Nikon D300 overexposing a default or a fault?...Perils of buying in the UK
I’m blogging this not to boast about the fact that I have the latest and the greatest piece of camera equipment but to inform others about some of the pitfalls of buying camera equipment in the UK and why one man’s default is another man’s fault, or words to that effect.
After much cogitating – and even some thinking – I decided to upgrade from the Nikon D200 to the Nikon D300. Microglobe were selling the D300 and the Nikkor 80-400 VR for a good price, plus they were based in the West End instead of some far flung corner of the country, so I decided to purchase from them.
Instead of having the items delivered to my door, I thought I would buy in person, walk around the West End and do some shooting. I took a couple of lenses, a charged battery and some CF cards with me. When I walked into the shop, I nearly walked out after seeing how cluttered it was. However, I had been assured over the phone the items weren’t shop-soiled, so seemed little point in going somewhere like Calumet and paying a much higher price for the same boxed items.
Once the credit card had cooled down, I walked out of the shop with the camera around my neck, found a quiet seat and played around with some of the settings. I then headed for the Houses of Parliament, taking shots on the way. When I reviewed the shots, some of them looked a bit overexposed but I thought it may be because of some settings to do with metering or the LCD that I hadn’t set correctly.
When I got home and looked at the shots on my monitor, they still looked overexposed, so I did some googling for “D300 overexposure” and ended up on the DP Review forums. Seemed I wasn’t the only one to notice the D300 was overexposing. One reason given by some posters was the camera is deliberately exposing to the right (ETTR), or replies such as “operator error.”
It seemed plausible the camera was exposing to the right but then why not correct the exposure before output? I felt the default tone curve settings should take that into account and produce a properly exposed image; hence, I didn’t quite buy into the ETTR explanation.
I shot some tests locally and found they were overexposing as well when “instinct” told me the auto exposure settings should handle the exposures just fine.
I went to the Nikon website to see if the problem had been reported and whether there was a firmware fix already available. I didn’t find any mention of an overexposure problem nor a firmware update. However, while on the site, I came across a special offer that extended the warranty to 2 years, provided you registered the camera. It mentioned paperwork required to register. I looked for the paperwork but discovered I didn’t have it. I phoned Microglobe and was told the camera was an import from the USA, hence the lack of the “dealer record” needed to register. Grrrr!
Dealer record.
I had looked into buying from the USA or Hong Kong way, way back and had decided against it. I asked what options were open to me as I wasn’t happy with the purchase. I was told I could return the items and have my money back or wait for their next supply of D300s from Nikon, which should have the necessary paperwork. Hmmm…I said I would think about it and get back to them with a decision.
After thinking about it overnight, I asked for my money back and, to their credit, Microglobe did not put up a fight. However, I wished they had told me at the point of purchase the items were grey imports. I wasted a good day, I reckon, plus my credit was now tied up, so I couldn’t make another purchase straightaway.
The story does have a happy ending though: In the few days I’d had the items, they had come down in price! After a bit of googling, I managed to save about £150, or thereabouts. In the end, I bought the camera from Jessops and the lens from Park Cameras. This time, I asked before placing the order whether the camera/lens was a grey import (not that I should have to) and was told the box comes directly from Nikon with a UK warranty, the retailer simply shifts it.
When the camera arrived, I let it come up to room temperature (agonising 10 seconds!), slipped in a battery and CF card, slapped on a lens, went outside and shot some test images in auto exposure mode….Guess what? No overexposure! Images looked good on the LCD and just as good when viewed on the monitor.
To sum up, if your D300 is overexposing, try another body. When buying, make sure the purchase is accompanied by the dealer record.
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