We recently returned from a trip to Walt Disney World, the first with my Nikon D810. During that trip I wanted to test the camera’s high ISO capability.
Here is an image of Madam Leona’s floating head at Walt Disney World’s Haunted Mansion. Madame Leona is located in a very dark area of the Haunted Mansion. Capturing this image is a good test of your camera’s low light capabilities.
I took this image using my 70-200mm Nikkor set to 120mm. Because the little Doom Buggies you ride in are moving, I needed a fast shutter speed to avoid blurring the image. I was not worried about depth of field, so I opened up the aperture all the way. Because I wanted to control shutter speed and aperture, I put the camera in auto-ISO mode. I ended up with the following settings:
- ISO – 12,800
- Shutter Speed – 1/100 sec
- Aperture – f/4.0
If you enlarge the image, there is quite a bit of grain and noise. On other hand, I never had success capturing Madam Leona using my Nikon D300. Better a grainy image than no image.
Haunted Mansion Walt Disney World N28 25 12.61 W81 34 59.24