On the Washington State Coast, I probably took 200 sets of pictures using the Nikon bracketing feature. That's 600 images in all, as I took each shot at 0.00, -0.3f, and +0.3f exposure. I was using Program 1 mode, usually at ISO 800, as many shots were at 300mm, so I needed the 1/3500 or 1/4000 shutter speed. After the first day of shooting, I found that the +0.3f setting produced nothing usable. It just blew out the highlights. The choice between 0.00 and -0.3f was about a 70/30 deal--70 percent of the shots were great at 0.00, and 30 percent of the shots were better at -0.3f. It mosty depended on sun angle. -0.3f worked better shooting into the sun, or where there was glare off the sea. So I tried a bracket of 0.00, -0.3f, -0.6f. That worked, especially for shots into the sun, where -0.6f was the best. I'd guess the split was now 60/30/10. I just don't have time to post comparison shots now--sorry! Besides, at Web resolution, they might not show much. But it was a very ineresting week-long experiment. I also did some comparisons between P and Auto mode. Preliminary views show that I'm correct in prefering the P mode.
I use mostly S to keep the shutter speed up when shooting moving trains, lowering the shutter to increase depth of field when shooting still subjects outdoors. For indoor close ups using a tripod I use A and maximize the aperture and a remote shutter release.
Pete, I haven't messed with bracketing, but definitely prefer P mode over Auto. I recently tried the "motor drive" mode in Sport mode, practicing for an assumed runby on the upcoming 844/4449 doubleheader. I took shots of speeding cars on Oregon 101. I've wanted to do that anyway to see if anyone slowed down, turned around, shot at me, etc. No one even paid attention. The motor drive Sport mode is superior to any other I have tried when it comes to tracking fast moving objects, like trains. :teeth:
Hmm, I'll have to look at that mode. I was surprised that bracketing mode flipped the mirror for every shot. Does Sports mode not flip the mirror?
I found out--the mirror does go up and down. That's one reason it's limited to 3 fps. I guess it's OK, because you really wouldn't want to go blind for a second. Sport mode gives you shutter speed priority.
