D800 Diary – Day 3

I didn’t manage to do as much with my D800 today as I was out in the garden enjoying playing football with my kids and generally loving the Spring sunshine.  Us Brits love to talk about the weather and at the moment we are having a great spell of blue sky and warm weather for March.  Being a landscape photographer though, I don’t want blue sky as it doesn’t really lend itself to dramatic light and I still haven’t managed to get any landscapes that are worthy of uploading.  What I did do was a few studio photos with my very (un) willing kids.  Why anybody goes into portrait photography I will never know!

The results are simply amazing- the detail in the image and the tonal range is breathtaking.  The series of images below give some idea of this.  What I was struck with was the colour in the images and the sharpness of the RAW images.

Emily – ISO 50 – Nikon 70 – 200mm (crop of main image below)

The colour image of Emily below is a large crop of the original image – again showing the crop potential of the D800.  I know I have gone on about it – but it is so useful to be able to do this.

Emily – ISO 50 – Nikon 70-200mm Lens (sorry about the 2 catchlights for the portrait pros out there!)

After using the D800 for 3 days now here are the main highlights and a few lowlights.

• The resolution is amazing – it is so useful to have this resolution
• Editing the images in Aperture isn’t a problem – I have not experienced any speed issues as people were worried about. I am using 2.8Ghz iMac with 12GB of RAM.
• The focusing is quick and accurate.  The focusing modes available in the D800 are really useful.  The image of Thomas below was taken with face priority AD on – it worked very well and of the 20 images I took only 2 were not spot on.
• The ergonomics are good – the front AF and Fn (Function) buttons really work well and allow you to quickly change settings when you need to
• The movie mode produces amazing 1080 HD movies and the focusing is very quick.  However it is difficult to produce a movie with moving subjects – I have tried to take movies of people running and it was difficult to keep them in focus.
• Having 2 memory cards has proved useful for a number of reasons.  I have set all movies to record to the SD card and used the CF card for photos.  The other main reason having 2 cards slots is great though is that I aways forget to put a card back in the camera – this way there is less chance of doing that!  In terms of the cards and write speeds – I have a SanDisk 32GB SDHC Extreme Pro 95MB/S card (from Amazon) and a SanDisk CF 16GB Extreme Pro 90 MB/s card (from Amazon).  I have seen no difference in performance between the SD and CF cards – so if you are only going to buy one go for the cheaper SD card.
• The DX crop mode is useful if you want to have a faster frame rate or want to save space.  I haven’t really used it after the 1st day though and don’t think I will use it much going forward.
• My DX lenses are useless in FX mode (as expected)  See below for the performance of the 17-55mm Lens in FX mode.
• The battery life is good – I think I will be averaging around 1200 images per charge with lots of viewing of the screen.
• The time lapse function will be useful and the fact it makes a movie is great.
• The exposure is good – however I have been under exposing my shots by -0.3EV as it has tended to burn out some highlights.  I prefer that it exposes to the right though and for most of my work I will manually expose photos.  The image below shows how good it is with people – here it didn’t under expose Thomas’s face.
• The rear screen is exceptional
• The viewfinder is exceptional

Here is an image I took whilst messing with the AF focus modes on the D800 – this was with face priority AF – it worked amazingly well – even at a strange angle like this.

Thomas – ISO 1600 – Sigma 50mm @ f/1.4

D800 Diary – Day 2

First of all – thanks to all the people that viewed and commented on my day 1 diary.

A lot of the photos I post in this blog have higher resolution images in Flickr (Some are full resolution) - I have created a D800 gallery in Flickr >>

Today I have had chance to take a look at the auto focus performance as I photographed my son’s football match.  In the D800 you can set various dynamic area AF modes (9-point, 21-point and 51-point).  I set it to 21-point dynamic auto-focus during the whole of the match and the results were amazing.  Almost all my photos were perfectly in focus using the 70-200mm Nikon VR I lens.  What is really good is when you are in DX mode (which I used for half the match to get 5fps) the tracking points fill a larger part of the final image.

Saturday Under 8s – ISO 500 – Nikon 70-200 VR I @ 200mm F/3.5 1/8000s

Most of the shots I ended up using for the game where shot in FX mode as I found that the DX mode meant I accidently cropped parts of the images I wanted.  I could sacrifice the 1FPS for the extra area this gave me to play with.  The image below shows the amazing resolving power of the D800.  Click it to open the full resolution image in Flickr.

