Nikon lens: D200 Low-Light Shots

<p>I have recently purchased the NikonD-200 along with the 35-70 1:2.8 D as well as the 80-200 1:2.8 D lens. I tried to take pictures yesterday with the 35-70 inside without the flash and it was completely blurred. In an even darker room using a friends 18-200 VR lens (on her D-200) the pictures (without the use of flash) were sharply focused and perfect. What is the reason for the difference? Could there be something wrong with my camera or is that difference to be expected with the two lens? Thanks</p>

<p>Do you know the apertures, shutter speeds and ISO settings in the two cases?</p>

<p>if you were photographing still subjects, the VR on her lens can help in low light. more likely, she was using either high ISO or auto ISO, which compensates for a lack of light by increasing the sensitivity of the camera. If you were at ISO 200, its really hard to achieve good results without flash. At ISO 1600, its a lot easier.</p>

<p>D200 is a great camera but there are things to learn (about any camera, it's really photography not camera knowledge). Inside with people you want to use a flash, otherwise you want to use a tripod inside, or use higher ISO, but with higher ISO comes higher noise, "loosing image quality"...... learning and experimenting... and great results will come.</p>

<p>When looking through the finder while auto-focusing, can you actually observe the lens hunting for focus? If not, with the lens unmounted, check to see if the lens focusing mechanism within the lens is functioning by turning the focusing ring and observing whether the focus drive slot on the rear of the lens turns as you adjust the focus ring.</p>

<p>Is there a chance you had the focus selector mode switch on your camera set to manual focus? Sometimes I inadvertently trip this little lever to the manual position without realizing it. I hate where this button is located.</p>

<p>If you're at a slow enough shutter speed, it's quite possible that you're simply moving the camera too much. Try the exact same shot from a tripod to see how it treats you. If you can't get the shutter speed fast enough for a non-wiggly shot, then you'll need to raise the ISO. That 18-200's VR behavior can really help if your style isn't super steady. <br /><br />Also: there's a small switch on the front of the camera body near the lens mount which switches you from Continuous, to Single, to Manual focus. Make sure you're in the mode you think you should be in - it's easy to bump that into the wrong position while changing lenses.<br /><br />Don't discount the use of a strobe. Your D200's pop-up flash can serve as a commander for an off-camera SB-600, 800, or 900. Any of those can be used, bounced off a wall and several feet away from the camera, to produce some very non-flash-looking light. Here's one from the other night, done just that way (in a dim room, with a D200 as the commander, and an off-camera SB-800).<br /><br /><img src="http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00R/00Rz0g-102813684.jpg" alt="" width="466" height="700" /><br /><br />If you have to crank the D200's ISO up high, you can introduce some noise - it's just the way it is. But a noisy image is better than a blurry one, if that higher ISO setting buys you the ability to use a fast enough shutter speed. Here's another shot, using a D200 in a dim room. I wanted at least 1/60th of a second (because I was hand-holding, and in this case with a non-VR lens), and I wanted at least f/4, because I wanted a little more depth of field than the wide open 50/1.8 would have given. That meant ISO 1000 - well into the D200's noisy range. But the noise is mostly chroma noise at the point - there's still a very nice image lurking in the noise. So, time for a black and white conversion:<br /><br /> </p><div></div>

<p>Joan, my earlier point was that the other photographer could be using the D200 at ISO 800 or 1600 and therefore was able to use a reasonably high shutter speed to freeze action. Meanwhile, if you were using ISO 100, you could be forced to a much slower shutter speed.</p>

<p>I suggest you find out those details about the exposure differences first.</p>

<p>Otherwise, for indoor shots, your 35-70mm/f2.8 and 80-200mm/f2.8 should be much better lenses than the 18-200, although you obviously are lacking something below 35mm (unless you have additional lenses you haven't specified).</p>

<p>heres what you do,</p>

<p>get indoors, in a somewhat low light situation, leave it in p mode (programme) the keep shifting to different iso settings.</p>

<p>get your pictures on your computer, then view all the different results .</p>

<p>when you get the hang of that, put it in shutter priority (known as tv, or S on your camera) then go in decent light, do different shutter speeds from the lowest to the highest (Dont do all, but do a fair amount )</p>

<p>then get your picture on your computer again and view your results again.</p>

<p>then use apeture priority (known prob as ap, or just A on your camera) then shoot away once again.<br>

the upload your pitures once again and see which ones gave you more light, better depht of field.</p>

<p>then with basic understanding go in full on manual mode, and go into different places and settings. and shoot away.</p>

<p>thats what im doing with a canon s5 is (none slr) and im currently on the last step, and it has helped me alot. im currently using M, but i can learn more about Apeture.</p>