D810 consistant slight over exposure

<p>Coming from a D700 I find that when shooting using all metering points except the single centre weighted that my D810 tends to over expose more than I remember the D700. Even the highlight weighted point does not make a difference in the limited situations I've used it. The over exposure seems to be exacerbated a tad more again when using ISO 1000 or greater.</p>

<p>I'm talking about a small amount of over exposure here, maybe half a stop at low ISO and alittle bit more at higher ISO - nothing wildly incorrect but consistantly too bright. </p>

<p>I'm really only noticing this now that I have low angled winter sun and some difficult high contrast subjects to shoot like cloud edges or black and white coloured birds. I've only been shooting with the D810 for a few months but have had plenty of indoor time to edit photos and have just noticed this.</p>

<p>As far a in camera set up goes I"m shooting in manual or aperture mode with active D lighting both on (normal) and off - makes no difference to my perceived over exposure issue. I have no other in camera adjustments switched on and as far as I can tell I have the D810 set excactly the same as I had the D700 incl. the same array of lenses. I shoot RAW and open with Adobe PNG as I did with the D700 using the same monitor.</p>

<p>I have begun to wind back the exposure compensator -0.3EV which pretty much removes the issue with the high contrast situations like magpies etc.</p>

<p>Has anyone else noticed this with the D810?</p>

<p>That is why I use centre weighted and manual almost exclusively. Matrix is designed for many applications, however people complained so much about 'dark' images from the D70, D200 I feel (personal opinion) that Nikon said, OK, lets make images brighter. So starting with the D80, D7000 etc, we have a brighter picture using Matrix. Many like this, however I do feel that centre weighted gives more balanced and consistent results. Although saying that, Matrix works very well in well and evenly lit scenes such as the beach or scenery where other systems tend towards under exposure.</p>

<p>My D700 in matrix metering mode tends to overexposure, compared to the D300 I had before, and the D80 before that was tricked extremely easily in backlit conditions, and.... well, matrix metering works most of the time, but in my view it's not entirely consistent between cameras (as you are noticing), plus not knowing exactly how it meters, it's hard to "troubleshoot" and hard to learn when to expect what. I do prefer spot metering whenever the situation is a bit more complex, as I understand what it does, and hence what to expect (centre-weighted would work equally well, but I've grown used to spot metering). <br>

There is also a difference between profiles for cameras in raw conversion tools; there is always a level of processing, including a response curve which may make an image seem to be over- or underexposed. The profiles used in Adobe Camera Raw for a D700 and D810 aren't identical, and this may cause differences.</p>

<p>If you're not using a Nikon raw conversion tool, better to leave Active D-Lighting off - it can change exposure (in order to gain dynamic range in processing). Tools other than Nikon's however do not know about ADL, so they'll just show the slight underexposure, with no gain otherwise. All in all, ADL does nothing that tools like Lightroom, CaptureOne or Adobe Camera Raw can't do - it's not all that useful for raw.</p>

<p>b7</p>

<p>Many thanks Ian and Wouter, my faith in my own sanity is now somewhat more intact than before. I am pleased to read that there are a few different reasons why this might so. </p>

<p>It took me less time to feel comfortable and shoot consistantly with the D700 (a matter of a few weeks compared to a few months and still treading water with the D810) This surprises me a little but is not alarming me.</p>

<p>I found Active D lighting a real boost for my landscapes with the D700. I'll keep it switched off for a good while now and change one setting at a time to see how my D810 behaves. I suspect I need to experiment with the settings and revise my set up as simply matching the D700 set up is not getting me quite to where I want my images to be at.</p>

<p>I think the cryptic comment by Vilk Inc above is the correct answer. From my experience and from what I read (DP Review tests), new Nikon cameras slightly overexpose. I don't understand why they are set up that way especially with the huge dynamic range that can pull amazing detail out of the shadows. If you blow out a highlight your done. Menu item b7 allows one to set an exposure correction for each metering mode which is something I have done on my cameras. </p>

<p>:)</p>

<p>I almost always set my Nikon DSLR's to -.3EV, Sometimes, I think I should set my D810 to -.6EV. It does seem to expose a little more than the cameras I had previously.</p>

<p>Thanks Robert - my sanity is further restored.</p>

<p>Vilk - Sorry ithat I missed your post as i was composing my overy wordy response.......... I get to b7 (many thanks for the clue BTW) as I have a similar day of lighting conditions today and can re-shoot much of what I shot yesterday with adjustments........ </p>

<p>My approach to exposure is to capture as much information as possible and use the processing tools to manage it. As a result the images from my D7000 appear over exposed, but the highlights are rarely actually washed out. If the dynamic range exceeds what you expect in an exposure in the camera you are either going to seem to lose highlight detail or shadow detail, or both if you choose some middle position. If the captured image is manageable in Lightroom and Photoshop, or whatever tools you use, me view is to be prepared to use all your tools (remember the camera is simply one tool in a sequence of tools) to get to the final output. I remember the advice I got from Ansel Adams back in the late '60s, that photographs are made between your ears, the camera and darkroom (chemical or digital) are the tools you use to extract that image.</p>

<p>Dialing down the exposure in the b7 menu settings is getting me much closer to my expectations and Active D lighting is behaving like it did back on the D700, which I find to be a useful tool for some of the shooting I do. </p>

<p>I also think that I'm asking too much of the sensor in extreme lighting situations and indeed need to wise up to how I want to expose the high contrast / shooting into the sun frames.</p>

<p>i had the same issue with my d3 and d3x. i noticed that they expose differently.<br>

if you check the exifs you will see that iso 100 actually reads iso 105 or something.<br>

the number is slightly different. the nikon support confirmed that different cameras work different in this terms and this is how it is supposed to be.<br>

till then i have my d3 on -0.3ev consantly. always</p>

<p>in addition to that you are comparing an 8 year old sensor to a new one.<br>

one that is totally different.</p>

<p>its supposed to be like that, i know in comparism it looks weird, but that can be fixed in post</p>