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Archive 2017 · ISO and shutter speed BIF D850

N_Perceptions
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · ISO and shutter speed BIF D850

Hi everyone!

I have been photographing eagles in Greenland for a week now with my newly acquired D850.
But I'm struggling to get good images with the camera.

I'm using the Sigma 500 f4 sports lens and I'm usually shooting at f4 with a shutter speed of 3200.
I'm using manual mode with auto iso and I hardly ever get below iso 6400. It's been a bit grey and cloudy but I still think the light has been pretty bright.

If I go under 3200 in SS like 1600/s I get noticeable more unsharp photos, I'm handholding the lens but sometimes use a tripod with a gimbal head.

It's almost like I'm getting better images with the D500 since I can use SS of 1600 or less with my lens and hence the iso goes down. I have been reading on various websites that people are using iso of max 800-1000 while using the D850 and for me thats crazy low!

Any thoughts of how I can improve my technique or settings to be able to get lower iso's?

Thanks in advance!

/Dennis

Dec 28, 2017 at 12:25 PM

morris
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · ISO and shutter speed BIF D850

I know a lot of people like to freeze the wings yet letting them blur will imply motion. Drop your shutter speed and ISO and take some stunning images.

Morris

Dec 28, 2017 at 12:46 PM

kwilliam8
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · ISO and shutter speed BIF D850

Dennis,

I assume that you have AF tuned the lens and camera, and that that is not an issue. For action images, on both the D500 and the D850, I use a shutter speed of 1/2500 of a second, and that works well for me for all but the fastest birds (e.g., swallows and purple martins). Since the photo receptor sizes of the D850 and D500 cameras are very similar, I can not understand why you need much faster speeds for the D850 over the D500. Are you using similar AF modes on both the D850 and the D500?

In the sometimes very dark and grey skies of the PNW in winter time, I will often pick the D5 camera body over either the D500 or the D850. I can bump the ISO well above 10,000 on the D5 and get acceptable images (with good and careful noise reduction in post processing). I am not sure whether that is an option for you or not.

Would love you see your images when you get back! Good luck!

Keith W.

Dec 28, 2017 at 04:03 PM

kwilliam8
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · ISO and shutter speed BIF D850

You might want to post this query to the Nikon forum for another potential set of responses.
Keith W.

Dec 28, 2017 at 06:10 PM

RandyR
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · ISO and shutter speed BIF D850

So far 3200 is my limit on the D850

Dec 28, 2017 at 06:15 PM

Imagemaster
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · ISO and shutter speed BIF D850

morris wrote:
I know a lot of people like to freeze the wings yet letting them blur will imply motion. Drop your shutter speed and ISO and take some stunning images.

Morris

N_Perceptions wrote:
If I go under 3200 in SS like 1600/s I get noticeable more unsharp photos,

Dec 28, 2017 at 07:04 PM

Imagemaster
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · ISO and shutter speed BIF D850

It does not sound that shutter speed is your problem. Posting some examples would help.

Dec 28, 2017 at 07:05 PM

kwilliam8
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · ISO and shutter speed BIF D850

Is it possible that your AF sensor has a dust bunny? You might try a blower in that area (under the mirror assembly) to clean the area out.
Keith W.

Dec 28, 2017 at 10:00 PM

N_Perceptions
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · ISO and shutter speed BIF D850

morris wrote:
I know a lot of people like to freeze the wings yet letting them blur will imply motion. Drop your shutter speed and ISO and take some stunning images.

Morris

I agree that blurring the wings etc can create really powerful images and I will try that in the next few days. It's been really windy over here the last 3 days with winds up to 40m/s

Dec 30, 2017 at 01:39 PM

N_Perceptions
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · ISO and shutter speed BIF D850

RandyR wrote:
So far 3200 is my limit on the D850

I agree on that myself RandyR, my images taken at iso 6400 aren't detailed enough for my taste

Dec 30, 2017 at 01:44 PM

N_Perceptions
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · ISO and shutter speed BIF D850

kwilliam8 wrote:
Is it possible that your AF sensor has a dust bunny? You might try a blower in that area (under the mirror assembly) to clean the area out.
Keith W.

I tried that, thanks for the tip

Dec 30, 2017 at 01:45 PM

N_Perceptions
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · ISO and shutter speed BIF D850

kwilliam8 wrote:
Dennis,

I assume that you have AF tuned the lens and camera, and that that is not an issue. For action images, on both the D500 and the D850, I use a shutter speed of 1/2500 of a second, and that works well for me for all but the fastest birds (e.g., swallows and purple martins). Since the photo receptor sizes of the D850 and D500 cameras are very similar, I can not understand why you need much faster speeds for the D850 over the D500. Are you using similar AF modes on both the D850 and the D500?

In the sometimes...Show more →

I fine tuned the lens back home but tried it again with the built in fine tune on the D850. Weirdly enough I got different values than with Reikan Focal and it seems like I'm getting more sharp and in focus shoots now, thanks!

But I'm still up in the iso 6400 range and I think I might have to surrender to a D5 or the D5s when it arrives.
I usually am out photographing really early in the mornings well before the sun starts to rise or set.

Dec 30, 2017 at 01:48 PM

N_Perceptions
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · ISO and shutter speed BIF D850

Thanks everyone for all the tips and these are my findings so far to get more sharp images with my type of shooting.

On the D500 I used group AF but on the D850 I get more sharp images with 9 point AF, so I have stopped using group.

I started to use spot metering instead of matrix and disabled the auto iso feature and metered manually on the sky and added +2 for my eagle shooting. This resulted that I could use iso at 2000-3200 instead with SS of 1250-1600 instead.

I'm struggling with the D850 but I'm learning to handle the camera more each time I use it. The technique has to be really good for a high pixel camera like this. I had the D4s prior to my D500 and D850 and it was somehow easier to use, but I also had that camera for years

.

Here are some images that I'm pretty happy with even though they have high iso values.

Dec 30, 2017 at 01:55 PM

N_Perceptions
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · ISO and shutter speed BIF D850

Forgot the images

Dec 30, 2017 at 01:58 PM


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