D300s over exposure

I have owned my D300s for approx 3 mos and am in contact with Nikon tech support but was wondering if anyone else has had a problem with erratic exposure with the 300S. In any metering mode the images are constantly over exposed with maybe 1 or 2 in 10 properly exposed. I do not shoot with auto iso on and there is no compensation dialed in, but I have shot very few images with proper exposure. I shoot mostly always in aperture priority mode. I have sent sample images to Nikon , but the techs seem to find nothing wrong with images. I realize I have never used a camera with cmos sensor before, having used the D70 and D200 , both having ccd sensors. Is there a big difference in the 2 sensors as far as exposure goes? Nikon suggested changing something in the custom settings , but I believe the camera should properly expose straight out of the box. Anyone else having this problem or willing to offer suggestions? Ray Dove

How are you judging "proper exposure"? By the camera's monitor, histogram, computer monitor that is calibrated?

I bought the D300s in mid-October and was actually going to ask some Nikon shooters if I'm doing something wrong, because literally EVERY image I take I have to dial in some negative compensation to get proper exposure (unless the subject is severely backlit). That being said, I currently am doing almost all avian photography and many birds have lots of white AND black, so it's always a challenge to get them properly exposed... but it seems that I'm always shooting with it at -.67 EC or -1 and have always been a little confused about this

Thanks Luke, I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem, though not glad that you are having problems also. Alan, I'm judging by all of the above, plus the flashing highlights warning.

I have my playback set to "highlights" which is how I judge my over-exposure. I'm also wondering if time of day has an effect as I remember taking some photos (the morning of my Gyrfalcon I believe) where I wasn't using an EC and was like "hey, this is pretty cool not having to worry about it!"

I have had the same problem with the one I bought. I've wondered if it was just mine or if others were also having this problem. I've met several other photographers on one of my mailing groups that sent theirs back to Nikon to try to figure out what the problem is. Seems maybe there are some "quality control" issues with Nikon.
So far, I'm not overly thrilled with this camera.

..Marcy

Hummm, are you shooting RAW? They always look bleached if the histogram is proper.

Have you printed the photos?

What about the lens contacts with the camera? Are they stopping down the diaphragm? and connecting with shutter speed?

Have you tried Auto White Balance? Go to Shooting Menue, White Balance, then Auto, then arrow to the right. This should give you a screen with a square. Make sure the small black square is in the middle. If it isn't, move it with the cursor control.

I don't have the 300S but the 300. I've seen some of my photos appear overexposed when the white balance was wrong.

Wish I could help more.

the fisch

Fisch -

None of those things should be an issue, I always shoot in RAW w/auto white balance and there certainly are no connection problems. If I don't dial in negative exposure compensation the photo will be overexposed and the highlights will be blown out. I chalked this all up to me being relatively new to photography, and again shooting (mostly birds) with high dynamic ranges, but I've noticed that no one else who posts here is routinely listing negative exposure comp and something must be amiss with the D300s.

- Luke

Just a couple of thoughts FWIW (I'm a Canon user and have no experience with Nikon).

It's taken me some time to get used to the way my metering system reacts to various scenes and I now typically use .5 to 1 stop of overexposure. But if the scene has more bright than dark, I may have to reduce this setting. And vice versa.

When using RAW it's best to 'expose to the right' some what and in post processing to reduce the exposure. This process preserves potential dynamic range of the image.

