Labor Day Weekend At Cape Lookout

My old college buddy Rich came down with his kids, and we took them to Cape Lookout for the weekend. Poor Rich brought out his digital camera (a P&S) only to discover that someone apparently had dropped the camera and broken either an internal lens or the CCD itself. So I let him borrow the Coolpix 5700 and I burned him a CD of his shots.

Here are a few photos from Saturday.

First shot - the lovely wife studying. She loves going to the Cape, and sitting out in the sun. So she put her time to good use by working on one of her Doctorate classes.

Second shot - the lovely wife takes a few moments out from studying to smile for the camera.

Third shot - a different view of the Lighthouse. The wife really liked this one, and how it was framed by the trees.

Fourth shot - our campsite. Our tent has the blue trim, Rich's has the yellow trim.

Specifically, some shots of the lighthouse itself.

A sunset shot of the lighthouse, a couple of twilight shots of the lighthouse, and a night shot of the lighthouse.

Some beautiful images Speed. And the lighthouse isn't bad either.

Looks like a fun weekend! That last image is great - if you shot this on digital I'm curious what aperture and lens you used to get this. With film, just closing the aperture down all the way would usually work pretty well on any lens but it's a different story on digital I've found...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Old Timer

Some beautiful images Speed. And the lighthouse isn't bad either.

---

Thanks Old Timer.

We enjoyed ourselves, and I was happy with the images I got.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by another view

Looks like a fun weekend! That last image is great - if you shot this on digital I'm curious what aperture and lens you used to get this. With film, just closing the aperture down all the way would usually work pretty well on any lens but it's a different story on digital I've found...

---

Thanks for the comments Steve.

These were all shot with the D200 and the Sigma 28-70mm f2.8, ISO 100. The first four shots were taken off-hand, the last four on a tripod. The last shot was a 30 second exposure at f 4.

I have found that digital is NOT the same as film. Regardless of ISO setting, I find I have to open up about one stop more than I did with film to get comparable results in exposure. I've put several rolls of slides through my N80 and my F5 and I know their meters are accurate. But if I shoot the same scene with the same settings with my D200, it will be underexposed. Maybe my meter is off. Maybe my ISO settings aren't calibrated. Regardless, I just open up one stop when I shoot to compensate.

So what are you finding different with digital?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Speed

So what are you finding different with digital?

---

Where do I start? :) There's no reciprocity failure with digital, so that 30 second exposure should have taken a lot longer with Velvia 50 (outside the ISO speed difference). Provia doesn't have much of a problem with this, but it should have been a bit darker with the same exposure and both at ISO100. However, all cameras are different. One stop is a bit extreme, but it's a matter of learning the camera. The D200 has a different metering system than your film cameras (which are different from each other too but probably closer technology) so if you're using Matrix that could explain the different results. If you ever shoot in manual mode with a spot meter, I'd be curious to hear if you still have much of a difference between the cameras. I haven't seen much difference this way between the F100 and F5 I used to have and the S2.

With digital, the best tool for double checking your exposure is always going to be the histogram. Trust it - it won't lie, but looking at an image on the LCD in different lighting conditions will make you think you're over or under when your exposure is fine.

How true! And I use and trust the histogram over the playback. I have also found that an image looks great on the playback, and when I download it onto the computer it's dark. I learned this with the Coolpix 5700 and I've found it to be true with the D200 as well. So I check my histogram.

I've heard about the matrix metering not being the best with digital. With daylight shooting, it works great, but at night or low light, forget it. Guess I should put my light meter in my camera bag...

Thanks for the comments buddy!