 The main benefit of the camera I am finding is the versitility. The resolution means that you can shoot and have the ability to crop later.  The photo below again shows this.

Crop of FX image on Nikon D800 taken with Nikon 70-200mm @ 190mm F/3.5 1/6000s

The detail in the image above is amazing – here is a further crop at 100%.  You have to remember that I am at F/3.5 here – so not all ball is in focus.

I also played with the HD video during the match – it is obvious though that this will need some practice.  The auto-focus in live view is quick but on moving subjects you need to have a lot of skill.

Early that morning my son had spotted some canadian geese that had landed in the field about 100m from our house.  So I put on the 100-300mm Sigma and took the shot below at ISO 1600 and heavily cropped to get this image.

Canadian Goose – ISO 1600 – Nikon D800 with Sigma 100-300mm lens at 300mm f/4 1/4000s (In DX mode)

One things that I have been emailed about by many people is the performance the Nikon 17-55mm F2.8G\AF-S DX IF-ED lens lens and Tokina ATX 116 PRO DX AF11-16mm F/2.8 that I currently use for most of my landscape photography.  I haven’t used then too much yet as I haven’t had the time to go on a morning landscape shoot.  But I can show you some of the results I have got from various trials in DX and FX mode.  The results aren’t great and it is clear I will have to swap these lenses for new FX landscape lenses.

This is the Tokina 11-16mm lens at 11mm.  You have to go down to 15mm before you see no black vignetting – however the corners are unusable.  I did some test and for the Tokina you have to use the 1.5x DX crop mode to get good results.

 Heavy Vignetting on Tokina 11-16mm wide angle lens at 11mm

Daffs – ISO 50 – Nikon D800 with Tokina 11-16mm Lens f/5 1/400s DX mode

The corners on the DX crop are still soft (actually slightly softer than on my D200!) – but the central detail is very good.

Daffs – ISO 50 – Nikon D800 with Tokina 11-16mm Lens f/5 1/400s DX mode (Central crop)

Finally as the sun set rather than going out and taking landscape photos I decided to take a time lapse movie with the D800.  One thing that is great about this is that it produces a 1080P full HD time lapse automatically.  The results are amazing.  However – one word of caution – the video speeds up at the end as the longer exposures kicked in and the 15s interval was less than the exposure.

For the full 1080P HD version click here >>

Tomorrow I am going to test the D800 out with some studio shots.

 

D800 Diary – Day 1

I have had a D200 for 6 years now and it has been an amazing camera. I have been tempted by the D700 for the last couple of years but always wanted to wait for the next generation camera (this wait went on a little longer than I expected!).

When the D800 was announced I decided to take the plunge and over the next few weeks I am going to write a blog about my experiences with the D800. This is day 1.

Blue Tit – ISO 1600 – Sigma 100-300 @ 300mm in DX (effectively 450mm) f/5.6 1/1600s (RAW – processed in Aperture). 

The main type of photography that I do is

• Landscape Photography – this is my main area of interest
• People photography (mainly my kids)
• Sports photography
• Starting to do more natural history photography

What I do with my photography when I have spent hours editing it!

• Share on Flickr
• Enter competitions
• Print it (up to A2 on Espon printer) and hang it at home / exhibit it

First of all I wanted to address the main reasons that I bought a D800 and why I wanted to upgrade from a D200.

• I wanted better noise performance – the D200 isn’t great above around ISO 400
• I wanted to take videos
• I wanted slightly more resolution as I often crop my photos (however never thought I needed 36 MP)
• I wanted better dynamic range for landscapes

There are also quite a few things that I haven’t liked about the D200 (this list was difficult to compile as most things have been brilliant!)

• Dust on the sensor – I have to get it cleaned every 4 months
• Screen – it is poor quality and makes it difficult to review images
• Focus problems – I have had a few focus problems on fast moving subjects and in low light
• Battery life – it is poor and only good for 250 photos

Finally a few points to note

• This test isn’t an absolute test of the D800 – for that go to dpreview’s great d800 review 
• This is my opinion as a keen photographer – I maybe wrong – but it is how I see it!

The D800 arrived from Park Cameras at 9:30am.  What I had completely forgotten was that I needed to charge the battery – so 1 hour later (and about 65% charged) I started shooting.  What is immediately obvious is how clear the view finder is and how good the screen is (Very good colour rendition, brightness and sharpness).  You can use it to actually review your images accurately.  So I put on the only normal length lens I had that would have any chance of performing with the D800 and started shooting – the Sigma 50mm F1.4!  All images were shot in RAW (not RAW+).

Some of the images link to Flickr higher resolution versions – so click away!

Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG Lens

This is one of the first few images from the camera.

Emily – ISO 400 – Sigma 50mm F/1.4 1/1600s (RAW) – click the image for full resolution image access on Flickr

I then decided to have a run out with the camera.  I left the Sigma 50mm lens on and snapped away

Two Trees – ISO 50 – Sigma 50mm f6.3 1/640s (RAW – No processing)

Two Trees – ISO 50 – Sigma 50mm f6.3 1/640s (RAW – No processing) – CENTRE OF IMAGE

Two Trees – ISO 50 – Sigma 50mm f6.3 1/640s (RAW – No processing) – TOP LEFT

These photos show the performance of the Sigma from centre to edge.  As you can see there is some Chromatic Aberration towards the edge of the shot.

I also wanted to compare the D200 to the D800 even though it is comparing a 6 year old camera to a camera that is just released I wanted to see how much impact the 32 Mp had.

Cheshire Wall to Shutlingsloe – ISO 50 – Sigma 50mm f/16 1/6s (RAW)

I took this shot on the D800 with Sigma 50mm and used the 17-55mm Nikkor on the D200 @ 34mm.  The Nikkor lens is far superior – so it isn’t by any means a scientific test.  What it does show though is the level of detail (even with a £400 sigma lens) the D800 can produce.

Cheshire Wall to Shutlingsloe – D200 (TOP) vs D800 (BOTTOM) D200 is upsized

Ok – the boring stuff over with – onto creating some great images.  I decided to take some natural history shots and where better than the garden!

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR Lens

The 70-200mm lens is a great lens – it is pin sharp and produces great Bokeh.

The first thing I tried was shooting in DX mode which you can force the D800 to do.  The photo below is shot in DX mode.  The highlighted crop below is taken from this 15 MP DX image.

 

Great Tit – ISO 640 – Nikon 70-200mm @ 200mm in DX so effectively 300mm f/5 1/1250s 

Great Tit – ISO 640 – Nikon 70-200mm @ 200mm in DX so effectively 300mm f/5 1/1250s  (100% crop)

A lot of people have said that hand holding the camera would prove difficult – however here is a snap I took with the 70-200mm lens.  The detail when blown up on screen is stunning!

Bull! @ ISO 400 Nikon 70-200 @ 200mm f/4 1/2500s

Bull! @ ISO 400 Nikon 70-200 @ 200mm f/4 1/2500s (100% crop)

Sigma 100 – 300 F4 EX DG HSM

I then switched to the Sigma 100 – 300 f4 EX DG HSM and decided to take some video.  I shot this @ 50fps and then created this 50% slow motion video @25fps.  I will investigate the video function a little more tomorrow.

View this video in 720P HD >>

The blue tit image at the start of this post is actually a fairly small crop of the original DX image.

 Blue Tit – ISO 1600 – Sigma 100-300 @ 300mm in DX (effectively 450mm) f/5.6 1/1600s (RAW – processed in Aperture). 

I also managed to capture a nut hatch!

Nuthatch – ISO 1250 – Sigma 100-300 @ 300mm in DX (effectively 450mm) f/5 1/1600s (RAW – processed in Aperture). 

Before I invest in a new wide angle landscape lens (probably the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Nikkor Wide Angle Zoom Lens and the Nikon 16-35mm f/4G ED VR II AF-S IF SWM Nikkor Wide Angle Zoom Lens) I wanted to see how the Nikon 17-55mm F2.8G\AF-S DX IF-ED lens lens and Tokina ATX 116 PRO DX AF11-16mm F/2.8 that I currently have operates (obviously I can’t use it at 36.2 MP)

I have got some interesting results on both these lenses – but that will have wait for tomorrow as it is getting a bit late now!  Need sleep!

Oh – the battery went down to 32% (from 65%) and I took around 400 photos, 10 videos and used the viewer lots!

Finally – I found a list of lenses that Nikon recommends on the D800 (should anybody be interested in spending a lot of money!)

Zoom lenses	Prime Lenses	Macro Lenses
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Nikkor Wide Angle Zoom Lens Nikon 16-35mm f/4G ED VR II AF-S IF SWM Nikkor Wide Angle Zoom Lens Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Nikkor Wide Angle Zoom Lens Nikon 24-120mm f/4G ED VR AF-S Nikkor Zoom Lens Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S Nikkor Zoom Lens Nikon 200-400mm f/4G AF-S SWM SIC ED IF VR II Nikkor Super Telephoto Zoom Lens	Nikon 24mm f/1.4G ED AF-S RF SWM Prime Wide-Angle Nikkor Lens Nikon 35mm f/1.4G AF-S FX SWM Nikkor Lens Nikon 85mm f/1.4G AF-S Nikkor Lens Nikon 200mm f/2G AF-S ED VR II Nikkor Lens Nikon 300mm f/2.8G AF-S ED VR II Nikkor Super Telephoto Prime Lens Nikon 400mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S SWM Super Telephoto Lens Nikon 500mm f/4.0G ED VR AF-S SWM Super Telephoto Lens Nikon 600mm f/4G AF-S ED VR Nikkor SWM Super Telephoto Lens	Nikon 60mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Micro-Nikkor Lens Nikon 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor Lens Perspective Control Lenses Nikon 24mm f/3.5D ED PC-E Nikkor Ultra-Wide Angle Lens Nikon 45mm f/2.8D ED PC-E Micro Nikkor Lens Nikon 85mm f/2.8D PC-E Micro Nikkor Lens

 

7 brilliant photography apps for the new retina iPad

I have used my iPad 2 (and previous to that iPad 1) for the last couple of years as a great photography tool. It has enabled me to quickly and easily to assess, edit and sort photos after shoots on location and holiday.

Although the apps available for the iPad don’t have all the bells and whistles of desktop applications like Photoshop and Aperture they still have a lot of the regular tools like levels, spotting tools and cropping.

More and more I am finding that I use the iPad to edit photos over my iMac – it is great to just mess with ideas whilst sat in front of the TV or sat around (not that happens a lot with 3 small kids!)

I have also been using the iPad 3 for 6 days now. The massive advantage of the new iPad series 3 is the high-definition retina display that allows you to clearly see the detail in all your images and is a great tool when you’re on the road and quickly want to edit and upload photos to sites like Flickr on a blog.

There lot of really good apps out there at the moment the photographers. In this blog I list my favorite 7 from a landscape photographers point of view. I have been using over 30 photo editing apps over the last 12months and these are the 7 apps that I will keep using. They are all good apps – I just use them in different ways.

iPhoto

Download iPhoto from App store >>

This is the newest of the Apps – it was launched at the same time as the new iPad with retina display.

iPhoto has a great interface but lack layers and I found it too slow (even on the new iPad).

It is great for a basic crop, horizon correction (the straighten tool is such a great interface), and use of the ‘blue skies’ tool. But if you need anything a little more then other apps are much better.

Great for

Cataloging your photos
Clever tools like ‘blue skies’ and straighten tool
Simple interface
Brushes (the repair brush helps fix blemishes really well)

Not so good

If you are in a hurry – it can be slow
Doesn’t allow layers

Snapseed

Download Snapseed from App store

Is made by Nik software – for those of you who don’t know a professional photo software company with some pedigree for plug-in tools and noise reduction.

It is the simplest of the apps that I use and probably the one that I use most. It doesn’t have anywhere near the features of iPhoto or Filterstorm but it doesn’t need to. You can easily do the basic things well which is great if you want to quickly share some good images on Flickr. It lacks layers, touch-up and the drama tools aren’t great (although on the correct image you do actually get surprisingly good results!)

Great for

Quick and dramatic effects – photos that you want to edit and share quickly whilst on location
It is so easy to use and you can produce good photos

Not so good

If you want to do anything sophisticated
No history
No layers
No touch up tool

Filterstorm

Download Filterstorm from App store

This is one of the most powerful tools and lets you do a whole host of powerful editing including layers and layer masks. You need to have time when using it through as it isn’t the quickest app out there. You can create some amazing results and the layer masks are great.

Great for

Sophisticated photo editing
Layers
Layer masks

Not so good

If you are in a rush

Photogene

Download Photogene from App store

This isn’t the best looking of apps but it is powerful app. It is inbetween the simplicity of Snapseed and power of Filterstorm. What I really like about this app is the healing tool. If I have an image that I want to remove spots or touch up then Photogene is the app of choice.

Great for

Touching photos up
The pre-defined crop ratios

Not so good

If you want to roll back changes (as you can’t easily see the history)
Histogram is a little basic

PhotoSync

Download PhotoSync from App store

This is an invaluable tool as it enables you to wirelessly transfer photos (and vidoes) between your iPad / iPhone and Mac / PC. It is a new discovery and something that I now find invaluable.

