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› posts tagged ‘Nikon’

Better Than Daylight


I do a fair amount of higher ISO rated shooting with my photography these days and there is no doubt that the capacity to which we are capable to shoot this way has literally changed the realm of photography.  Its a game changer as much as roll film or Polaroids or the advent of digital photography.

Camera sensors are rated for a range of sensitivity and my Nikon D700 shoots from 200ISO through 6400ISO. Then you have the option of pushing beyond the sensor’s ratings into “High ISO” or, essentially, push processing (remember that?).  Push processing was rating film at your camera for underexposure then “pushing” the film back to its original rating during the processing of the negatives. This was tricky to get just right, unless you did the math.  Let’s be honest though, the math sort of ruined the fun and sometimes I’d rather just guess and see what came out the other end. This was akin to shocking your film with a cold water rinse just before the fixing stage or cross-processing chromes in color chemistry. All these options, with so much left to the unknown, often resulted in undesired results, but every once in awhile strange and happy photographs would greet you on the other end.

I know a lot of photographers that wont budge over 800ISO on their fancy pro DSLRs.  Three years ago I was more inclined to agree with them as the loss of detail through noise reduction or the overwhelming amount of noise produced in the image made it near impossible to see what was what.   Put simply, as a photographer, all we do is chase the light around.  Today, however, if you’re not venturing down the higher ISO road, you’re missing out on some great light.

I love night photography.   The color cast from lights at night are anything but normal.  The strong shadows and eerie light patterns are a draw to my photographic eye. Normally higher ISO ratings aren’t a necessary tool with night photos, a sturdy tripod is, however, a must have piece of equipment.  My daily tripod is the Manfrotto 3021BPro which is the earlier version of the 055XProB.

The image above (click for a larger view) was shot without a tripod because I can’t find my quick release plate for my tripod head.   I know, I know… =/  so the thought enters my head, lets see what light is out there.   With my D700 and my 70-300VR lens hand-held (lens hood pressed against a glass door) I looked across the backyard, dialed the ISO to High 2 (25,600 ISO, this is two stops above 6400 with each stop acquiring two times as much light), set the aperture to f/11 (the sweet spot on that lens) and the shutter speed to 1/2 seconds.  This metering set is equivalent to 200 ISO, f/11 at a 60 second exposure time (shutter speed).  Keep in mind VR in your lens can compensate the same 2-3 stops regardless of what shutter speed you start from.   I braced myself against the back of a chair for a little extra stability.

B/W picture control was set at the camera. The image was processed through Nik Capture NX2 for sharpening only. NO noise reduction was applied (NR was off in the camera, also).

I don’t normally venture above 6400 ISO on my camera, but i didn’t often cross-process slides either. Some days it just feels right to be a little abnormal.

Go shoot something differently tomorrow.

Get outside your comfort zone.

___________________

John Scott



Nikon’s AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 ED VR Loves Zoom

Do you love zoom? Of course you do. Everyone loves zoom. ZOOOOOOM! Sometimes I just run around shouting it in the face of anyone who wasn’t smart enough to run away. ZOOOOOOOOOM!

And, for you zoom-junkies, how about a new 10.7x NIKKOR lens? That sound good? Of course it does! And, this lens is for FX or DX, so you can zoom away on whatever Nikon DSLR you happen to have. Joy! Excitement! The zoomability is verily palpable.

Or, it will be. You know, once they’re actually shipping, which should, yet again, be a September thing. This lens’ll set you back a bit more than a grand, but zoom has a price and you knew that.

It’s up for preorder on our site. Go, love the zoom.

ZOOOOM!



Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR Rounds Out Entry-Level Line

One last lens today, I promise. This one will be quick, it’s an affordable tele-zoom designed to pick up where the infamous 18-55mm VR kit lens leaves off. Literally. With the addition of this one lens you can extend a basic kit to 18-300mm f3.5 – 5.6, with VR all the way (VRATW, for you web kids). If you’ve been reading the other posts, you might take a fair guess that this’ll be out next monthish, and that you can get on our preorder list for it. The expected price is a very friendly $399.95. That’s pretty reasonable, don’t you think?



