Why is my camera seeing red?

October 2, 2011 12:30 PM

What is causing this red fringe in long exposures from my D300?

These shots were taken last night and mostly ruined by the presence of the red artifact. Complicating factors: I was shooting through a circular polarizer and did not use a lens hood. The longer the exposure, the more pronounced the effect, it seemed. (The first image is ~25 sec, the second image is ~7 minutes.) It's consistently along the right side of the image, regardless of where the camera was facing or how it was oriented (horizontally or vertically). High ISO NR was set to normal, long exposure NR was on.

posted by knave to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Response by poster: I should clarify that when the camera was oriented vertically, the red fringe appeared at the bottom of the image - consistently the "right" edge of the sensor.
posted by knave at 12:40 PM on October 2, 2011

Best answer: Looks like amp glow . Can't say what the solution is but the problem was supposed to be greatly reduced in the D300 compared to older models. Searching around you may find some tips on reducing it, in the linked image apparently the lens was causing a more pronounced effect. Good luck.
posted by Lorin at 1:11 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: From that link: It turns out, the problem is with the Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens causing the amp glow.

Wow, that's the lens I used! I had VR turned off, too...

Thanks Lorin, knowing the term makes searching for this much easier.
posted by knave at 1:15 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Following up on some of the information I found online. The 18-200mm VR lens somehow introduces this glow when either VR is on (which it wasn't for me) or focus is set to M/A (regardless of the body's setting being M). Determined by reading this thread and then reproducing the experiment myself.
posted by knave at 11:53 AM on October 3, 2011