Nikon D200 for night photography
A night well spent — by Laura Elskan
Last week Andy Frazer posted a 50 minute exposure by Laura Elskan from the Nikon D200 on his night photography blog. The discussion that followed in the comments blows the doors off dSLR night photography equipment discussions — here’s why:
- The 10 megapixel Nikon D200 is $1400, almost half the price of a Canon 5D. Yes, the 5D has 3 more megapixels. No I don’t want to start a Nikon vs. Canon debate.
- The Nikon D200 appears to be clean up to 15 minutes without noise reduction. As a Canon 5D shooter, I’m really amazed. The 5D is pretty clean in the 6-8 minute range, but starts to show a purple glow at the edge of the frame beyond 8 minutes. There are also D70 noise tests from the same website.
- The Nikon D200 reportedly does dark frame subtraction in just over half of the original exposure time. With the 5D, in camera noise reduction takes the same amount of time as the exposure. With the 5D, if I make a 20 minute exposure, then noise reduction takes 20 minutes. The D200 would apparently be able to process noise reduction in about 12 minutes. The 5D and 1DSII do allow you to start shooting again right away by holding the noise reduction in the buffer, but noise reduction eventually has to run for the exposure time. And don’t run out of batteries before it does!
We’ll see what the next generation of cameras holds in store for night photography. I’d like a 22 megapixel camera with clean 20 minute long exposures and a screamingly sharp 21mm f/2 prime lens, please.
Related posts:
Janne:
If the D200 is like the D80 (and I don’t know if it is), then even the RAW file is not actually raw; the camera does some noise reduction (mostly color noise removal) on the data no matter what you do.
Good thing or not? I don’t know. But it does make many direct comparisons like this one somewhat tricky; you effectively have “permission” to do some noise removal on the 5D before comparing.
10 February 2007, 8:45 amjoe:
Hi Janne -
Good point. The Canon 5D seems to be performing dark frame subtraction, which does not appear to show any loss of detail. I wonder if the D200 is using some other sort of in camera noise reduction technique, and if there are tradeoffs between noise and sharpness? The small web based test files look impressive. It would definitely be interesting to have some D200 RAW files to compare.
Cheers,
Joe
10 February 2007, 10:49 amjoe:
This news just in from a good friend who has done extensive long exposure testing with the Canon 1DS MkII and Nikon D200 side by side:
The higher resolution of the 1DS MkII makes a significant impact on thermal noise. 1DS MkII images with long exposure noise look much cleaner when downsampled to be on equal footing with the 10 megapixel Nikon D200. Of course downsampling the 1DSII files is mereley an exercise — why throw away pixels unless you’re only going to make small prints?
Noise analysis and camera comparisons are complex issues. Looking at long exposure night photographs from the D200 and 1DSII side by side at 100% view in Photoshop, my friend found the D200 files to be cleaner. He owns the 1DSII and was borrowing the D200 for the test. We’re planning to compare the D200 with the Canon 5D at night when time allows.
Cheers,
Joe
11 February 2007, 10:08 ampfong:
Thanks for highlighting Laura’s work. Seeing something amazing like this is inspiring me to try something new with my camera.
13 February 2007, 6:24 pmfotoaficionado » Archivo del weblog » Larga exposición con la D200:
[...] Fuente: joereifer.com Enlace: Exposición de 4 horas con una D200 [...]
17 February 2007, 9:18 amJoe Reifer - Words » Blog Archive » Night photography: 35mm digital & medium format film:
[...] minute exposure necessitates an additional 15 minutes for noise reduction to run. There are a few notable exceptions to the 1:1 exposure time to noise reduction ratio. Noise reduction can be performed in [...]
3 November 2007, 11:59 amPhotoburner » Blog Archive » Dark frame noise reduction:
[...] Andy Frazier a well known night photographer and Nocturnes member suggests an even longer duration, 5 or 6 minutes. And DPReview has reported no benefits on the Canon 40D with or without LENR for 30 second exposures. Joe Reifer has some tests on the Canon 5D where he suggests you have a problems around 8 minutes or so. And that noise becomes a problem on older Nikons around 3 minutes. But the 5D is older technology now, superseded by lower noise sensors and Nikons too have better sensors. Joe Reifer has some comments about the Nikon D200 here. [...]
12 March 2009, 4:23 pm