Nikon Announces D3100 Entry-Level DSLR

Nikon D3100

Nikon today has announced a new entry-level successor to the D3000 named, unsurprisingly, the D3100. It’s minor updates to what’s become a pretty carefully and tightly whittled product as is, with notable updates including an increase in resolution to 14 megapixels, the addition of a 1080 movie mode (formerly available only in the D3000′s bigger brother), and a new EXPEED 2 processor. It’s got enhanced help menus, and the ISO range is extended to 100-3200 with a push range up to 12,800.

It’ll only be available in a kit with the 18-55 VR, just like it’s predecessor, starting sometime next month(ish) for about $700. For those interested in the nitty-gritty product details, we’ve got the full press release after the jump.

read more



Nikon Announces New AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.4G

In case a new DSLR body wasn’t enough, Nikon has also announced four new lenses, among them a new, FX-friendly 85mm f.14 portrait lens. As usual, the name gives you all the important specs, but for those thirsting for more it’s internal-focusing using a silent-wave motor and has a 9-blade diaphragm. Ooh. Aah.

It has an estimated MSRP of $1,699.95 and an availability date of… sometime, possibly next month(ish). You can put yor name on the preorder list for this on our site.



Nikon Introduces AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR

Look ma, another lens from Big Yellow. This one’s the “AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR,” and as the name might suggest it covers a working range of 24-120mm (the lack of a “DX” in that name means this is for FX or DX, on DX the range would be equivalent to 36-180mm. True fact.), and, er, it’s VR for you with shakey hands (or who just like sharp shots), and, yeah. The f4 constant pegs this as a mid-range lens from Nikon, and it’s not a bad constant aperture, especially on their ISO-fearless FX bodies. Like everything else, availability is Septemberish, and this one will MSRP for $1,299.95. Their USA press release has this wrong, but it’s right on their product page. Don’t trust that press release price, y’all.



Nikon Announces New Coolpix S1100pj Camera with Projector

Nikon Coolpix S1100pj

Nikon today has announced the update to last year’s novelty S1000pj, the first camera with a built in projector. This year’s model ups the ante, and adds a lot of features to this concept that help to make it a much more appealing package. And then they made it cheaper. Hard to complain about that, isn’t it?

Key changes include an upgrade to a 14 megapixel sensor and a switch to a 3″ touchscreen LCD with twice the pixel resolution. And, on the projector front (you know, that big honky lens on the front that makes this thing unique), we’re looking at 14 lumens, up from 10, and it can now be used as an ad hoc projector for any JPEGS on the memory card, or can be hooked up to your computer and used as a projector for that.

And, let’s not forget these slick new colors on that much nicer looking body there, yeah? It’s good to see someone else taking visual cues from those nifty Olympus Tough cameras, which the design on this is admittedly very reminiscent of (*cough cough Stylus 750SW cough*).

It’ll be available yet this year, and it’ll debut at around $350, or about $80 bucks less that its predecessor did, and not much more than the S1000pj is currently at. Impressive.



Shoot to Win: Lime Rock Park’s First Motorsports Photography Workshop

You like it fast, don’t you? Fast and dirty. Motorsports, baby. Horsepower, metal, poly-carbonates, dirt, hydrocarbons, speed. Like me, you know how to set your aperture in relation to shutter speed, pick an upper max for auto-ISO, and try not to screw up the composition.

Lucky you, Roberts is proud to co-sponsor a workshop at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut with an option for one day or two days attendance where you’ll get to work with the best Motorsports photogs in the business and have access to some extra Nikon gear. Hit the jump for the full press release. read more



Considering a Nikon 16-35 f4 VR? DPReview’s Got A Review Up

Nikon’s AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f/4G ED VR, the first ultra-wide zoom with imaging stabilization, is positioned as a bit of a step under the 14-24mm f2.8, cutting a few hundred off the price with a more cost-efficient focal range and a slower aperture offset by in-lens VR technology. And, if you’ve been tempted towards it, but just wanted to see some pretty charts showing sharpness and distortion, well, hoo boy! You’re in luck dere purdner, DPReview has posted it’s typically exhaustive and informative review of this lens.

The cheat sheet? It’s optically good, even more so on FX than DX, but you’ll encounter some wicked barrel distortion at 16mm (no problem for Photoshop or Lightroom, though). And DP’s take on that VR, arguably not needed on a wide-angle? Well, it doesn’t hurt it, does it? and it gives you more latitude with low-light or high aperture shooting. So that’s that.

Hit the external link, as usual.