Warning for D2X Owners

I had a D2X since March and used it almost everyday until last week when the "F" word happened. As the new D2Xs had come out I asked about upgrading to it even though I had ordered a D2X. When I got the D2Xs not much had really changed that would help the under water photographer, however one thing that had changed was the new TFT LCD screen.

The warning is that if you have used the D2X then upgrading to the D2Xs will leave you very disappointed, for one reason. The new TFT under water does not produce those nice blue backgrounds you are used to. Cathy Church photoshop (CC) here in Cayman and I have been working on the problem but it seems that the change in LCD has a strange effect under water. It shows a murky blue'ish instead of the deep rich blue I was used to. With help from CC we changed every setting the camera has, including adding a color curve into the camera from Nikon Capture, but the screen remains the same, a murky blue'ish color. The new Nikon D80 has the same screen and will no doubt have the same problem. The D200 DOES NOT have the same screen that you may have read about, we compared them and you can clearly see the difference. When you view the images on LCD's you can see the lack of blue. Sure you can add blue color curve in Photoshop but I'd rather do it in the camera like I have been doing. So to conclude I have asked them to exchange it back to a D2X that I know and like so well, I'd asked for it to be chnaged the very next day but they convinced me to try a few setting changes first but to no avail, I'll tell you how it goes on Monday.

I found this image of a nice area that I take photos of when ever I'm on that dive site, it was taken 2 weeks ago with the D2X. Settings are: RAW 80th, f-8 iso 100

Sorry for the edit, Luiz I used the wrong image, in the example, on the computer they look almost the same it's when viewed on the LCD they look different. We took a D2X and D2Xs underwater and took a photo of both screens side by side and in it you can see the differnce, but on the computer they are alomst the same.

So, since I can see the lack of blue in my monitor here, the difference is not the camera's LCD screen, but some kind of white balance issue, correct? If the difference was the upgraded camera LCD, one would see the difference in the LCD but not the computer screen.

I knew I could not explain it correctly, to make it short, under water the LCD shows a murky blue'ish color compared to the D2X but on the computer they are almost the same.

Oh, now I get it. I wonder if those "LCD improvements" will affect the D2x with the upcoming firmware update...

One question, is there any chance this is an isolated problem? I mean, have you seen any other D2Xs behaving similarly?

This is the first one I have seen, I don't know of anybody else using it yet.

I got my D2Xs a couple weeks ago, but as I never had the D2X, and she has not been underwater yet, I cannot comment on a comparison.

That said, I just did a quick test by photographing a picture with deep blue water, and comparing the image on the LCD, the JPEG from the camera (shooting raw+jpeg), and the original image. The deep blue color is almost identical in each, and shows none of the issues of the sample images above.

Obviously, very un-scientific, but calmed my concerns raised by this post!

Hopefully, my 2 weeks upcoming in the Sea of Cortez will show this to be an isolated incident.

I know it sounds strange, but unfortunately you'll only notice it when your underwater, if you had never used a D2X before then you would never know, but as you have you'll see what I mean, you just don't see those nice blues underwater with that LCD, I have my fingers crossed that other D2Xs owners don't have the same problem and mine was just an isolated case, then I can get another but I fear not.

Okay again using the photo above, if this is what you see in the D2X LCD underwater, then the second image is how you'll see it with the D2Xs but on the land and on the computer they will be almost the same. CC's photoshop agree now and they gave me a refund.

D2X LCD:

And altered in PS to show you what the D2Xs LCD shows underwater:

And both side by side on the computer you'll see thay are alomst the same:

I saw Patrick's images on his D2Xs and they are clearly different in look to the LCD screen on the D2X. But if they look OK on the computer then I think that you will soon adapt to the D2Xs screen.

This is a fairly normal process when you upgrade camera. The LCD screen on my D2X is very different in look to my D100 that I had before. You soon adapt.

I doubt that many people will upgrade to a D2Xs from a D2X, especially now that the new firmware is out. Only the dreaded F word would cause that.

And I guess that the take home message from Patrick's experience is that if you do flood a D2X then maybe a secondhand D2X is a better buy that the D2Xs - if you want a consistency of LCD screens.

One interesting test I would try is to take your old D2X images and upload them onto the D2Xs card and view them in the camera. It should let you do this. To see if these have flat greeny blues or not.

I would also post on DPReview to see if any land photographers have noticed a difference in the LCD screens between D2X and D2Xs.

Alex

I guess as you say, I won't know what it "would have" looked like, so I may not be able to tell. That said, I will try and be aware of it so as to try and help confirm my Xs having (or not) the same issue.

Hopefully someone on my upcoming trip will have an X and we can compare.

So the problem is with the LCD image and not the image the camera records?

I have to admit I don't really look at the colors on the LCD that much as the screen is misleading to me underwater anyhow. What I do look at is a) the histogram and B) the focus.

Or did I misunderstand the original post?

SD