This week in Las Vegas at the WPPI Show, I’ve had the chance to play with and get familiar with two new products from Nikon. You can find all the specs on Nikon USA website and places like DP Review, so I won’t rehash those sites, I hope to share some of the exciting things, I’ve learned. I will put both products through and extensive testing in St. Maartens Island in the Caribbean next week, but for now here are the exciting details;
The D7100. While the D7100 is the long awaited update to the wonderful D7000, (one of my favorite cameras of all time), it is more than I had expected!!! The D7100 has a 24 mp sensor that does not have an Optical Low Pass Filter in place! The result is exceptional sharpness and resolution. This is a very exciting development….. While I have only been able to pop off some hand held shots at our booth, it is obvious, even in those images, that this camera is going to be a force to be reckoned with with in the DX sensor category!! The other extremely pleasant discovery is that the noise at high ISO is remarkably low, far better than in the 16 mp D7000, which was very good in it’s own right!!
The D7100 feels just a little more substantial than it’s previous little brother, and is definitely built for lots of use. It maintains the same great ergonomics of the D7000 and most all the features and includes some new ones. The most important added feature for me, besides the wonderful new sensor design, is the autofocus system has grown up to the 51 point (15 cross type, and the better processor should provide faster, and more accurate autofocus performance, in addition to working in lower light! The D7100 feels great in the hands, and makes fantastic images! (Oh well, maybe changes are in the wind for my Nikon DX body needs!!!)
The Long awaited, and worth the wait, Nikon 80-400 AF-S VR G f 4.5-5.6 Zoom. This lens is everything I had hoped for and while substantial, not a back breaker!!! The new lens has a very solid feel, zooms without the excessive lengthening of the older version and has the latest and best VR system! I am not the most steady shooter and yet standing at the booth, handheld I made several images of people’s faces a about30 feet away at 400mm at a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second, and could count the eyelashes!!!!!! Next week as i photograph jets landing in St. Maarten, at their famous low pass over the beach airport, I hope to post some stunningly sharp images from this lens! The lens takes 77mm filters (yeah!!!), (and the barrel does not rotate during focusing, yeah again!!!) it focuses down to only 5.74 feet at 400mm!!!!!! (Can we say close-ups!!!!! and micro lens type results with high quality diopters! With ED, and Super ED elements, and Nano coatings, this lens is stunningly sharp!
The lens appears to be tack sharp and with a very well designed tripod collar (supplied with the lens), I believe this will find a home in many bags. At $2.699. it is not cheap,but considering it’s quality and utility, I believe it will be well worth the price!!! At 56 ounces, it is not light, but certainly manageable, for even an old guy like me! On our FX cameras (D4, D800/800e, D600. etc) it will be a true 80-400, on the new D7100 an all our DX models it’s a whopping 120-600 f 4.5-5.6 WOW, what a great range for those that own both FX & DX bodies…… As you know I’m never convinced until I try it for myself, and I will report on that next week, but to be honest, I’m expecting to provide a sterling review in the days to come. Can you tell I’m excited???? I think I’ve used that word forty times in this blog entry!!!!!
Caveat: Please know that even though I am employed by Nikon, (and have been a life long Nikon user for all my years, I bought my own gear, and still do, Nikon does not give me gear, only consigns it for use in my job). I would never, and have never, hyped any of our products on this blog site, just for that reason, if I did not genuinely believe my opinions to be accurate, I would say nothing at all! My mother always taught me, “If you can’t say something good, say nothing at all!!” Still great advice all these years later. While on that subject, from time to time I mention products that I have purchased with my own money and love, that is my policy on this website. I do not accept, free products for the purpose of review. If I request a product, or are sent a product to review, I return it, after the review or, if I want to own it, I send a check to the manufacturer for the product. Some manufacturers give “professional discounts” which are appreciated, but nothing is accepted free. The one exception to that is any sponsor of His Light Workshops may give samples of their products for our use, and testing, and this is a standard procedure in the industry. I and Jim choose our own sponsors and we approach them, because we already use and highly respect their products. Period!! We have not, and will not review cameras or lens products, other than Nikon’s, while I am employed by them.
My goal is simple, I want you to know, you can read this blog and all my blogs, and feel assured that I am only passing on what I believe, in my opinion, to be accurate information you can use to consider in your equipment purchases study. My faith and my stand in life for Him would allow me to do no less.
Blessings,
the pilgrim
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 13th, 2013 at 2:42 pm
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One of the glories of photography is deciding what part of a subject you want to present to the viewer, and then making it stand out with undeniable sharpness. The thing in a image that is sharpest becomes the subject. Focus is critical to photography but even more critical to life. I often have to ask myself, “what am I focused on….” It’s easy to get your focus in the wrong place; what others think of you, what you can attain, what you have, all seem like normal concerns, but the problem is where we focus. In all the examples above, the focus is on self, me, my, mine. If we ever hope to please our Heavenly Father we need, to let go of what we want, and ask Him what He wants for us. Some people think that giving up doing what we want for our selves is loosing, but they’re sadly wrong, we loose the most when we gain it all, and loose our relationship with Him!
I’ve had it all without Him, and had Him without the it all, I’ll take Him.
Blessings,
the pilgrim
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 13th, 2013 at 4:34 am
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Tonight, Paul Van Allen, Jason Stewart, and I hit the strip to do some night photography, but not before I crowned the new Number One Cheeseburger in America at Smash Burger! It was crafted to perfection, season perfectly and really big, greasy and delicious. Photo below!!! I’ve been taking an evening off with these two great friends for years and we always enjoy a little shooting and chasing after the next great burger! These guys have been such great friends, I will rally miss these get togethers.
Really a great evening and a lot of fun shooting!
Blessings,
the pilgrim
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 12th, 2013 at 5:32 am
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The Vegas Gang rides again! R. C. Concepcion captured the NPS team today out at Nelson Mining town in Nevada, we really had a blast, left to right, Mark Kettenhofen, the pilgrim, Brien Aho, and our boss and buddy, Bill Pekala. We had a lot of fun just shooting and hanging out with R.C. and Pete Collins, of Kelby Media. Below are some of my images from our little trip! Then at the end another terrific portrait by R.C. of Mark!
More to come as I catch up. blessings
the pilgrim
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This entry was posted on Monday, March 11th, 2013 at 4:45 am
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