A little over a year ago I got a Sony Alpha 100 DSLR with 2 kit lenses (18 to 70 zoom and 75 to 300 zoom). In general I’m very pleased with the camera, but I do have a major problem with headlights being reflected in the lens or camera body when taking head on shots. The distinctive triangular pattern of headlights and ditchlights is diagonally reflected about the center of the image. Severity of the reflection depends on aperture, focal length, etc. I’m not using any filters (doing so makes the problem worse), and the lens is clean.
I know kit lenses aren’t usually the best quality, and I can’t find any information as to whether or not these lenses have anti-reflective coatings. Has anybody else had this problem with DSLR’s? I’m thinking of getting a Tamron or Sigma ‘digitally optimized’ lens, but want to be sure it will solve the problem. I live in a rural area, so I can’t just hop over to the local camera shop for a test drive…
Your best bet is to get Tamron lenses, with antireflective coatings. Short of that try a neutral density filter with anti reflective coating, lot cheaper than new lenses. R. Staller
I can only relate what I know of refractor telescopes to what you are experiencing, and I may be dead wrong. Anyway, here goes…
In order to get as much poly-chromatic light (several, or all, of the ‘visible’ frequencies) to focus at the same plane, the front lens, or objective lens, must comprise at least two different densities of glass, each with different refractive indices. In days of old, the two were crown and flint glass. Even so, no matter how well the lenses were figured, and how well they were both aligned and nested back to front, there was always a problem with halos of violet, or yellow, or some colour around bright objects that obviously was not brought to focus as the same plane as the viewing/detecting surface. In the late 70’s, the popular astronomy circuit began to make available flourite lenses and other exotic glasses that were termed ED, for extra-low dispersion. The flourite crystal was susceptible to corrosion, so it had to be nested, and then sealed, between two outer lenses. Now you have not the usual four lens surfaces to figure, but six. Figuring lenses is time consuming, so you pay…boy, do you pay!
All this to say that the cheaper lenses will have the less expensive glass, and perhaps not so fine figuring on their surfaces. Each of these, plus the higher dispersion qualities of the material comprising the lenses, contributes to reflections that get bounced around between all the surfaces in the lens, with some through-put showing up on the detector/film. In any event, only the outer layers can be coated, to my knowledge, so any spurious light that does get past the coatings is then free to do its dance from surface to surface, and then some of it, albeit less, gets to the image. The really costly lenses, those upwards of $800 or so, may have flourite or ED glass that will greatly cut down on the ghosting images you see.
Considering the equipment you mentioned, headlight reflection is something you are going to have a devil of a time eliminating. This is because the more pieces of glass between your sensor (or film) and the object, the more reflections you are going to get.
The best way I know of to minimize this problem is to get a fixed-focal length lens. Try finding a (relatively) inexpensive lens of from 35 to perhaps 70mm. Granted, with the fixed focal length lenses you do not have the flexibility of zooms, but if your zooms are not giving you the image quality you want, then a different lens is the only solution, other than changing the type of photos you want to shoot.
If you’ll note that in the image you provided, the reflected lights are directly opposite the exact center of the image; in other words, the original headlights are about 230 degrees from TDC (top dead center), and the reflected lights are exactly 180 degrees opposite (50 degrees from TDC). This is characteristic of filter reflection (did you have a polarizer on when you took the image?).
So take off any extra filters you have you have on your lens, including any polarizers, UV/haze, etc. Of course you will have to be extra careful when your lens-protecting filters are removed, so just take the filters off when you are ready to shoot those headlights, then put the filters back on immediately after you take your shots.
I have the same camera except mine just came with the 18-70 lense and Im well pleased with it… I havent noticed a problem with reflection in it…I also have a Sony camcorder that is an excellant camera…
You might try having it serviced or at least looked over by a technician ,there may be a problem inside the body… Show them what your experincing and maybe they can correct it…It may not be the lense at all but a light leak in the body…The light reflection problems in other cameras Ive had look like a white dove flying thru my pix ! Good luck and let us know what happens…
I have noticed that my Circular Polarizer usually prevents this type of lens flare. The one that it doesn’t block out is from the sun. A UV filter might help, but I have never seen the point in them besides protecting the lens. A Neutral Density filter might help, but all it does is block some light requiring a longer exposure.
Thanks to those who have shared their constructive comments. Filters were my first suspect as well and were promptly removed. With filters I tended to get two sets of reflections, one nearly on top of the other. Removing the filters reduced the problem by removing one set of reflections, but as you see one remains. I wonder if one of the lens elements has a flat face, akin to a filter, that is reflecting the lights…
Does anybody have any luck using 3rd party telephotos? I’m thinking that Tamron, Sigma, Tokina, etc. probably use the same basic lens with different mounts, so if a 3rd party lens designed for digital SLR’s works well on a Nikon or Cannon, it will probably work well on my gear as well.
If removing the filters does not solve the problem, then your lens is the issue. And regarding which lens is best, my suggestion is to get the best camera manufacturer-made lens (Nikon, Sony, Canon, etc)you can afford.
IMHO, the other lens makers (Tamron, etc) do a very good job when used for ‘normal’, non-demanding photography, such as pictures of the kids, your car, your vacation, etc. However, taking an image with three megawatt headlights pointed right at the lens is not “normal” photography, Try taking some images with the sun in the frame, then see how well your lens (and sensor) can handle extreme situations.
Another option when shooting head-on with a train, is to be sure the angle between your camera and the headlights is such that the reflection actually goes off-center (see my post above regarding the center-problem) so far that it exits the frame; unfortunately this usually necessitates the train being too far in to the image, which ruins the effect a head-on shot generates.
Of the three images that Kolechovski posted, mine looks a little bit like the first, only in that you can see a perfect headlight pattern. In mine however, the extra headlights are reflected diagonally about the center of the image. In other words, if the true headlights are in the lower left portion of the image, I’ll see the reflection in the upper right portion, upside down with the ditchlights above the headlights.
In Kolechovski’s picture the headlight reflection in right side up and appears to be about one engine length ahead of the actual train’s headlights.
My 2nd picture captures the inversion you experience, though you can’t notice that so easily, due to the blare of the main lights, but I believe that’s part of that reflection you’re seeing. Apparently, I lost or linked to the wrong 3rd picture, because that one doesn’t have anything to do with this, so I guess I’m missing a couple.
Anyhow, that certainly seems to be a lens issue for you. Other than trying to avoid shooting directly into it to avoid reflection, you’ll need a decent filter to stop the reflection. Sadly, I lack lens filter experience, so try the stuff teh others suggest.