Toby Keller - Night Photography Blog

Long Exposure Landscapes, D300 + 12-24

Shooting more long exposures with the D300 confirmed my initial findings: there is no need for in-camera noise reduction for exposures up to 10 minutes (the longest I tried) at ISO 200. I took twice as many pictures last night, which was a huge benefit with the changing light and quickly moving cloud cover. Something that occasionally led to ruined images on the D70 - when the battery was too low to complete dark-frame NR - is no longer an issue, either.

I was very impressed with the battery power of the D300 vs. the D70. I had expected less battery life from the huge-screened monster. But in fact for long exposure work, I'm getting even better battery life than the D70! On a fully charged D70 battery, I would average about 12-15 5 to 8 minute long exposures before the battery got too low to complete dark-frame NR. Last night with the D300, I managed 12 5 to 8 minute shots and the battery still shows 3 (out of 5) bars!

I recently sold my Tamron 11-18mm superwide lens and bought a Tokina 12-24mm f/4. There were a few things about the Tamron that annoyed me, and I finally had enough and made the switch. Last night I took the Tokina out along with the D300 to test it out.

The Tamron was a great lens, all things considered. It produced most of the landscapes and night work here on Burnblue. But I was constantly bothered by things like the variable aperture, slight softness in the corners, barrel distortion at 11mm, and the focus ring rotating while autofocusing. The Tokina takes care of all those problems. It still has some barrel distortion at the wide end, but not as much. The only thing I really miss about the Tamron is that extra mm on the wide end. It actually does make a noticeable difference!

Overall, I'm quite happy with both new toys. They are both extremely well built, beautifully functional tools.

Labels: d300, landscape, long exposure, night