Starting with Nikon D60

[g33x0r]

Hey guys,

I finally got a tripod and went out last night with very clear skies and tried to take some shots.  I have the basic kit lenses that came with the Nikon, an 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses.  I was using the 18-55mm last night set to 35mm.  Where I'm having most trouble I think now is deciding which ISO to use and mainly how to get the focus correctly set to Infinity.  Those lenses don't have the visual indicator on them to show that it is set to Infinity, the only way I've found to do it is going into the menu and using the "Dust Off Ref Photo" option which then instructs you to point to a bright featureless object and says it will set the focus to Infinity for you, then once that's done, setting the lens back to manual mode and not adjusting the focus at all after that.  Does anyone else know of any better ways to adjust focus to infinity?

Here are some photos I took last night, there's a ton of noise, I believe the first couple were taken at ISO 400 and I had also tried 800 and 1600 but that didn't seem to make much difference.  I'll probably try 200 and maybe even 100 tonight to see if that helps reduce the noise.   I honestly don't remember the aperture settings of these but the exposures were 20~30 seconds long.  

[g33x0r]

Okay guys, so after doing some more reading I figured I'd do some more testing and bump the ISO down since I'm doing long exposures (well relatively I guess).  So last night I did it at 200 and tonight at 100.  But I'm still getting the same graininess no matter what ISO I use it seems like.  Here is what I think the best pic from tonight is with accompanying EXIF info

Camera: Nikon D60 Lens: AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Shot at 24 mm Exposure: Manual exposure, 30 sec, f/5, ISO 100 Flash: none Focus: Manual, Center, at 3.4m, with a depth of field of about 5.8m, (from about1.2m before the focus point to about 4.6m after)
AF Area Mode: Single Area Date: May 9, 2015   10:26:48PM (timezone not specified)
(11 minutes, 55 seconds ago, assuming image timezone of 8 hours behind GMT) Time Zone Offset: -08:00 File: 3,900 × 2,613 JPEG (10.2 megapixels)   
4,593,184 bytes (4.4 megabytes)

[brrttpaul]

Something wrong there somewhere I would have thought, I have the D7200 and dont get anywhere near those noise levels even at 2000, they look like lines to me

[brrttpaul]

This was 800 ISO, I,m not sure on your model but I would say somethings wrong with it. EDIT just noticed mind that you shot in jpeg I always shoot in RAW format so maybe something like that

[g33x0r]

I'm not sure why it says JPEG but these files are in the NEF format (RAW).  It's the Nikon D60 which is about 8 years old.  I should also note that it has been dropped once, fortunately it landed on the end of the attached lens which had a filter screwed in, it broke the glass in the fitler but the lens was okay.  Could something else have been jarred loose during that drop to cause this?  

[g33x0r]

scratch that, I'm posting the converted JPEG, these were converted from the RAW files that I had shot on the camera so I could post them here.  But they looked the same in the raw viewer too.  

[graemlourens]

Hey.

First off - Infinitiy with lenses is never infinity (or at least not with the affordable lenses)

You will have to in some way figure out the focus (doing multiple shots and adapting focus by a bit every time).

Autofocus will not work on stars, if you have the moon, you can use that as that will be inifinity.

In the pictures in my opinion the stars are out of focus (slightly too big)

About the noise, i'm also with Nikon, but that kind of Noise i have never seen. Something is wrong there.

Maybe somebody else has an info why that is happening, but for me it looks like you've got some major interference with the chip is beeing read (looks like read noise)

Regards, Graem

[edjrgibbs]

Even with my D40 I didn't get anything like that. Is it the same on daytime photos? Maybe try updating the firmware.

[g33x0r]

For the focus, the first three pics are definitely out of focus, I got a little better by focusing on some light in the distance and I think the pic in my second post looks more focused.  Any ways, the daytime photos look just fine that's why I'm so confused.  I'll look into upgrading the firmware.  

