Oh dear, the D300 might be on the way out....

kalibre

kalibre

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It's developed a strange fault, don't know if it's sensor death. I don't have any shots uploaded yet so bear with me, but basically the top 6th of every picture is underexposed in a gradient fashion, approx -2EV at the extreme edge merging slowly into the correct exposure. I've only just noticed as I was doing a shoot with a pure white BG.

The detail is still recorded because I can use the gradient exposure tool in LR to counter it's effects but it's just bizarre. It appears with any lens and at any aperture. If the camera is turned on it's side then it moves to the relevant side and still corresponds with the top of the body.

Viewing through the finder and through live view are perfect. I've taken a look at the sensor and there are no marks or obstructions.

What the hell is it? any ideas?
:thinking:
 
I've only ever seen anything like that once, but it was a Canon, not a Nikon, just prior to the spring on the AF mirror failing.

Not saying that is what's happening here, but it might be worth removing the lens and watching the AF mirror as you fire off a few shots to see if it is opening and closing properly.
 
Sounds a bit like the shutter may be getting a bit sticky. A service might sort it out. If not, I don't think shutter replacements are too expensive.
 
The shutter could be on the way out but just out of interest is this only happening when using flash?

If so your going above the camera's sync speed = 1/250

T:
 
its stories like this that out me off cheaper 2nd hand bodies :(
 
Flash In The Pan said:
If you go over the sync speed isn't it normally just a solid black band?
Click to expand...

It will be solid if you go way over, but for say 1/320th or even 1/400th and also if your shooting against a very light background, the shutter flap appears as a gradient as opposed to a solid black band.
There's some really interesting youtube viddies on how to cheat the sync speed outdoors, using the gradient to your advantage like but I cannee remember which photog posted them though :thinking:
 
Tomas Whitehouse said:
It will be solid if you go way over, but for say 1/320th or even 1/400th and also if your shooting against a very light background, the shutter flap appears as a gradient as opposed to a solid black band.
There's some really interesting youtube viddies on how to cheat the sync speed outdoors, using the gradient to your advantage like but I cannee remember which photog posted them though :thinking:
Click to expand...


I've no doubt you're right, Tomas, I've certainly never come across any problems like that with the D300 or any of my other Nikon bodies :shrug:

Turning the camera upside down to cheat the sync speed is a well-known trick. I think it was a wedding photographer that posted videos or pics on his blog, but I seem to remember David Hobby picking it up and mentioned it on Strobist too, .
 
I've still got the BG up as the client just left so I'll retest, but I'm shooting at 1/250 the same as I've always done with no issues. Be right back.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
I've no doubt you're right, Tomas, I've certainly never come across any problems like that with the D300 or any of my other Nikon bodies :shrug:

Turning the camera upside down to cheat the sync speed is a well-known trick. I think it was a wedding photographer that posted videos or pics on his blog, but I seem to remember David Hobby picking it up and mentioned it on Strobist too, .
Click to expand...

Yep, that's the one mate, a wedding chap!

kalibre said:
I've still got the BG up as the client just left so I'll retest, but I'm shooting at 1/250 the same as I've always done with no issues. Be right back.
Click to expand...

Well it's deffo due in for a check up at the doctors then mate :(
 
I'll dig the videos out Tomas, if I can remember who it was, and post them on TP, someone might find it useful :)

I'll stick to using the D70 for that sort of stuff :D
 
What the hell, it's stopped! Went back to retest and I couldn't get it to bite. Bearing in mind is been 100% across 3 shoots on 3 days that's bl^^dy annoying.

Here are the shots of it when it was mis-behaving:

F8 - 1/250 - Top of camera to the right (see how crisp and white the left of shot is)
D300SP1.jpg


F8 - 1/250 - Top of camera to the left (now the previously crisp section has the issue)
D300SP2.jpg


Just out of interest I just set the shutter speed to 1/320 and it looked identical to the problem I was having.
 
Stop the press, I've figured it out. Phew.

I think it's a by-product of my Elinchrom Sky Ports running low on batts. There was a small portion of the last shoot when they ran completely out of juice so I swapped to sync-lead, and they're perfect!

That's a bit dodgy though, surely they should work fully at 1/250 until the last click. They've been doing this for over 500 pics now. Maybe they have turned faulty? I will charge them and check.

Not too impressed with the usable battery life if this is going to happen every time though.
 
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