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Nikon D100

Started Jul 26, 2020 | Questions thread
(unknown member) Senior Member • Posts: 1,958
Re: Nikon D100

Alwayschirpy wrote:

Dusted off my Nikon D100 with Nikkor AF-S 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 lens to take some Astro shots of Neowise and the Milky Way. The camera was boxed in storage for 10 years so although old has low shutter count. My efforts were poor to rubbish!! Light pollution is a problem. With the right settings should I have expected good results? Or should I bit the bullet and get something modern?

Welcome to this forum!

I think that your camera and your lens limited you in this case. I was suffering from a lot of light pollution as well -- the below picture was taken 2 hours after sunset towards north, i.e. artificial light at the horizon. Barely any detail was visible with naked eyes.

Taken with fixed ISO and P mode, OOC JPEG, slightly cropped

The D500 is my first camera that shows me more detailed and colorful pictures than my eyes in the dark. ISO 1000 is no problem at all. My predecessor camera D90 was noticeably less sensitive to light, even though it had already been a big step up from a D70s before. The sensor of your D100 might be similar to a D70s. Moreover, your lens takes two stops of light away, compared to the 18-35/1.8.

Btw. people in the Z forum discussed that they had problems to see Neowise in the electronic viewfinder of their cameras, even thought they saw it with naked eyes. I can at least confirm that the EVF of my P950 wasn't of great help either in this case (just black with a slight silhouette at the horizon).

Nevertheless, Neowise alone might not be a sufficient benchmark for a buying decision.

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