Epic's Long Exposure and Sensitivity

[Gunleik Groven]

HDRx with 90 and 45 secs of exposure could be nice...

Deeeep focus and tons of detail -

 

[richard peterson]

Here is a frame from a timelapse I did last weekend... 8 second shot with the D3s. ISO 6400, f/2.8 @ 14mm. No in camera long exposure NR; The NR processing eats up the battery...

the blacks are clean but I wish I had the new nikkor 24/f1.4... I hear its crazy sharp and the extra stop would help reduce the star trials

 

[Tom Lowe]

richard, you shot this RAW or JPEG? I think Nikon applies some in-camera NR to their RAWs.

 

[richard peterson]

I shoot raw then exported to a jpeg image sequence via aperture... I just wanted to kick something out until I had a chance to get to the shot.

In the D3s menu there is an option for both
- Long exp.NR
- High ISO NR

I cut both of them off. On previous shots I found that the processing time for the NR was almost as long as my interval between shoots and while its processing Live View stays off. I like to run with live view so i can check the shots between exposures... the NR post processing was getting in the way.

I would love to get down to 3200 but I need faster glass.

BTW Tom thanks for your awesome work and all you have shared with everyone. Your work is one of my main inspirations for staying up all night

 

[Tom Lowe]

Thanks richard!

So the processing time for in-camera NR happens even when you are shooting only RAW, with no JPEG sidecar? Maybe it's mapping hot pixels. This feature is not possible for me to use, even if I wanted to, because the intervals would be too long between timelapse frames, as you mentioned. My max interval is about 5 seconds.

 

[Pawel Achtel]

I shoot raw then exported to a jpeg image sequence via aperture... I just wanted to kick something out until I had a chance to get to the shot.

In the D3s menu there is an option for both
- Long exp.NR
- High ISO NR

I cut both of them off...

Thanks Richard,

It looks surprisingly low noise at ISO 6400. Can you post a small 1:1 crop of the blacks without any post noise reduction so I could pixel peep it? Do you think the D3 has lower noise at long exposures than 5D II? It looks very impressive on the image you provided.

 

[Tom Lowe]

D3s is supposed to have outstanding high-ISO performance. Any chance you could post the RAW file, richard?

If you were willing, you could upload it here, for example: http://www.2shared.com

 

[Pawel Achtel]

D3s is supposed to have outstanding high-ISO performance....

Or, better still, can anyone disable all NR on a D3, set ISO 6400 and expose for 30 seconds with a lens cap on?...cough, cough, I think I have done it once or twice before...unintentionally

 

[Larry Gebhardt]

Hey Richard.

Nice shot!

I think the "trails" you are referring to is a little bit of coma. They all radiate from the center out, and are only on the extremes of the shot. Also, 8 sec. exposure on a 14mm lens should not cause trails.

The center stars are sharp.

Larry

 

[Tom Lowe]

It's also just general distortion, I would think. The 14-24 and Canon 14mm 2.8 II also do this - smear the stars in the corners. For timelapse, it's nice, because it distorts/warps the view and makes dolly or panning moves more pronounced. It "sells" the move, so to speak.

 

[richard peterson]

http://www.2shared.com/file/yTi382nV/NikonD3s_HiISO.html

Here are a few raw files with a Nikon D3s. I took each shoot @ 3200,6400,12800. All the NR was off. There is a lot of light pollution around my house so the 8 second shots are really bright. Just check the meta for the settings. The lens cap shot was @ 15 seconds (I can't see much noise... I should have burned for 30). Maybe later

 

[richard peterson]

Thanks richard!

So the processing time for in-camera NR happens even when you are shooting only RAW, with no JPEG sidecar? Maybe it's mapping hot pixels. This feature is not possible for me to use, even if I wanted to, because the intervals would be too long between timelapse frames, as you mentioned. My max interval is about 5 seconds.

When NR is active the processing happens with and without aJPEG sidecar. .. It says processing on the top screen. Of course you can still fire shoots but once you stop shooting the camera starts to clear the buffer. When I disable long Exp. NR the LiveView return is almost instant.

 

[Tom Lowe]

richard, could you post the milky way image from earlier in RAW? i am interested to open it and pixel peep it in ACR.