I got a box in the mail today, a small box, only big enough to hold a well padded coffee mug. It was from my dear brother in Christ, Del Morissette.  It was gift, but more than that,  an affirmation.  Some time ago I learned of his daughter’s adopting two children from Africa.  She went through a lot to get them, and has gone through a lot to bring them into her home.  I felt it was a act of supreme love, and this young lady captured my heart, with hers!  I made a statement in a blog entry about her, her courage, and her love, and said, “Many care, many are moved to tears, many feel deeply, but few answer the call.”  That is the quote Del had placed on this coffee mug.

 

In the last two and half years as I’ve written down my thoughts, with God’s divine inspiration, I have often thought about the concept laid out in that quote.  I believe that the first step to action is being moved, being motivated, being deeply connected to the situation.  I think the next step is the hardest, to actually do something about it!  I watched the film I mention a day or so ago called What If…  Late in the film the lead actor comes fully to grips with who he is, who he could be, how short he has fallen short of that, and does the only thing we can ever do to rectify the situation, fall on our knees before Jesus and throw our selves on the mercy of the court!  God wants us to acknowledge that He is our Father, that His Son is our Savior, that we are sincerely regretful for the countless wrongs we’ve committed, and that we want His forgiveness, and want Him to come into our lives, to dwell in us, and that we want to be His, that we truly do!

 

I come here everyday, I come hoping someone out there will hear God’s gentle call, will know how very much He loves them, and will decide that it’s time to give up, and trust in Him.  I pray that today, is that someday,  for someone, He loves so much!

 

the pilgrim

 

 

Del, thanks for your friendship!

 

This month’s issue of Outdoor Photographer, their Landscape Issue, has a good article about three lens packages, and it moved me to expound on their conclusion, which by the way are good suggestions!  I want to take the conversation alittle further.  Please remember that I work for Nikon and my knowledge of lenses is very much tied to Nikkor lenses, however most of my conclusion can be applied to other systems.  Since this is a article of suggestion let me set some ground rules;

 

1.   The lens is the most important part of the camera, it focuses the light on the sensor and the quality of the image, the sharpness is up to the lens!  Selecting lenses therefore is a very important issue in building a system.

 

2.  The focal lengths of lenses that you need are determined by the kind of work you do.  If you don’t shoot sports or wildlife or any other specialized  subjects that need very long glass you don’t need a lens longer than 300mm or 400mm at the longest.

 

3.  Most photographers find it useful to own a wide angle lens, a moderate focal length lens, and a moderate telephoto zoom.  Wide angle zooms come in many ranges most covering somewhere between 14mm and 35mm.  Moderate zooms run from about 24mm to around 70mm, 105mm or 120mm.  The most common telephoto zooms go from 70mm to either 200mm or 300mm.  A three lens package that includes most of these focal lengths will cover virtually any normal subject.

 

4.  Lenses for Close-up work vary from 50mm and 60mm to 85mm, 100mm, 105mm and 180-200mm.  They be selected based on the working distance desired, long focal length will yield more working distance.   In the case of Nikon, all Micro Nikkor lenses are spectacular in performance!

 

 

O.K. my suggestions are simple, I will take each Nikon camera or groups of cameras and suggest a three lens package and a Micro Nikkor to go along with each of them.  In each case I have extensive personal experience with the lenses listed, and can vouch for their performance.

 

Nikon D3100, D5100, D300s, D90, and D7000  (All DX Sensors)

1st Choice for Wide Angle Zoom    10-24 AFS  or 12-24 AFS

1st Choice for Mid Range Zoom   16-85 AFS VR or 24-120 AFS-VR f4

1st Choice for Telephoto Range Zoom   70-200 AFS VR II f 2.8   or  70-300 AFS Vr f4.5-5.6

Recommended Micro lenses   40mm f 2.8 DX  –  85mm f3.5 DX  –  200mm f 4

 

 

Nikon D700, D800, D3s, and D4   (All FX Sensors)

1st Choice for Wide Angle Zoom    14-24 AFS f2.8  or 16-35 AFS VR f4

1st Choice for Mid Range Zoom   24-70 AFS f 2.8  or 24-120 AFS-VR f4

1st Choice for Telephoto Range Zoom   70-200 AFS VR II f 2.8   or  70-300 AFS VR f4.5-5.6

Recommended Micro lenses   60mm f 2.8  –  105mm f2.8  –  200mm f 4

 

There are lots of other choices and many that can be highly recommended,  but,  in most cases,  they are more specialized lenses, like Nikon’s 24mm f 1.4, 35mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.4, these are a subject for a future article.

 

Hope that helps in your system planning!

 

the pilgrim

 

 

I just watched a film that begs just that question, What if?  I’m a big fan of A Christmas Carol, and the films that in some way offer the same message, like; It’s a Wonderful Life, The Family Man, and now this film.  All these films save for a Christmas Carol, asks the question what difference would there be in the world if you had not been in it?!   The film I saw today is a Christian film starring Kevin Sorbo,  (Hercules), John Ratzenburger (Cheers), and actress Kristy Swanson.  In one very impactful scene Kevin is asked to come to the hospital to help a old man that is dying.  The old man doesn’t want to be helped, he feels he has done too many bad things in life to deserve forgiveness, but Kevin pushes on and shares the story of Judas and how Jesus wanted to forgive him, even after he had sold him out to the Romans for thirty pieces of silver, such was the depth of His love and His forgiveness.  The old man realizes he wants forgiveness, and Kevin, leads him to salvation, but in the process realizes he is praying the same for himself, a revelation has taken place in his heart and life!

 

We all need that revelation, the revelation of the fact that God loves us, that we matter to Him, and that He really is standing waiting for us to come to Him.

 

I’ve had a great day, knowing how much He has given me,  including a second chance, for letting me make things right, undeserved as I am, I want to be His and His alone.

 

Joshua 24:15

“….as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

 

the pilgrim

 

I knew it would happen, in fact, to be honest, I kinda hoped you would!  The D800 has been the source of more excitement than any camera I’ve ever seen.  So since you have questions I’ll give it my best attempt to answer them, and thanks again, you came up with some good ones!

 

1. Is there a time that, that much resolution is a disadvantage?  Not often, it’s kinda like being too thin, too good looking, and too rich!  Now you can have a lot more resolution than you need, but truthfully that is hard to imagine as well.  Just because you have a ton of resolution it doesn’t mean you have to use it!   The only disadvantage is, will the file being that large, be a problem for you?   If you can afford some larger cards and some ram for your computer, and fixing a turkey sandwich while some files crunch, you have no problems at all!

 

2.  Really, how much does movement affect sharpness with this sensor?  A little more  than with other sensors, movement costs sharpness, no matter what camera, this sensor just ups the ante some.  The bad news is you can’t be sloppy, the good news is you shouldn’t be sloppy anyway!!!  So use great technique, and get great results!  Nobody ever said everything in life would be easy!

 

3.  I shoot mostly sports but would love that resolution, should I consider the D800?  I think the D4, D3s or D3 are far better choices for the sports shooter.  The D4 has a lot of resolution and more than enough for almost any kind of sports work.    If  you do sport portraiture or feature story sports a D800 would have a good place in your bag!   The D4 just has so much speed and agility, it just begs for action!

 

4.  How much difference can you see in images where their is not a lot of details or smooth gradations?   Not as much as when those things are present, however sharpness is sharpness, and everything will have more bite with the D800.  Even straight nature subjects will have more subtle details, and that is a very good thing.

 

5.  I’m ready to spring for  a D800 is there any reason why I shouldn’t make that my main FX sensor camera?   I just wonder if it is the best all around choice?  I understand  your concern, it is a radically different camera than we have seen before, but if resolution is important to you and speed is not as important, it is still the way to go, in my humble opinion.

 

6.  Is the focus as fast as in the D4?  It should be almost the same, if not identical,  it uses all the same systems for autofocus system, the Multi-Cam 3500FX module, and the same Expeed 3 processing chip.

 

7.   Is there anything that you like more about the D4?   Yes, battery life, build quality, speed, the feeling that only the big Pro D camera can give you.  It is close to indestructable and the files are very sweet!  The only thing it lacks is the “extreme” resolution of the D800.

 

8.  If you could only have two cameras to use for everything you do, which two?    In digital SLRs I need two cameras one to make the best possible image, resolution, color and control over the photographic situation; D800, and one that is still very high resolution, but lighter and easier to carry for travel and in the DX format to stretch my longer lenses; D7000.  You may hold me to that until new cameras are released!!!

 

 

9.  I noticed you mentioned larger cards and you said 32 and 64, why not 128 gig cards?  I think it is better to have a few more smaller cards than one very large one.   If you use your 128 gig card you’ve lost the entire shoot, if you loose one of your 32 gig cards, you’ve at least cut your losses!  Plus the  128 gig cards are very expensive.

 

10.  Is the new metering system in the D800 a big improvement?  Yes, it works fantastic!

 

Hope that helped, it’s slow at the Masters so I had plenty of time to take your questions!

 

the pilgrim