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UltravioletPhotography

Rusty Nut and Bolt - Precision U D300


Erik Lund

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This is one of my first images with my new D300 broad band, using a Precision U filter in front of a UV-Nikkor 105mm.

Shot near Sønderled in Norway, wet spring forest, the remains of an old rusty chassis.

WB adjusted in Capture One Pro.

 

post-12-0-34621100-1368525509.jpg

 

The D300 is now modified with the Precision U filter replacing the internal filter pack and shaker filter.

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Very nice to see a Precision-U internal mod, Eric.

 

How did you cut the filter?

How did the edges of the filter hold up?

Any crumbling or flaking of layers or coatings?

Did you tape the edges prior to installation?

Well, perhaps you would consider a little write-up of your mod work for the equipment section,

rather than here as I seem to have just asked a gazillion questions ??

 

Also, it is cool to see a UV photo of something other than botanical subjects. "-)

I have to laugh - when I saw "rusty nut and bolt", I misread

and thought you were making reference to your camera.

 

There is an odd patch of cyan in the lower left of the photo.

Do you think that could have been from a light leak??

 

Added - in such scenes the Active D-Lighting feature of the D300 can open up those shadows quite a bit. This, of course, presumes you use a converter that preserves the info. (There's always free View NX2 for quick conversions.) Although I continue to use the ADL feature even when converting in Photo Ninja because I can get a better feel for the proper exposure while in the field. On a good exposure, Photo Ninja can open up the shadows quite well, too, albeit differently from the way the in-camera ADL manages it.

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Thanks :)

I made a thread on NikonGear

D300 to be UV

on the process, but shure I can do a version here also in the equipment section.

 

Yes there was a light leak from the filter I think, between the layers or at the filter holder.

 

This should be eliminated with the internal filter installation.

 

Cut the filter with Dremel no need for taping, extreme care not to cause delamination.

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So the Precision-U was cuttable - with care. Good to know!

 

Light leaks in UV - I've had a lot of that, for various reasons, over time ! And they tend to show up as cyan after white balance has been done. So the editing hint is - desaturate cyan - and thus the light leak area is less obvious. Then you can brush in a bit of darkening over the light leak and again lessen its impact a bit. This hint works not so good if the light leak hits a UV-blue area, but works nicely for UV-neutral areas.

 

But hopefully it won't occur again with the nice internal Precision-U.

Looking forward to more pix with this filter.

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Thanks Andrea!

 

I would definetly not recommend to cut the Precisoin U filter by yourself! The first two cuts I made resulted in local delamination, the four cuts needed was more than one hour of meticules cutting, suporting the fragile glass with extreme care, bits of glass flying right and left...

 

Here is the D300 UV thread

 

I think maybe we should keep the modifying of gear posts on Nikon Gear.... Of course I will make a thread here on my equipment just as you did :)

 

Yes hopefully the light leak is gone now, when I cut the filter I had a feeling that a bit of the filter separated a bit too easy as if the cement between the layers of glass was not fully bonded...

 

My filter only has a clading on one side so thinner than a standard Precision U filter, a little more than 0.5mm, the thickness is 3.5mm it was ordered as souch for building into the D300 and it worked :)

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Yes, it may be better to keep modification threads on NG.

I should make an updated reference Link list for reference which would include the D300 mod.

(Always too much to do !)

 

Very scarey having bits of glass fly about. For sure I don't think I would ever attempt cutting a filter myself. I was curious however about your experiences with cutting the Precision.

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I understand :)

 

I didn't tape up the filter in order not to damage the coating on the rear surface

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For the time being, I think the best approach is to publish the detailed description of camera modifications etc. on say Nikongear.com, and just add a short post with the necessary link(s) on the UV site. After all on ultravioletphotography.com we are trained to the results not as much as the ways to go there.

 

However, there is a fine borderline to be drawn here so don't treat such recommendations as rules set in stone. Just use your best judgement as how to proceeed and if in doubt, seek advice from the admins.

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