A not so successfull photo trip

[Bjørn Solberg]

This shooting should have taken place 2 days ago, but in cold winter, my car battery was completely dead. The idea was to shoot closeup of the Hurtigruten (world famous in Norway), with the mountains and morning sun through the clouds as background. Car  battery replaced, today I brought my D3s and newly acquired 300mm 2.8 + TC 301 and tripod. Unfortunately I forgot my glasses at home (+2.0), the camera did not like the lens setup, hence ERR all over the place, but I managed to shoot some anyway. But with a 600mm, perspective becomes quite different, and very little mountain and sky, compared with the additional picture taken with CV 125mm. And practically no ship. I probably have to get into a boat to get the shots I have imagined in my head. Still learning, and since my "graphic images" the other day was well received, I shot a motive with my CV 125 for “Photoshop sliding” as bonus. And yes, I enjoyed the fresh air of January 1st 2018.

[MFloyd]

You could have adjusted the ocular to match (more or less) your lack of glasses (diopter adjustment -3 to +1).  First picture: underexposed for me; second picture: why this slow speed / small aperture ?  Third one: yes, but from time to time (Germans would call this "Spielerei").

And, by the way, you have spots on your sensor, which should be cleaned (spots which are accentuated by small aperture). I believe you will have to proceed to a "wet" cleaning; for this I'm using swabs and liquids from Visible Dust (more or less every 7'000 frames) https://www.visibledust.com/products.php#swab

Wish you a happy New Year   

[armando_m]

The extreme PS sliding is again quite successful

Happy 2018

[Bjørn Solberg]

Thanks for constructive feedback MFloyd, I think the spots are from lens and TC (forgot to clean TC altogether). "Spielerei", well when things go bad, its important to remember to have some fun (added to illustrate that).


Happy 2018 to NikonGear members in Switzerland and Mèxico.

[MFloyd]

Hello Bjørn wishes from Switzerland. The spots are definitely on your sensor; if these were from your lens or TC, this would have led to an overall image degradation (difficult to notice) but certainly not "focused" spots, the latter, probably deposited on the anti-aliasing filter.

[Jack Dahlgren]

I agree, those are dust on sensor as they are also visible in your last photo which does not appear to use the TC.
For landscapes like these, I like to use f/8 or some where around there where the lens has maximum sharpness and motion caused by wind and waves will be substantially less.
Depth of field with a subject half a kilometer away is nothing to worry about.

[Bjørn Solberg]

OK I'll check it out, thanks : -)

[Bjørn Solberg]

I locked up the mirror and checked under a magnifying lamp, saw nothing. But photographing a blank sheet gives a different result. Had anyways plans for delivering camera for service this spring. Thanks again.

[MFloyd]

You are welcome. But sensor cleaning is a 5’ job you can easily perform yourself: you should have the appropriate width of cleaning pads, cleaning fluid and follow instructions you can find all over the net. This is not rocket science. 😊

[Bjørn Solberg]

Yes, I have original Nikon pads, wet and dry. But camera went in the mail today to FOTOCARE Oslo for general service. Bought camera second hand, and it probably never have had a good service. Advantage is no possibility to blame camera for lousy pictures, and its easier to know where you "lost it" if you have a 100% camera. Besides I have had for some time a small packet from Focusingscreen.com they will take care of for me. Your advice is good and appropriate, I appreciate it, but I just felt like spending some money to boost the new year ; -))

[MFloyd]

It's always good to have the equipment serviced from time to time 😊