Board index Equipment Digital Cameras D80 w/18-135 lens - darkness in corners at 135mm

Digital Cameras

D80 w/18-135 lens - darkness in corners at 135mm

trut_maluglist
 
Posts: 52

D80 w/18-135 lens - darkness in corners at 135mm

Post Tue Aug 26, 2008 11:37 pm


I have a Nikon D80 w/18-135 lens. At the high focal length, I notice darkness in the corners - especially noticeable with a blue sky. Other than reducing the focal length or increasing the F-stop, is there a way around this? And does anyone know what causes. See the attached photo.

http://www.pbase.com/trut_maluglist/image/101818196

prinothcat
 
Posts: 662

Re: D80 w/18-135 lens - darkness in corners at 135mm

Post Tue Aug 26, 2008 11:55 pm


Interesting, since I see darkening all along the side edges, not just in the corners. Corners are where one usually sees light fall off. Do you have the lens hood on? What about the thickness of any filters on the front of the lens? The filter ring may be thick enough to cause this, but usually things of that nature happen at wide angle not at tele lengths. I have one of those lenses but have never (I don't think..) seen what your shot is exhibiting. I rarely ever shot that lens at 135mm though.... I would try setting up and shooting a series of exposures at decreasing focal lengths and see what happens. Your f-stop probably will not affect what you're seeing.

crisscross
 
Posts: 70

Re: D80 w/18-135 lens - darkness in corners at 135mm

Post Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:02 pm


I had my D80 with only the 18-135 kit lens for a couple of months before I added a Nikkor 80-400 VR and also sometimes don't take the 40-800 say up a mountain or when I know I am going to get wet.

I have rummaged some taken at 135mm and found 1 instance of this phenomenon and it appears to be the addition of the speed/aperture combination that is the unusual one. Mine is at 1/800 f6.3. It is not just the blue sky as another at 1/250 f16 straight into pale blue sky shows no trace. PS found another at 1/200 f9 and added it to gallery below, so can't blame speed.

I have posted these in my Inbox http://upload.pbase.com/edit_gallery/crisscross/inbox which I don't normally use and it may need password: D80

I was using f6.3 when I knew I wanted background out of focus. Normally for a seascape such as yours I would be using f16 or so at 1/200. The answer seems to be to use more normal settings! Or use slightly wider angle and either crop corners (as happened naturally in my examples) or heal brush out. Normally I always use the 80-400 down to 80 and only the 18-135 as a wide angle.

Generally the 18-135 is a superb lens. And only especially so taking weight and give-away price into account.

ken_bat
 
Posts: 23

Re: D80 w/18-135 lens - darkness in corners at 135mm

Post Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:52 pm


I have a Nikon D80 w/18-135 lens. At the high focal length, I notice darkness in the corners - especially noticeable with a blue sky. Other than reducing the focal length or increasing the F-stop, is there a way around this? And does anyone know what causes. See the attached photo.


What I see in your photograph is a good case of light fall-off (or vignetting). Almost all photographic lenses exhibit this fall-off to one degree or the other. Though not caused by a particular f-stop, the degree of the condition is aperture-dependent. It will always be most pronounced by shooting at the maximum aperture setting of the lens and most noticeable on smooth continuous mid tones like the sky in your picture. (It has nothing do do with color and in your case does not appear to be caused by an intruding filter or lens shade.)

Stopping the lens down will usually remedy the condition — or at least minimize it to a good degree. On most lenses two to three stops should take care of it. Even closing down one stop will show an improvement.

Ken

jkrnm5
 
Posts: 45

Re: D80 w/18-135 lens - darkness in corners at 135mm

Post Fri Sep 05, 2008 11:39 pm


The problem is definitely not caused by the lens hood as I've noted the same results described with and without it used.

crisscross
 
Posts: 70

Re: D80 w/18-135 lens - darkness in corners at 135mm

Post Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:13 am


I have added to my collection featuring this phenomenon at http://upload.pbase.com/edit_gallery/crisscross/inbox an example of the correction possible using Nikon Capture NX 2.1 vignette control - didn't know what it was for before!! Quite effective if you have anything spoilt by this and actually need the corners right.

Also see that Nikon have reduced kit lens that goes with D90 to 18-105


Board index Equipment Digital Cameras D80 w/18-135 lens - darkness in corners at 135mm

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests