Nikon D800E and Solid ND Filters

After a brief trial with a D800E, I was sold. The combination of usability, dynamic range, and megapixel count far surpassed the capability of my Canon 5DII. So I sold my Canon gear on eBay, and completely switched to Nikon. I currently use the D800E as my main body, and have a D800 for backup. I like to experiment with my Hoya 10-stop solid ND filter, for several-minute exposures uaually for cloud streaks or water scenes. Since I began shooting with the D800E, I noticed my shots with the solid ND were plagued by a purple streak across the center of the image (see below for the RAW file, click to enlarge). At first, I thought it was the filter. I looked at it carefully under bright light... no scratches. Then I thought it was the lens (I had only used the Nikkor 24-70)... but when I tried with the telephoto lens the same thing happened. Then I thought it was the fact that the D800E does not have an antialiasing filter. There probably is something to this; the antialiasing filter does shield infrared light which can produce strange artifact. But that did't make complete sense. After doing a little reading, I discovered the problem. The camera, at long exposures, is prone to light leak from the viewfinder. There is a little switch next to the viewfinder that allows you to close it. Problem solved. I'm posting this in case anyone runs into a similar problem. It's an easy fix, and hope to prevent someone from going out and buying new filters/lenses, etc., unnecessarily. Cheers!

See more on my website: Exploring Light Photography