Nikon D3 metering

The Nikon D3 suffers from the same problem that every other DSLR I’ve used does: the inability to meter correctly even for dominant highlights, particularly the red channel in certain flowers. The image below has enough of the bright yellow daisies that one might reasonably expect their exposure to be dealt with appropriately. Why isn’t there a “don’t blow more than 2% of the highlights” mode? Someday there will be, or new technology will eliminate the issue.

In this case, the red channel could be rescued in Capture NX using -2/3 stop exposure compensation (and one stop in ACR, not really worth bothering with for this image, but it makes for a good example). Mouse over to see the Capture NX versions at -2/3 stop compensation. Note also how Capture NX has eliminated the red fringing along the edge of the petals.

in-camera JPEG <=> Capture NX @ -2/3 exp comp
(Nikon D3 + 50/1.4D @ f/8, ISO 200, actual pixels)

in-camera JPEG <=> Capture NX @ -2/3 exp comp
(Nikon D3 + 50/1.4D @ f/8, ISO 200, full-frame)