Dark Streaks in Photos

Hi. I'm brand new here, so be gentle. I shoot sports with a Nikon D1H and an 80-200mm D lens. On Saturday, a dark streak suddenly started appearing at the bottom of all my photos. It's always in the same place, at the very bottom of the photos on the right side. I was shooting in bright sunlight, Aperture priority. Some were shot with a 1.4 converter and some without it, but the streaks appeared both ways. Anyone have an idea what this could be or what can be done?

Can you please post a sample photo? Your description isn't bringing any specific answer to mind. But a sample photo should make it easier to diagnose the problem.

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

Can you please post a sample photo? Your description isn't bringing any specific answer to mind. But a sample photo should make it easier to diagnose the problem.

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I knew I should include a photo but haven't figured out how to post one. Any advice will be appreciated. I tried to find it on the site but am obviously looking in the wrong place.

Can you tell anything from the pics on the page linked below? You will notice that the first few pics were clean, then there were a few with the streak and a few without. By the time you get to the last half of the page, it's in almost all of them. The fourth pic on the top row is the most dramatic one. It looks like a real shadow, but it isn't. Thanks.

http://www.tullahomasports.com/Wildc...15/index.htm#4

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Originally Posted by titantonic

The fourth pic on the top row is the most dramatic one. It looks like a real shadow, but it isn't.

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Oh yeah - I never would have gotten that from your description. I'd say there's definitely something broken in your camera. That's a lot more than a piece of dust or a big hair on the sensor. It looks to me like your shutter might be sticking. You might actuall even be able to see the problem with this one. Put your camera on bulb or set it for a 1-second exposure, take off the lens, hit the shutter-release, and see if you can see anything that looks out of order in there. I doubt there's anything you can do about this, though. You should probably send the camera in for repair.

Looks like vingnetting from lens hood or lens itself. Do you use a lens hood and is it installed correctly? If it's not the lens hood it's most likely the lens itself.

If it were the CCD or camera problem the dark area would not change with focal length.

Try a test with varying focal lengths (keep record) with and without the lens hood attached and see what happens.

Best I can do.

Tim

I got to thinking after I read Photo John's post, it could be shutter or the apeture vanes causing this also.

Do a series of varying shutter speeds and also apeture speeds and see what pops up there.

Tim

Thanks, I'll do some more experimenting. It did continue with or without the lens hood, and it keeps doing it when I switch lenses. I have a link now with a couple of full-size pics if that could possibly provide more info for anyone.

http://www.tullahomasports.com/Photo...blem--4-17.htm

Took the lens off and put the camera on bulb setting and clicked the shutter a couple of times. Didn't notice any kind of hang ups or anything that looked odd, but I'm certainly not an expert.

Part of the frame is dark, kind of like over-shooting your sync speed. If you set the shutter speed at 1/250 but your camera has a sync speed of 1/60, part of the frame will be black... like this... so I think Photo John is on to something here. Obviously that's a totally different situation but the outcome looks similar, so I'm betting that the problem is with the shutter too. You said that it took a few shots to get this to happen so keep trying!

I wonder if a standard CLA (clean, lube, adjust) would fix this. Definately something wrong though. If a lens hood was vignetting, then it would be even in every shot until you took the hood off or changed lenses.

What kind of shutter does your camera have? My *ist DL has like a bi-fold type that flips up and covers the mirror when exposing the frame.

I'm trying to figure out what shutter type would cause a shape like that.

I'm not sure, cyberlord. It's a Nikon D1H and is several years old. It would not be a surprise if the shutter is malfunctioning. I've taken tens of thousands of pictures with it the past three years, and it was used (though only slightly) when I bought it. To me, it actually looks like the mirror flips down when the shutter clicks. Does that make sense? Sorry I'm not more helpful in my own cause.

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Originally Posted by titantonic

Hi. I'm brand new here, so be gentle. I shoot sports with a Nikon D1H and an 80-200mm D lens. On Saturday, a dark streak suddenly started appearing at the bottom of all my photos. It's always in the same place, at the very bottom of the photos on the right side. I was shooting in bright sunlight, Aperture priority. Some were shot with a 1.4 converter and some without it, but the streaks appeared both ways. Anyone have an idea what this could be or what can be done?

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I had some similar, It was a hair. Lock up the mirror and look, and also check the back side of all your lenses. After looking at your samples check your mirror, or like another said you could have a damaged lense hood. But it would show up at the wide end not at the 200mm end. You just may send it in for a cleaning and lube.

Thanks to all for your input. I've done about as thorough a cleaning as I can safely do. I'll shoot more pics this afternoon and see what happens, but I fear I'm in for some shutter repair as some have mentioned.

By the way, I posted a question about sports photography with the D50 in the Nikon equipment forum if anyone has any info. Thanks again for your kind assistance.

Hi titantonic....I had a similar thing happen to my Nikon FE2 many years ago...I just couldn't work out what is was..On closer inspection of my camera an eyebrow hair lodged itself inside the mirror box near the lens mount..It was a tiny hair but maginified by my lenses..
Probably won't help you here but one never knows.

Jurgen
Australia