Night Photography

[philven]

I was wondering if anyone has run into this problem. I like shooting at night, or just before the sky goes black. My camera, a Nikon D50, cannot autofocus at night so I have to manual focus. The problem is my shots come out soft unless I shoot at f22 or some really high f stop. To do this I need to bump my ISO up to 1600, or time the exposure on my watch as it exceeds the maximum 30 seconds the camera will hold the shutter open without going to "Bulb".

I'd like to be able to keep noise down and get really sharp images. Now for some caveats, I wear tri-focal glasses, and I use kit lenses that came with the camera, both Nikkor lenses. When I focus should I be using the upper part (for distance) of my glasses to look through the viewfinder, or the lower part (for close up)?

[Lilikoi the cat]

Phil,
there may be a diopter adjustment for use without glasses, you need to check the manual for that. What exactly are you trying to shoot? Close up or far? The kit lenses tend not to be fantastic lenses in order to keep the price down for the camera kit. You should be able to get sharp images though at night.

[Killjoy]

Phil, in your manual section that states "First Steps", on page 13 it shows you how to set your diopter.

You can do this without your glasses, and that should help you with your manual focus.