Nikon got Black Dots problem too, claimed on a firmware fixes

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By Daniel Lim/

What do you know? With all the complaints on 5D Mark II's black-dot glitches ( we reported a hands-on firmware fix) , no ones seems to notice there are similar occurrences on Nikon lineup as well, not until the manufacturer pointed it out on a recent firmware fixes. According to Nikon, in an extremely rare occasion, images taken in a long exposure from D3 and D700 may exhibit black dots if the Noise Reduction feature was on.

"- An issue that, in extremely rare cases, resulted in noticeable black dots in images captured with Long exp. NR in the shooting menu set to On has been resolved."

The good news is the manufacturer has released firmware 2.01 (D3), and v.101 (D700) to resolve the ill-artifact. That, along with a number of rare bugs, and minor improvements to camera behavior have been posted at Nikon site with links to releases noted below.

Firmware v1.01 for D700

  • When Custom Setting a4 Focus tracking with lock-on was set to Off in Continuous-servo AF, the lens drive moved gradually without achieving focus. This issue has been resolved.
  • When the Speedlight SB-800 was mounted on the camera with flash mode set to Distance-priority manual (GN) mode, and then the exposure meters were reactivated or the camera was turned on, the distance information displayed on the SB-800 changed. This issue has been resolved.
  • When the Multi-Power Battery Pack MB-D10 was mounted on the camera and an EN-EL3e battery inserted in the camera but no batteries inserted in the MB-D10, and SB-900 flash mode set to TTL auto flash mode, the flash mode changed to A mode when the exposure meters turned off or were reactivated, or the camera was turned off or on. This issue has been resolved.(This issue has also been resolved with SB-900 firmware Ver. 5.02.)

    • An issue that, in extremely rare cases, resulted in noticeable black dots in images captured with Long exp. NR in the shooting menu set to On has been resolved.

  • Manamah, displayed in the Time zone options for the World time item in the setup menu, has been changed to Manama

    • Firmware v2.01 for D3

  • Geodetic information is now displayed in ViewNX 1.2.0 or later and Capture NX 2 2.1.0 or later shooting information for images captured with the GPS Unit GP-1 mounted on the camera.

    • Autofocus-response performance in focus mode C (Continuous-servo AF mode) with relatively dark subjects has been increased.

    When the AF-ON button is pressed, the monitor turns off and a focus point can now be selected using the multi selector.

    Photo information displayed in full-frame playback has been modified as follows:

    HI-, LO- has been changed to Hi, Lo

    WARM TONE has been changed to WARM FILTER

    COLOR CUSTOM has been changed to COLOR BALANCE

    Manamah, displayed in the Time zone options for the World time item in the setup menu, has been changed to Manama.

  • An issue that, in extremely rare cases, resulted in noticeable black dots in images captured with Long exp. NR in the shooting menu set to On has been resolved.

    • When the Speedlight SB-800 was mounted on the camera with flash mode set to Distance-priority manual (GN) mode, and then the exposure meters were reactivated or the camera was turned on, the distance information displayed on the SB-800 changed. This issue has been resolved.

  • An issue that, in some rare cases, caused images captured with the following lenses to be under-exposed, has been resolved.

    • AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED

    AF VR Zoom-Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED (5.0x)

    Links to Windows Releases :

    V2.01 for D3V1.01 for D700

    Links to Mac Releases

    V2.01 for D3V1.01 for D700

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