Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Beginner's Questions => Topic started by: jason305 on December 23, 2012, 02:23:09 pm
-
Greetings everyone, I just purchased a used Sigma sd9 and this is my first venture into the dslr world. I do have experience using 35mm slr cameras so I'm not totally lost, but the reason why I'm posting is because I'm having trouble with this camera and I want to find out if it's defective or if I'm missing a setting or adjustment somewhere.
Here's the problem. I shoot the same subject 3 times and the first pictures is too dark or underexposed the second is too light or overexposed and the third comes out perfect! It seems that the shutter speed changes between every shot. It's very strange. I've attached some samples.
-
You have some form of exposure bracketing turned on.
-
thanks so much, I went into AB mode and changed the value from 3 to 0 and now my shots are consistent! ... I can't wait to get out and get some real shots. I appreciate your help and I will come back to this forum and share some photos with you and hopefully increase my knowledge of photography
-
I just purchased a used Sigma sd9 and this is my first venture into the dslr world.
Sigma SD9/the first Sigma's Foveon and your first dSLR... now that is a brave move.
-
Yes, and believe me I'm still not sure I made the right choice! I have done a ton of research and compared photos and I just love the pictures I've seen that come from this camera/sensor. I hear it doesn't perform very well in low light but I'm still going to experiment with it while using a flash. I'm planning to do mostly nature and landscape photography with this, I don't think its good for much else...maybe portrait photography...
I bought it with 2 lenses and a flash, a 24-70mm aspherical and a zoom lens which is i think 70-200mm.
I also have an old Yashica Medium format camera which I'm planning to get refurbished. I'd like to get something with good low light performance eventually. Does any one here have experience with Medium format cameras from the 60s ? Can anyone suggest a camera with exceptional low light performance?
-
Low Light Performance is at the moment one of the key differentiators through which the camera producers justify higher prices for top models.
The question which is the most affordable low light capability at the moment is indeed an interesting one.
Unfortunately older models will not fare as well as current ones in this respect, and I suspect that a newest "entry" level would make the race. I would research current FX or APS-c offerings.
-
Old film cameras have low-light performance that is limited by the film you can load into them. Unfortunately, high speed film was never all that great. Digital imaging has significantly improved performance at very high ISO values -- laughably high, if you have been doing this long. I have some very nice prints shot under candlelight at ISO 12,800, and they make good 16x20s with almost no visible noise (grain). And these were made with a previous generation Canon camera that is not the best low-light model on the market.
I don't know anything about the Sigma Foveon cameras, sorry. For low light shooting, most of the current prosumer level cameras will do very well at 3200 or 6400 or higher, or pair them with a fast prime lens just like the old days.
(Just checked a review of the SD9 - is it really from 2002? Wow. Back then not many cameras did well above ISO 1600. You may be very pleasantly surprised at the capabilities of current cameras.)
Good luck and happy shooting.