Nikon d700 why why whhhhhhhhhy?

It sounds as if your camera is doing exactly as it should and as almost all cameras on the market would do.

Now, the problem with concerts & operas (whats the etiquette for taking a DSLR to the opera?) is that the environments are dark. Now you have four main ways to get your camera to see in the dark:

Shutter Speed: The slower the more light will reach the sensor. Being honest, at a concert or the like you are best off using a shutter speed of 1/125th or 1/250th and setting the camera to burst (multiple shot) mode. In burst it should be possible to capture in interesting shots.

Aperture: The larger (small numbers are larger) the aperture the more light you will capture, but you need to be careful as this will also affect the depth of field. If you set your camera into its shutter priority mode it will attempt to use the correct aperture for the shutter speed. If the shutter speed is too high to set a correct aperture then the camera should be giving you a warning (read the manual).

ISO: The ISO isn't magic, increasing the ISO is used to up the sensitivity of the sensor. But it has the undesired effect of adding noise too. So increasing the ISO is always going to be a trade off between capturing the image you want and capturing the image at the quality you want. By thinking about Shutter Speed, Aperture, and ISO in parallel you can alter the entire feel and effect of an image.

Lighting: At concerts and the like lighting is out of your control, you have to learn to live with the existing lighting. Don't be tempted to use powerful flash guns, they change to atmosphere of the image you are seeing, annoy the artists, and could get you removed from the venue.

Rest assured your D700 is a great camera, you might want to consider looking into a lens that would be better at low light such as a low level zoom with a focal range from around 20mm up to 80mm and a large CONSTANT maximum aperture. That along with reading the manual, maybe taking a course, or buying a guide book to digital photography.

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I agree with other posters. Why did you make the D700 your first DSLR!? A 1/8000 sec. might even produce dark photos in bright sunlight. Here's what you do:

1.) Sell your D700. Many on this forum would want to buy it

2.) Buy a D40, D60, D3000, or D5000.

3.) Take a photography class, or at least read a book

4.) In dark circumstances, like an Opera, use M mode. Turn on auto ISO. Set shutter speed equal to around 1/125 or 1/250. That should be enough to freeze an opera. (Granted, a sports game would warrant a faster shutter speed, but it would have more available light too.) And set your Aperture (F Stop) to it's widest (lowest number) setting. Then make adjustments as necessary.

But for heaven's sake, learn how to use a professional camera before you spend $3,000 on one!

The D700 uses the same MB-D10 battery grip and the same batteries as your D300s. It would be a good camera to add to your system and have a full frame capability. I would keep the D300s for those times you need the added reach that the cropped sensor gives you. The D800 is really a wholly new type camera than the D700. It is really a mini-D3X for use in the studio and other times when you may have needed to rent a medium format camera. That and its uncompressed video feature make it unique among all the under $3,000 full frame camera types Only you know were you are going with your photography, so the future will be what determines your choice, NOT our opinions

It appears that you are in a situation where you just need more light. The camera provides you about the best chance you can have in low light. You are doing the right thing by increasing the ISO and also going to a higher shutter speed.

Perhaps a shutter speed that is lower than 8000 but is still capable of freezing the motion of your subjects. Maybe 500 or 1000 shutter speed setting, these settings will allow much more light and still provide fast shutter speeds that can freeze most motion.

Good luck.

Mark

Years ahd years ago, my late wife and I had different cars. She had a Beamer and I had a Lotus Esprit that I had dropped a 289 short block into with a Garrett turbo chargers that delivered 300 HP to the rear wheels in a car that weighed a little over 2,200 lbs. Extremely tight rack and pinion steering for precision control. 0 -60 about 3.7 seconds.

She wanted to go to the store and instead of taking her car out of the garage, she decided to take my car, which was in the driveway. She had been in it lots of times, but never driven it herself. She called me from a neighbor's house about 5 blocks away and I came, with her car, and drove mine back.

Point? When we were out for a drive, what I did in my car didn't look any different to her than what she did in her car. As she found out, she didn't have the knowledge, or the skill, to drive it. To her credit, she enrolled in Bondarant's driving school and got an SCCA license and then could drive my car.

You don't have the knowledge, or skill, to use that camera. Do the equivalent to what my late wife did, take photography lessons.

Vance

When you are ready to give up on your D700, please contact me as I would be interested in buying a very slightly used D700.

If you are not interested in reading the manual, put it on "P" and you'll get better results. If you don't want to read the manual, try reading some third party picture book that will walk you through it.

I can't add anything to the perfectly good answers already given.

But seriously, if you want to sell it, just "add details" and I'll contact you in e-mail.

It doesn't really matter how good the camera is, it's all about the lighting and how steady you hold the camera. You'd be able to take a better picture with the camera completely still, like on a tripod...even though that's probably hard to do at a concert.

A really high ISO will make it more fuzzy so I wouldn't change that either... basically, if there's bad lighting, you're picture won't turn out too great =/.

Why does anyone spend that much on a camera if they have no clue how to use it? You could have learned on a D40 first, you know.

A fast shutter speed in low light will give you a dark image. You need to open your aperture wide and use a slow shutter speed. That plus the high ISO should get you near enough to a proper exposure.

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