically sharp. So I guess I have refused to recognise this problem all summer.

Edited on Oct 11, 2005 at 08:22 PM

Oct 11, 2005 at 08:40 AM

caryb
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p.1 #13 · D2x meets its maker

tazo wrote:
Multiply the time they say they will get the object back to you by 3, and you have a good representation of the time it takes to get repairs done!

I don't know about that. They told me 10 days and had it next-day aired back to me on the 7th.

Edited on Oct 11, 2005 at 08:22 PM

Oct 11, 2005 at 12:13 PM

George61d
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p.1 #14 · D2x meets its maker

well its gone now and I am reaquaiting myself with the F5....what a great camera

Oct 11, 2005 at 08:22 PM


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