My D80 & D90 gallery has moved

Just finished checking out your site and it was a real treat. Also read the
"experiments" on metering and noise properties of the D80 and D90 with
interest. I'd like to pass along a few thoughts you might be interested in.

I got my first adjustable camera, an old folding Kodak, in the late 1940s. I
had never heard of an exposure meter, but each roll of film contained a data
sheet with a chart of exposures for various lighting conditions. I followed
the charts and got good pictures. When I got my first job in 1950 (minimum
wage at 65 cents an hour) I bought a used Argus 35mm camera and my first
roll of Kodachrome (ASA 10). Somewhere along the line Kodak had put out a
cardboard dial-type exposure guide which became my "Bible". Using this
guide, which was literally the "sunny 16" rule, I shot hundreds of slides
with very few bad expoosures. Several years later after I had acquired a
real exposure meter it was obvious that it was still basicly indicating the
sunny 16 exposure rule.

Now jump ahead to today and your findings concerning the sunny 16 rule as it
applies to the D80 and D90. My current camera is a D90 - my fifth digital
camera. In all these cameras I've noticed essentially what you showed in
your experiments - that it's closer to the "sunny 11" rule. I think the
answer is what several instruction manuals and other writings have said,
that the ISO sensitivity of the digital camera is "approximately" the same
as ISO (or ASA) film speed.

One other thing I find interesting. It seems to require a certain amount of
skill and interpretation to get a correctly metered exposure with the DSLR
cameras. My last camera before the D90 was a CoolPix 8800 and before that a
CP 5700. I used matrix metering exclusively on both these cameras and got
what I'd call correct exposures better than 90% of the time. One would think
the metering on the Ds would be better, not worse, than a P & S!

For what it's worth, in looking at your noise comparison page I noticed the
D90 exposures appear to be consistently about 1/3 EV lighter than the D80.
If I'm seeing correctly that might have a bearing on the metering comparison
tests. Just wondering.

At any rate, keep up the good work. After reading your results I feel the
need to go out and play with my D90 some more. I'm not totally happy with
what I'm getting.

"eNo" wrote in message
...
New URL is http://esfotoclix.com. Come check it out.