Nikon D-300

[jallsman]

I would appreciate information on the Nikon D-300. I bought one last year and I'm having some trouble getting a correct exposure. Your experience would be very helpful. I concentrate on wildlife. When shooting on program in Yellowstone, I'm getting a blackish grey color on the grass. My wife's D-80 produces a golden yellow color on the grass. The EV is set at 1/3 stop. When I get a totally black image and change the EV 1/3, I get a blown out image. Is it me or the camera????
Jim

[E.J. Peiker]

It might be best if you post a sample image in this thread.

[Dave Courtenay]

For the correct exposure check your histogram, I would advise coming off of program and using AV or Manual, Can you post an image so that we can see the colour issue

Dave

[Alan Melle]

In my experience the D300 rarely produces an image that is very far off from a correct exposure when used in an automatic mode, like "program". While I don't recommend shooting in "program" mode it should be still produce good exposures. It sounds likely that some of the camera's settings have been changed, causing unintended results, such as the drastically wrong color shift. Try the two button reset (p. 184 of the D300 manual) to reset everything to the factory defaults. If you still get improper exposures and wrong colors the camera may be a candidate for repair. If you do the reset and want to shoot in Raw you will need to change the settings for "Image quality" and possibly "Image size" as the default setting will be jpeg rather than raw.

[Zeitelhack]

I have been shooting with a D-300 for about 18 months and have found my exposure problems to always be "user error". There are so many separate control settings that could affect the exposure, you should probably go back to the manual or take some advice for settings from the various books available. I'd advise starting all over in setting-up your camera. Clearly, the -1/3 EV setting isn't the culprit. I took a class from John Shaw about a year ago and learned to simplify my settings a bit. He recommends shooting in Aperture priority and I have found that I get better results with that than I did in Program mode. I am NO expert at this stuff, but I really think it is unlikely that the camera is the problem here, no disprespect intended. I just know that I made lots of blunders early-on with this wonderful camera. Once I learned more about the controls, my shooting improved greatly. I'm still learning lots each time I go on a shoot though - mostly by making mistakes. = )

[John Labrenz]

Please post some sample images....with the cam settings used for each image.

[Tim Zurowski]

If you are truly going from a totally black exposure to a blown exposure in only 1/3 stop, then there is something wrong with the camera. I would get it checked out ASAP myself.

[John P]

If you are going for a under-exposure to over-exposure in 1/3 stop! You have a camera problem!! I have been shooting a D300 for about two years and it is an excellent camera, you need to get in touch with Nikon Service or a Certified Nikon repair center.

[jallsman]

Thanks for the info. I'm going with the user being the problem and resetting . Take a look at portfolio
allsman. I don't want you to think I miss then all. Thanks for your help


Jim

[Andrew Kandel]

I wonder if the camera is set to spot metering. That would explain wild differences between pictures especially if the setting was high contrast.

[calvin1calvin]

I had a similar problem with getting all whites and white noise and thought it was the camera body, however, I found the lens I was using was not stopping down to the selected aperture at the time of exposure. One of the blades on the internal of the lens was sticking "occasionally" which required the lens to go in for service. The way i found the problem was when I pressed the DOF preview and the lens did not stop down. I could remove the lens from the camera and trip the lever to reset and it would work sometime. I have a D300 and find the meter does a fine job on the exposure. Like the others have stated i would get out of program mode.

[Steve F]

If your exposures are jumping all over the place another possibility is that you have AEB (Automatic Exposure Bracketing) set. I've inadvertently left mine set after shooting some HDRs and was going nuts until I discovered AEB was still set. The two button reset should take care of this.

[YWguide]

Jim,

I know you have all kinds of possible explanations posted here, but here is one more not knowing your shooting style.

I got the same kinds of results on my D300 when I was shooting from a tripod, eye to viewfinder for a few shots, then backing my eye off the viewfinder and taking shots again. The exposure bounced all over. It took a few times out to realize what was happening but it was the act of the extra light in the viewfinder adjusting the exposure when I had my eye away. Using AE-lock would fix that situation.