D90, Black Bottom Half of the Frame (Any help appreciated....)

<p>I am brand new to digital photography and am trying to get back into this field after many years....I recently purchased a new nikon d90. I tried using an old nikon 105mm 773379 lens and selected the manual mode..............when I took a picture only part of the top was visible, the rest all black..........any suggestions................. also is it better to shoot in the jpg mode with this camera? Any help appreciated...rich</p>

<p>Were you using a flash as your primary light source? What were your shutter speed and aperture used?</p>

<p>About the jpg: depends on what you want - if you don't want to take the time for postprocessing, jpg is fine and probably the right choice for starting digital photography. Otherwise: use raw format.</p>

<p>I'm guessing Shun has the answer to your defective image if you were using flash. Sounds like a flash synchronization problem.</p>

<p>As far as jpeg vs NEF. Wow, this could turn into a long thread. For those like me who are lazy and want to do most of their image manipulation in camera, jpeg. is the answer. If you love post processing and spending hours pealing away the layers of Photoshop or some other truly amazing program, RAW/NEF, is the way to go. Basically, I love the simplicity of jpeg and iPhoto. I get a certain satisfaction in getting the images the way I want them right out of the camera. Kind of like when I shot transparency film in the old days.</p>

<p>That is oversimplifying the matter, of course. I'll let others type the words. BTW, there are threads galore on photo.net regarding the pros and cons of the different file types.</p>

<p>Another thought, Richard. You can shoot both NEF and jpeg at the same time with your D90. Nifty, yes? Memory cards are cheap these days. Why not, until you are better prepared to make decisions like this without asking us?</p>

<p>Don't be shy, Rich.</p>

<p>You haven't given us much to go on but, your shutter speed must not exceed 1/200 sec. when using flash. Were you using flash to expose that defective image?</p>

<p>The Nikon 105mm f2.5 AI lens is a great performer and should work fine in manual mode with your D90, (no meter interaction with Nikon AI lenes, though). You'll need to use a hand held meter or, "chimp".</p>

<p>You used too high a flash sync speed or the shutter is defective. If you did not use flash, the shutter is defective or the file did not get fully written to the card. Give the process time to complete.</p>

<p>Use JPEG if you want smaller files sizes and do not want to do editing. It is like shooting film and sending it out to the drug store. You can still do some photoshop type work on JPEG but you loose the ability to easily alter color balance fully.</p>

<p>If you don`t care about storage requirements, the raw and JPEG workflow can be exactly the same + raw is more versatile.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Thank you all for being so helpful and I apologize for my lack of knowledge. I tried the lens on several f stops without a flash because I thought the d90 flash would work automatically and I am not sure of the speed setting....I will try with an external flash and play with the settings...........all of the info regarding the JPEG file was very informative....thank you all so much....rich</p>

If I recall, when using a dedicated flash or the pop-up flash the camera will not allow you to go faster than the fastest synch speed, usually 1/200 or 250. This would not be the case using an older third party unit such as a Vivitar 283 or something along those lines. Not a dedicated flash in other words. Was a flash even being used in this case? Rick H.

<p>Same thing happened to me today. same camera. What a nuisance.</p>

<p>Rick.....the automatic flash did not work...........I will try it outdoors during the day to see if that makes a difference....thank you all for your responses......I did not try to set the speed but put the camera on manual and just set the aperture to various settings.....I will as I said try it outside in day light to see if it would work......I had heard that both my old 50mm and the 105 should work on the d90 in manual.....George did you try it with a flash?....thanks rich</p>

<p>Robert and others....you are correct about the 1/200 speed..........I tried without a flash at that spped and both the 105 and 50 would take certain picutures but not low lighting....I guess I can now use these lens with a flash as well......I will purchase a new flash for this camera so that I can use these lenses....thanks for all of your help...rich</p>

<p>I have the same thing going on.</p>

<p>I was just shooting the first shots with my D90 using a studio flash. The first images came out ok as I had a reflective umbrella and the flash pointing away from the subject, but when I turned it around to use the softbox I had the same issue of half the frame exposed and half black.</p>

<p>Not knowing what was going on, I tried swapping flash heads, removed the softbox etc, but had not got so far as getting accurate with my settings, as I have no light meter yet.<br>

This happens regardles of shooting RAW or JPEG, so can someone explain above about why this would happen and a clear resoution? I am a bit of a novice....</p>