The more and more I work with photos on the iPad the more I produce results that I want to print and catalogue. I always have good intentions to recreate the photo manipulations in photoshop – but this doesn’t happen. Therefore having a tool like PhotoSync helps me enormously to transfer photos back to my iMac. If I want I can easily transfer photos out of Aperture to the iPad as well.

Flickstackr

Download FlickStackr from App store

This is without doubt my favourite app – it is such a joy to use and a great way to digest the amazing photos that are shared on Flickr.

You can do so many things with it that you can do on the website – Collaborate, Upload to Flickr, group your images, search for images and save your favourites.

500px

Download 500px from App store

For those of you who don’t know 500px it is, to quote from their website

“a photo community powered by creative people worldwide that lets you discover, share, buy and sell inspiring photographs”

The key word in that summary is “inspiring” – if you ever want inspiring to take photos take a look at www.500px.com – it is simply awesome!

The app is equally awesome – just download it as it is free!!!

A note about Photoshop Touch – I didn’t include this very capable app because you can’t edit full resolution images on it. This was a massive oversight in my eyes and something I am sure will be addressed. When it is I will do a full review of Photoshop Touch. In the meantime this is an amazingly good review – http://www.macstories.net/reviews/adobe-photoshop-touch/

A note about RAW images – the iPad doesn’t handle RAW images well. You need to convert them first – which is a big drawback.

Why I haven’t upgraded from D200 to D300s or D700 but will upgrade to Nikon D800

If anybody reads www.nikonrumours.com then they will have also heard that Nikon is probably going to launch the D800 anytime soon.  It is expected to have some amazing features a lot of which I have been wanting in my D200 for the last 6 years.  But the D200 is an amazing camera and I have produced some great photos – many of which are on this site or can be found on my gallery on 500px and flickr

There have been so many rumours about the Nikon D800 and many sites have reported that it will be a 38MP monster.  I don’t know if any of this is true but there are some things that are certain if Nikon are to keep up with Canon.  It will definitely have a high Megapixel count, it will be fast, it will have good low light performance and it will have a HD movie mode.

So why do I think that the D800 will be the camera that will move me away from my trusty D200? The photography that I mainly undertake is Landscape Photography and this needs

• Megapixel count
• Good dynamic range
• Excellent colour range
• Robust camera – as often work in difficult conditions
• Wide angle!

However – I also want more flexibility in my next camera and also want to start to take high quality video diaries of my landscape photography trips in the UK. Things that my next camera must do is

• Be able to take movies
• Have better low light performance
• Better autofocus

The D200 has been a trusty camera since I bought it in December 2005 and I have created many amazing photos.

There are quite a few things I don’t like about the D200 though.

• Dust on the sensor – I have to get it cleaned every 4 months
• Screen - it is poor quality and makes it difficult to review images
• Focus problems - I have had a few focus problems on fast moving subjects and in low light
• Battery life – it is poor and only good for 250 photos

The key area though is the sensor.  I have been looking to move to a full frame sensor as this has many added advantages to a landscape photographer.  I have never consider this a must though and have looked at other camera over the last few years including

The D300s – Not a great improvement for my type of photography

• ASP sensor
• Poor movie mode
• Not a significant increase in megapixel count – only 12.3 MP

The  D700 – Great low noise but one main problem

• Doesn’t offer Movie mode – so that was ruled out
• Not a significant increase in megapixel count – only 12.1 MP

The D7000 – Amazing camera, good 16.2 MP

• ASP sensor
• Didn’t feel robust when I tried it

The D7000 is an amazing camera.  It has great low noise and is priced very competitively.

This is a great site - http://snapsort.com/compare – where you can compare 2 cameras – take a look for yourself – it has all the important specifications for each camera.

The big issue from going to ASP to full frame is the lens issue. I have a lot of lenses and bought these to match the 1.5x magnification factor.  The lenses that I have are

Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 DX (A problem as designed for 1.5x sensor)

Sigma EX 50mm f.4 DG (OK for Full frame)

Nikon 17-55mm f2.8 G DX ((A problem as designed for 1.5x sensor)

Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR (OK for Full frame)

So I will have to invest in 2 new lenses with the D800 for landscape photography.  They will need to be excellent quality lenses too if the megapixel count the D800 is to have is to be believed!

In addition to all this I just like new tech! I have had my D200 now for 6 years and can’t wait to try something new.

So I keep searching google for Nikon D800 in the hope that sometime very soon they will release this much anticipated camera.