To the Nikon guys: have you noticed that the preview of a photo on your camera is not the actual photo on the card? I've noticed when comparing noisy high-ISO-shots on the cam and on the computer. The image on the camera's display looks rather different in the details, which sometimes makes it hard to judge whether a photo came out sharp and/or with acceptable noise. Only when you look at it on an external display, you'll see whether you did good.
On a sidenote: I am aware of the theoretical shortcomings of an in-cam-display. I am talking about a very much zoomed-in-view, which in theory should be just the same on the camera and on a computer monitor. Also, the display on my D700 is nothing but brilliant, so no problem there.
EDIT:
Ummmm ..... he ... hello?
Have you all gone Canon or what?
Thank you for your extensive answer, but I'm afraid you misunderstood me. I know what provokes noise, and I know how to avoid it when I can. My point merely was that all Nikon cameras I have operated as of yet do not display the very same photograph in their display which has just been stored on the card. When you zoom in beyond 100% on the display, you start to notice JPEG compression artifacts (mainly blocking), which leads me to believe that the camera internally generates a JPEG version of every photo for a quick review. Since I am shooting RAW-only with no in-cam-noise-reduction whatsoever, I am absolutely positive that the photograph I'm being shown on the display is not the file that's just been stored on the card. That however prevents me from truly judging the photo I've just made, because I simply am not shown the truth to its full extent.No small screen will give justice to a photo. If you're shooting RAW and have noise reduction turned on for JPEGs, I'm sure the camera will show noise reduction, as it'll probably be turned on if you open the RAW file in a Nikon editor..
Just learn to understand your camera in different conditions. I know that I'll get some noise at ISO1600, and I know it gets worse in conditions with MUCH variations between shadows and highlights (this is the same no matter what camera you use), I know how much more I get when I underexpose, I know that I'll still get noise if I'm shooting in controlled light, but I know it won't be visible at web size, and I know that it won't affect the result of an offset newspaper print.
The 8 things that'll provoke noise no matter what camera you have:
- Underexposure
- Wrong WB
- Mixed light
- Shadows and highlights
- Mist and fog
- Bad focus
- Unsharp lens
- Too much USM
Hope this helps.
That looks just like the 5D of one of my photo teachers.I gave up pussy footing around with my camera gear some time ago, if you take a look at the equipment used by army photographers they take an absolute battering and yet still work fine.