Category : The Learning Center

 

Well, I’m ready to eat a big slice of humble pie, maybe a whole pie!  After one morning out shooting the D800 my reservations are washed away!  The camera simply makes files that are superior to anything I’ve ever seen in 43 years of photography, period.  Is it perfect?  We will see, because much more testing needs to be done, but I can tell you from one mornings shoot, I am going to own this camera, actually I already do, Nikon will never see this one again, I expect to be writing a check!  So let’s get down to business on this bad boy, and I do mean “bad” boy…..

 

So far I have determined that 36 mega-pixels “does” make a huge difference.  The biggest gain is, of course, resolution, but even more important the gradation (smoothness of tones across the scale)!  The images below show the full image, (all are jpeg fine, at ISO 100 shot from a tripod with a cable release ), followed by tight crops of the original image, prepare to be impressed!

 

 

 

So is there any penalty?  Not really.  The files are big (duh!) and they move through the computer slower than you’re used to, but not as slow as I had feared, I feel like it took about 2.5 times longer to crunch a 5 stop HDR, but when the image is finished, it’s worth the wait.  I will do some testing on how the noise looks at high ISO, but my partner in crime from Nikon, Scott Diussa, shot some stuff at 2,500 this morning and they were surprisingly clean, very little noise!  Last night I shot a hand held image in the room at ISO 1600 and was shocked, I had feared that with all that resolution hand holding would be iffy, not so, the image shot at 1/8oth of second was sharp!

 

 

So, tomorrow it’s more testing, or maybe just having a lot more fun, again!!!!!!  Tomorrow more low light, High ISO tests, and more.  Needless to say, I’m more than very impressed!

 

the pilgrim

 

Update:  After a full day of editing and processing D800 images, I have a few suggestions;

 

1.  If you buy a D800 go ahead and get some larger cards, 64 and 128 might work great, at least 32 & 64 gigs.

 

2.  Upping the Ram in your computer will also speed things along, I’m guessing 8 gigs will be enough, but then you never have “enough”  RAM!

 

3.  If you have not gotten a solid tripod, head, and cable release, it’s time!

 

For now that about covers it, more info to come!

 

This last week and early this week, Nikon D4 and D800 cameras have started to be delivered, and the reviews are rolling in!  I got my production model of the D800 today, and tomorrow, the test begins.  I have really been looking forward to this camera that has raised so many questions!  How much of the 36 mega-pixel resolution will you really see?  How good will images look at High ISO?  How big will the files be?  Well we will know all that and a lot more very soon!  I intend to shoot the camera this week hard and really put it through it’s paces. Already DXO has rated the sensor the highest of any it has ever tested, a score of 95, even better than medium format sensors that are in cameras costing upwards of tens of thousands of dollars!!!!

 

What can I tell you right now?  The camera is solid, and feels very tough, the weight is not too heavy, but it is really well built, and is very much, every bit the tough feeling camera of the D700!  It feels a little thicker and feels great in the hands.  The viewfinder is big and very bright.  How big are the files?  First with a 32 gig card, you can shoot 957 jpeg Fine images, or 403 in RAW.  A RAW file opened in Capture NX2 came out to 43 megabytes, a jpeg Fine in the same software was 17.9, not as big and bad as I had feared!  I tried to shoot a few hand held, available light images with the camera in my hotel room at ISO 1600 and though this is far from a scientific test, they were razor sharp and no matter how much I enlarged them it only showed more detail, and noise was just, almost, non existent!!!!!  Of course the real test will be shots of highly detailed airplanes in great light, locked to solid tripod, and fired with a cable release!!  Can’t wait, and you will see the results later tomorrow!

 

One slight disappointment, I thought the camera could be fired by the little ML-L3 infrared remote, sadly I misread some literature before receiving the camera, it will work with the ML-3 Modulite, which I have, but not the little remote for the D90/D7000!  Only a small let down, but I do love those little remotes……

 

Tomorrow months of questions will start to be answered, I have to say, I’m very excited, I can see why so many have been ordered a D800, tomorrow and the rest of this week, I will find out, if I will join them!  Tune in!

 

Tonight’s Prayer:  Father, thank you for letting me do what I do for living.  I know that few people get to do what they love to do for their job,  don’t ever think that it is lost on my, what a blessing You have given me!  Amen.

