Vignette control on Nikon D3

Nervous Nick wrote:
On Aug 28, 11:59 am, Dave wrote:
On my D3, on the 'Shooting' menu the last item is "Vignette control". I
can't find this mentioned anywhere in the manual. Either in the book
provided with the camera, or on the PDF I downloaded.

I assume it might be something that was been added in firmware released
after the manual was printed. In my camera, the firmware versions
reported are

A 2.00
B 2.00

Does anyone know anything about this? The choices are off, low, medium
and high. I could take a guess at what it might do, but I don't know for
sure.

This is not a firmware issue, but rather feature of Nikon Capture 3,
so you will find information in that manual rather than in the
camera's. I would assume it allows Capture 3 to take advantage of
certain fields in the EXIF data that are already being recorded to the
image file.

What I mean is that since it is not documented in the D3's manual, it
was either an oversight or added to later firmware versions of the D3.


Though I have never noticed substantial vignetting with any but the
shortest glass, I think that this is a clever idea, and would be cuter
if it could be custom tailored by the user for any lens. It seems
that the firmware itself can be set to certain values of vignette
control when camera firmware is not able to recognize the individual
lens.




I found this after a few seconds' Googling:

Nikon Capture 3 Version 3.5
This document describes the features that have been added with the
release of Nikon Capture 3 version 3.5.

Page numbers refer to the
Nikon Capture 3 User’s Manual, Third Edition.

Vignette Control for RAW Images (pg. 136)

Vignette Control has been added to the image adjustment tool
palettes.

The Vignette Control palette is used to correct for loss of
marginal lumination, a phenomenon associated with camera lenses that
causes a drop in brightness at the edges of a photograph.

Vignette Control is most effective when performed on images taken at
maximum aperture. If the picture in the active image win-
dow is a RAW image taken with a lens equipped to transmit distance
information (i.e., a type G or D lens) mounted on a camera
that can record this information, Nikon Capture 3 will use the lens
information recorded with the image to automatically select an
optimal value for Vignette Control. Where lens information is not
available, Vignette Control will be based on default lens charac-
teristics


I can understand how Capture 3 can correct this automatically based on
the lens type. I can also understand if the lens type is not a late
Nikon one, how a variable control in Capture 3 can be useful. What is
less clear to me is why one would set it on the camera if one intends
processing the RAW file later in Capture 3.

I can see why it would be useful to set on older lenses on the camera if
the image is saved as JPEG.


Personally, since I rarely use Windows and never use a Mac, I'm not
likely to make best use of NEF files as I unlikely to run Capture 3
much, if at all. My software will not know the characteristics of the
Nikon lenses. My lens collection consists of only fairly recent Nikon
lenses, but I will be buying a long telephoto which will not be the
latest greatest model. As you say, it tends to be more of a problem in
very wide angle lenses anyway.

It should be relatively easy to do make your own correction for your own
lenses by creating a filter which increases the levels as one moves away
from the centre.

I think I'll ask Nikon exactly what this does on the D3, as it's not
clear I fully understand it.

Leica R9, you dumb ****.



"David Nebenzahl" wrote in message
s.com...
On 8/28/2008 10:02 PM Steve spake thus:

On Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:23:51 -0700, David Nebenzahl
wrote:

This post is off-topic for this newsgroup, rec.photo.equipment.35mm,
which is concerned with film cameras that use 35mm film, not digital
cameras that look like 35mm SLRs.

Would it be on topic to discuss a 35mm film camera that had a digital
back on it?

By the way, is there such a thing?


--
"In 1964 Barry Goldwater declared: 'Elect me president, and I
will bomb the cities of Vietnam, defoliate the jungles, herd the
population into concentration camps and turn the country into a
wasteland.' But Lyndon Johnson said: 'No! No! No! Don't you dare do
that. Let ME do it.'"

- Characterization (paraphrased) of the 1964 Goldwater/Johnson
presidential race by Professor Irwin Corey, "The World's Foremost
Authority".

Savageduck wrote:

rec;

That's short for 'recreational', ie: relax dude!

photo;

equipment;

-- lenses apertures, shutter speeds, flash, exposure, etc
(the stuff that 35mm photogs concern themselves with).

35mm

I'm pretty sure that refers to 35mm, which is a metric mearure

Savageduck wrote:
On 2008-08-28 22:10:25 -0700, David Nebenzahl
said:

On 8/28/2008 10:02 PM Steve spake thus:

On Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:23:51 -0700, David Nebenzahl
wrote:

This post is off-topic for this newsgroup, rec.photo.equipment.35mm,
which is concerned with film cameras that use 35mm film, not digital
cameras that look like 35mm SLRs.

Would it be on topic to discuss a 35mm film camera that had a digital
back on it?

By the way, is there such a thing?

Yes there were, though I am not sure of current availability given the
quality of today's DSLRs.
There are also medium format backs for many $$$$, check
http://www.hasselbladusa.com/products/backs.aspx

Leica offered a 35mm body with interchangeable backs - digital or 35mm
for a while. I think they sold 2 or maybe 3 of them!