D300 Long Exposure Night Test
So tonight I took my D300 out to Mesa beach and shot a few tests to see what it's really capable of. The following shots are all taken with the D300 set to Manual, ISO 200, f/6.7, and roughly 5 minute exposures. Lens is a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 with a UV filter on (forgot to take it off... oops). None of the pictures in this review have had any post processing done besides levels/curves and White Balance tweaks.
Let me first say that the camera is a blast to shoot with after my D70. It's much easier to align dark night landscapes in the bigger viewfinder. The rear LCD shooting info display is nice, though I found it a bit bright, taking a bit away from my night vision, so I stuck to the lighted top LCD.
Second, and more importantly, the shot above was taken with NO NOISE REDUCTION AT ALL. That's a 5 minute shot, in relatively warm conditions, with no perceivable amp glow or extraneous noise. There are two or three hot pixels, but these are even easier to deal with than dust (which the D300 shouldn't suffer from too bad, what with the dust removal feature).
I can't emphasize enough how freakin ecstatic this makes me! This cuts my shooting time in half, allowing me to experiment more and make the most of the changing light and weather conditions at night. I'm as happy as Dick Cheney with a shotgun and an unlimited Pentagon budget. It's that good.
Here are some 100% crops:
From picture above. Noise reduction off.
From next full sized picture below. Shows top right corner of the image. Noise reduction off.
For reference, this is from a similar exposure with Long Exposure NR turned on. I can't see a whole lot of difference.
Next full moon, I'll try some light painting to see how much better the CMOS sensor handles light painting. My D70 shots always had significant blooming that I thought was chromatic aberration, even though it showed up with lenses that I thought exhibited next to no CA any other time. Till then, here are a couple more samples, sans noise reduction:
Labels: D300 night "long exposure"
Beautiful.
Anonymous on Nov 29 at 08:04 AM
I’ve made the same move as you (from D70) and much of my work is night shooting. Hard to believe how much better things have gotten with the D300. I’m in heaven, and my Canon pals are starting to get jealous. And I’m really liking the MC-36 too!
Anonymous on Nov 29 at 10:05 AM
Excellent results. I also got the same camera and it arrived yesterday, so I didn’t have a chance to properly try it out yet, but wow - a few shots I did were noticeably better quality than the D40 I owned for a year now.
Anonymous on Nov 29 at 11:26 AM
Hi there! Let me say how pleasing it is to see such fantastic long exposure results from the nikon camp. Mine is arriving next week and ive been so worried because up until now id not seen proof of the d300s capabilities in this regard. Long exposure shots are my favourite and i lucked out badly with the d80. Thankyou!
Anonymous on Dec 07 at 02:02 AM
Hi there! Let me say how pleasing it is to see such fantastic long exposure results from the nikon camp. Mine is arriving next week and ive been so worried because up until now id not seen proof of the d300s capabilities in this regard. Long exposure shots are my favourite and i lucked out badly with the d80. Thankyou!
Anonymous on Dec 07 at 02:02 AM
Hi there! Let me say how pleasing it is to see such fantastic long exposure results from the nikon camp. Mine is arriving next week and ive been so worried because up until now id not seen proof of the d300s capabilities in this regard. Long exposure shots are my favourite and i lucked out badly with the d80. Thankyou!
Anonymous on Dec 07 at 02:02 AM
Thanks, guys… so far I couldn’t be happier with the D300’s long exposure chops. I want to do more night shooting before I really start praising it though, so I’m looking forward to the next moon.
Toby on Dec 07 at 08:28 AM
Hi there, I’m curious with the D300 if you can manual focus with live view ? The reason I ask is, I use my d70 for astrophotography and currently ouput to a small lcd to help achieve focus .. live view and no amp glow have masses of appeal :) These are stunning shots btw, for which my visa card is starting to panic !
Anonymous on Feb 27 at 03:36 PM
@al - not only can you focus manually in live view, you can also zoom in to 100% while manually focusing to really check if you’ve got it. I’ve never really used live view, but from playing around it seems to work great for critical focusing situations where you’re using a tripod and have plenty of time ;)
Toby on Feb 27 at 04:38 PM
aw man, I was kinda hoping you’d say no .. now my visa has had a coronary and my wife is starting to panic ! Off to the shops I go .. Cheers, al.
Anonymous on Feb 27 at 07:34 PM
Hey there - speccy results and ones which helped my decision to go the D300 from the D70. Unfortunately my results were not quite the same as yours. Found out some interesting stuff, see this thread on dpreview for a VERY long discussion and some findings. http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1039&message=27039745 Can I ask what the outside temp was in your images?
Tim on Mar 08 at 04:49 PM
If you take a 10 minute shot with noise reduction on, how long does it take to run? The D200 reportedly processed in-camera noise reduction in about half the exposure time (i.e. 10 minute shot, then noise reduction for 5 minutes, then you can shoot again). Wondering if the D300 is the same. Thanks - Joe
Joe on Jul 10 at 04:20 PM
the longest successful exposure ive taken with my d300 was 5 minutes - not that great. As far as i have seen the processing time equals the exposure time but it may change in the longer exposures. I’ve been waiting to find time and a clear night to try maybe stacking 20 or so 1 minute images and see how it goes :) If you would like to see some of my D300 pics you can visit my dA page http://onesadlittleboy.deviantart.com/gallery
Cam on Jul 14 at 03:03 PM
The D300 is a great tool; I own two of them! I also like night photography, and your images are fantastic; however, you might not be giving yourself enough credit. The camera only captures what it’s pointed at. Your have a gifted sense as to where to point the lens.
Bob on Apr 20 at 07:16 AM