 

the pilgrim

 

 

I never said I wasn’t a gear geek, I sure love lenses and cameras, and all those cool nylon bags, and accessories!  But the the new must have tool for me is the iPad 3 better known as simply the New iPad!  Why?  The screen my friend, the screen,  it now is much faster and has that incredible Retina display screen from the iPhone 4s.  Whenever you want or need to show your work to someone, their is now, no better way than with this new HD screened wonder.  I have to say, my images never looked better, and that’s a good thing!!!

 

Two years ago, at about this same time,  I was headed to Sun n’ Fun Air show in Lakeland Florida, Scott Kelby met me a the show to ride around in a golf cart and shoot some early morning images.  We had a blast.  I had already decided that the iPad was just too much money for me, and something I didn’t really need, until, Scott showed me his!  I bought my first iPad at the Apple Store in Brandon, Florida that afternoon!  For the last two years it has been my constant companion and been invaluable to show illustrations to clients and friends.  Not to mention having 27 gigs of my favorite music, usually 10 or 12 feature length films for watching on airplanes, and in the hotel at night.  I can watch TV shows I’ve missed on Hulu Plus and sports on the ESPN App.  Maplets gives me instant high res maps of everywhere I go,  and Google Earth can show me my exact location!  I can surf the web for information, and my grand kids love Angry Birds!  I even carry about 50 of my favorite books and audio books along for the ride wherever I go.  A year ago I bought my wife the iPad2 but decided to wait for the chance the  newest one would have the higher resolution screen, good decision!

 

Another great feature is that now iPhoto in a very powerful form is available for the New iPad.  Whether you download your images grom your Nikon or  iPhone, the processing power of this App is amazing, lots of fun to play with and yields pretty incredible results, and the price is very un-Photoshop like, $4.99.    Yep,  five bucks!

 

Seriously, we live and work in a visual world and this is truly a tool that can serve a number of needs, it now even contains a pretty decent 5 megapixel camera and shoots 1080p  video.  I bought the 64 gig model with wifi, but not 4G, I always have a Verizon Mifi card with me anyway.  All these new tools make the practice of photography even more fun, and hey,  a little fun is never a bad thing!

 

Have a great weekend!

 

the pilgrim

 

*Photo note, yes the image at the top is from Apples website, I just added my image from Old Car City!  The shots below also illustrate the new iPad as well, also from the Apple site.

 

 

In the last few weeks I’ve constantly been talking with my customers and friends about the new incredible cameras being released by Nikon.  The Nikon D4 a 16.1 mp pro monster and the exciting new Nikon D800/800e that has 36.3 mp promise to deliver unbelievable results.  I have been shooting the D4 for over a month and can tell you it is everything I would have hoped for.  The  production D800 is not on shore yet, but I look forward to shooting it as well.  These cameras will open up the doors to some of the most spectacular “technical” images yet, but they will be unable to do something, very important,  that no current camera can do either, find a great subject, in great light, and then decide how to compose it!  The impact of a photograph goes well beyond technical quality.

 

To make a wonderful image you must find something that is an interesting or compelling subject.  You then have to have the right light to make that subject look spectacular, and finally you must decide where to place the subject in the frame and how to use the surroundings to focus the eye onto the subject.  As advanced at the D4 and D800 are, they can’t do that.  Because that is the job of the photographer!   There is a wonderful story I’ve heard from several different people, I assume it is true, it sure could be.   The story goes that Ansel Adams was speaking at a college in California, and the students kept asking technical questions, what film, what developer, what lens, what tripod he used,  etc, etc.  So Mr Adams went out to a drug store and bought a Kodak Instamatic camera and some black and white instamatic film.  He proceeded to go to the beach and shot some images, he then processed the film, and made enlargement, and displayed them at the college.  When they got rave reviews he slipped his instamatic out of his pocket and revealed the tool he used!  His point was simple, it’s the photographer not the camera.

 

If you have the best camera and best lenses,  and use great technique and vision,  you will likely make great images.  Just buying great equipment alone will not make you a great photographer….

 

By-the-way, the shot above is  a 60% crop, out of an image from a 10 megapixel point and shoot camera!  If you do buy one of the great new cameras, (and I know many of you will), don’t forget to use great technique too!

 

the pilgrim