[g33x0r]

according to sir google there are no firmware upgrades to the D60.  People online were reporting seeing a version 1.01 in some cameras but the website doesn't have anything listed for D60 for firmware, only the D40 and D70 lol.  

[brrttpaul]

I would say the knock done some damage inside, hope i,m wrong

[g33x0r]

Yeah, I'm gonna take it into a Shutterbug shop and have them take a look at it.  I wouldn't mind having a new camera but don't really want to spend the money if there's nothing wrong with my camera.  

[g33x0r]

Just for some perspective I guess, here's one of the last night images after just using the "Auto tone" function in lightroom 3.  Seemed to remove a bit of the noise.  But I'm curious how much better would this image look if the raw wasn't so noisy?

[g33x0r]

Okay after doing some more research and taking some other low light pictures I've found a couple of things.  I turned active D lighting off and that seemed to help a little bit.  But I also noticed that if the shutter speed is too fast to pickup enough light for a picture with some kind of color or I'm taking a picture of something basically without a lot of color (ie a black sky lol) I'm going to get that noise.  I believe most of that is due to hot pixels that would be processed out by processing with darks and/or layering with darks manually (which I'll probably leave up to the apps that do this haha).  Any ways, here's a pic of my backyard way after sunset last night, looked way darker in person.  ISO only 200, 15 sec exposure, F/5.  

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Very odd, the final shot you've posted seems to have come out fine, even in the darkest areas of the image.

One thing that could help is opening up the aperture all the way to f3.5, which will greatly boost the signal.

[Lonestar70]

Okay guys, so after doing some more reading I figured I'd do some more testing and bump the ISO down since I'm doing long exposures (well relatively I guess).  So last night I did it at 200 and tonight at 100.  But I'm still getting the same graininess no matter what ISO I use it seems like.  Here is what I think the best pic from tonight is with accompanying EXIF info

Camera: Nikon D60 Lens: AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G

Shot at 24 mm Exposure: Manual exposure, 30 sec, f/5, ISO 100 Flash: none Focus: Manual, Center, at 3.4m, with a depth of field of about 5.8m, (from about1.2m before the focus point to about 4.6m after)

AF Area Mode: Single Area Date: May 9, 2015   10:26:48PM (timezone not specified)

(11 minutes, 55 seconds ago, assuming image timezone of 8 hours behind GMT) Time Zone Offset: -08:00 File: 3,900 × 2,613 JPEG (10.2 megapixels)   

4,593,184 bytes (4.4 megabytes)

Hi There,

I would be inclined to say your pictures are suffering from LIGHT POLLUTION, you certainly have a great deal of it at your site.

Try taking a shot at say 10seconds rather than 30 seconds with the same iso etc as in the above frame and see what that comes out like.

Also try taking the same 2 shots at a dark site... I think you will be surprised by the difference.

.

A couple of other points... did you turn the camera body to manual focus as well as the lens?... not sure if this is available on the D60... I have this function on my D90 and it makes a large difference to the noise if I forget to turn the body to manual.

Have you turned off all in-camera noise reduction, oddly this can sometimes add noise if left on for astro shots.

Are you covering the viewfinder before taking an exposure... a lot of unwanted light can get in via this route.

Finally, it is possible that you have displaced the internal mirror, used for the viewfinder, when you dropped the camera... this could mean some light is getting past the mirror seal when in the viewfinder position or it is not rising to it's proper open position when in exposure position... which again could be doing strange things with the available light.

This would not always be obvious when taking daylight shots, since the huge difference in available light would tend to mask it.

I dont think this is anything to do with hot pixels... if the sensor had that many it would also result in very poor daylight shots.

Try taking a BIAS shot ( Camera in M mode, manual focus,lens cap on, viewfinder covered, all noise reduction turned off and highest shutter speed)... this will show true number of hot pixels and noise.

I hope you can find the cause and the solution.

Best regards.

Sandy.