Marcy, do you know if Nikon has figured out the problem. The frustrating thing to me is that Nikon tech support has not acknowledged the problem with the samples I sent them. They stated that the images were well within range of lighting and they may be, but I do not want to have to correct the exposure on every image that I take in photoshop. I realize that most all raw images will need some correction in the image editing program, but the jpegs that I shoot should be properly exposed straight from the camera if the exposure meter and all other exposure tools are not defective.I would like to hear from others on this to use with Nikon when I contact them again. If there is a quality control issue , they should acknowledge and issue a recall for correction of these issues. Ray Dove

There is always going to be a few images which are mis-exposed and 1 or 2 out of 10 would seem normal to me, but 8 out of 10 over-exposed like you are claiming sounds like there is a definite issue. Sure you can always put on exposure compensation but you shouldn't have to. When I googled it to see if others were having the same issue I did find one other thread of someone with a D300s but I also found a ton of other threads about the original D300 having the same issue. Ken Rockwell thinks that all Nikon cameras tend to overexpose about 2/3 stops and require compensation. You may want to try some different metering modes and see if you have the same issue. I think the custom setting that Nikon was talking about was b6 which is explained here:

http://kenrockwell.com/nikon/d300/users-guide/menus-custom-metering.htm

Although from what Ken was saying is you shouldn't mess with that setting and it if your camera does not expose correctly you should have your camera repaired. He said the feature should have been hidden as a service facility tweak.

Do you happen to have any examples of the over exposed images with no adjustments that you could put up on something like flickr to show us?

Has anyone tried turning on the D-lighting to medium? I'm still on the learning curve with this camera too and cerntainly no expert but the d lighting seems to help, maybe because it is supposed to keep the hightlights from being blown and to keep details in the shadows.

Oh and if you shoot raw and forget to turn the d-lighting on when you shoot you can always add it using the View NX program if you edit in that program

D-lighting is set to "normal" on mine

I just bought a D300s and have taken about 1000 photos with it in the past week. The exposure looks spot on to me. Just thought I'd ruffle your feathers a bit.

We've had both of ours for about a year. Both have passed 10,000 shots and have been spot on throughout. Better in fact than our D2X's.

I think this problem is sporadic with many cameras, and has to do with the calibration of the sensor. My Canon 40D consistently shoots 2/3 stop underexposed. So whaddya do? Send back to manufacturer to see if they can compensate for this?

With a single camera, I don't see it as a problem. But in our case, switching back and forth between multiple cameras on the same shoot, we can't accept much variation. If they're more than 1/3 stop out, we ship them off. That's why we test new cameras pretty thoroughly the moment we get them.

I think it's normal. When I got my D300, I realized that it tended to expose "to the right" more than my previous cameras (D50 and D100), but I actually didn't get clipped histograms, just slightly bright photographs. Which is great because it's the best starting point for post processing (well, other than shooting RAW, of course) and reduces noise. So, my question would be whether you actually have real overexposure, as in strong clipping of the histogram on the white side, or just "bright" exposures that fall within the dynamic range of the camera.

In any case, you can always use some custom setting to reduce exposure a bit (I think it's "fine tune optimal exposure" or something like that) so that you don't need to have exposure compensation set all the time. I guess this feature was added just for people like the gentleman above who doesn't want to correct brightness on every photograph they take. Tastes differ among people, and you can't expect that a camera owned by thousands is taylored to your taste out of the box. But it offers the features so you can tailor it to your needs. I suggest using them.

"In any case, you can always use some custom setting to reduce exposure a bit (I think it's "fine tune optimal exposure" or something like that) so that you don't need to have exposure compensation set all the time. I guess this feature was added just for people like the gentleman above who doesn't want to correct brightness on every photograph they take."

Good point Basil.

I bought my first DSLR (D300s) about a month ago and have fired about 1000 shots. I first shot in RAW mode to check it out and found the photo a bit bland. This was expected since there was no auto enhancing. I next tried VIVID (w/ fine jpg)with an increase in sharpness to one position past center. This setting was fine with landscape shots but when photoing birds, the reds got blown out and I had to desaturate. Since then, I set the camera to Standard and upped the sharpness again and also increased saturation one notch. Like many, I'm experimenting a lot. I have been photographing since the early 70s and primarily was involved with B&W photography. This new camera is a trip with all the controls. So far I really like the camera, it suits my obsessive-compulsive personality.

I've had no problem at all with my D300, once I got the settings right.
Sandy r