Cyan "blowout"; are the new cameras any better?

I'm still using a D100/Subal D10 combination.

After a recent trip to Bikini I was reminded (and disappointed) that the D100 simply can't cope with wide ranges in brightness across an image.

Are the newer cameras any better?

I'm particularly interested to hear what the D2X owners think as I'm looking at that as my upgrade path (Ron Boyes, I know you're out there). If they're no better then I'll wait.

Although the D100 probably has a limited dynamic range as compared to some of the newer cameras, it seems that a number of images are generally overexposed.

You could pick a couple of pictures (say Anderson21 or Carlisle 35) and indicate depth, visibility and camera settings to confirm this.

A good example is Liberator304, which has the full range of tones, from shadows to highlights and is very pleasant. On the other hand, Liberator 327 is too bright, and would have benefitted from a faster shutter speed and/or smaller aperture.

Hope this helps,

Mat

All the photos seem like they are ambient light shots ...

in the example above liberator 304 ... it is looking all good because you have exposed your subject the wreck .. and the sun is behind you lighting up the wreck for you.

However in the others taht are over exposed it looks like you have again exposed your subject .. the wrecks ... but your back ground now has the sun in it or at oleast you are looking into the sun. The overexposed sea will always happen when it is directly lit with the sun behind it and you havent exposed the sea but a closer sunject underwater which has much less light on it.

Try taking all your shots with the sun behind you .. or try doing shadowed or silhouetted wreks by exposing the sea not the wreck.

The simple answer is YES.

The D100 has max X-sync of 1/180 sec and min ISO 200 which gives the lowest exposure range of the common DSLR's.

D70's electronic shutter allow flash sync at any speed.

D2x has 1/250 sync and ISO 100

It is not a simple yes or no. But I am very happy with the D2X and sunbursts:

No time to elaborate, I'm afraid.

Alex

That's really hard to argue with Alex.

But I'll stick with a simple YES to the original question of "Are the newer cameras any better?" (than the D100 at capturing bright scenes).

Yes I do agree. Most of the time the D2x is big step over the D100 for capturing sunbursts. And certainly I never worry about including the sun in the frame when shooting wide angle these days. That said there are still times when it has problems.

The correct sea conditions remain a key component.

Alex