is this normal flare or lens defect?

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euoar

New member
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I've just bought a Nikon D5100, and shooting outside, on suny days, the pictures are showing this orange circles. It doesn't seem to me like the typical flare effect. Do you think it could be lens defect? Should I ask for a replacement of the camera? I'm using the provided 18-55 lens. It happens mostly when shooting with 18-23 focal lenght, aprox...

Thanks in advance...
 
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BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Not a defect since there are multiple locations, but as Sparky has suggested it may be a cheap (and dusty) UV filter. Shooting into the sun will almost always show off the cheaper aspects of your gear.
 
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grandpaw

Senior Member
My vote would be to put the lens shade on and it will probably correct the problem. The wider you shoot the more problems with flare you will have. IMHO it has nothing to do with dust because it is not in the same place in each of the images. If you are shooting into the direction of the sun even the lens shade will not stop the flare but if you are shooting at an angle it will help tremendously.

I looked again at all of your pictures and all of them are shot toward the sun so for the shade to do any good you will have to change the angle of you picture. It will not make a difference if you have the most expensive camera and lens and you shoot into the sun YOU WILL GET FLARE!!!
 
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480sparky

Senior Member
grandpaw said:
My vote would be to put the lens shade on and it will probably correct the problem. The wider you shoot the more problems with flare you will have. IMHO it has nothing to do with dust because it is not in the same place in each of the images. If you are shooting into the direction of the sun even the lens shade will not stop the flare but if you are shooting at an angle it will help tremendously.
Click to expand...

If the source of light is in the image, a hood won't help at all. But if it's just outside the scene, it MAY help, depending on the hood/focal length of the lens.
 
RockyNH_RIP

RockyNH_RIP

Senior Member
To add to what the others said, if I remember correctly..... when I had an 18-55 with my 5100 it was somewhat prone to lens flare, especially when into the sun, more so than some of my other lens...

Pat in NH
 
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STM

Senior Member
It doesn't look like regular flare to me, it looks more like coma or even perhaps a reflection off a filter.
 
Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
It's a flare and very normal. Just make sure the sunlight does NOT hit the front of your lens. You can use your hand, a piece of paper, your hat, anything to cast shadow on the lens and you should be fine. Removing the filter might help, but the real solution is to have the front element of the lens in the shadow from direct sunlight.
 
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480sparky

Senior Member
Marcel said:
It's a flare and very normal. Just make sure the sunlight does NOT hit the front of your lens. You can use your hand, a piece of paper, your hat, anything to cast shadow on the lens and you should be fine. Removing the filter might help, but the real solution is to have the front element of the lens in the shadow from direct sunlight.
Click to expand...

Very hard to cover up the sun when the sun is in the photo, like most of the OPs samples.

In those cases, you just learn to accept the flare and deal with it in post.
 
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euoar

New member
Thank you very much for the welcome to the forum and for all the very valuable info and advices!! I'll use a hood next time and avoid direct sunlight in the shootings. At least I can discard lens defects, which is what worried me more...

Btw, impressed for the amount of good info and advices. This forum looks like a great place to learn and share about photography. Think I'll be visiting it quite often...
 
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