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Nikon DSLR (Read 96401 times)

dave

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#225 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 24, 2010, 03:04:18 pm
damn straight.



JamesD

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#226 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 24, 2010, 03:29:07 pm
.

Johnny Brown

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#227 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 24, 2010, 03:41:29 pm
I think that guy must have a bad sample. The ones I've used, including Dave's, have been pretty good.

Johnny Brown

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#228 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 24, 2010, 04:30:02 pm
You've got a D300 anyway haven't you James? What lenses have you gone for?

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#229 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 24, 2010, 05:13:20 pm
Yeah I just use it for casual stuff and events where I know there will be half decent light, for most jobs I hire in a D3/D3x, especially if I know something is going to be shot in low light, going to print, or if it needs to be printed in a larger format.
Me and my business partner pool equipment, between us we have:

2 x 24-70mm F2.8 zooms
1 x 14-24mm F2.8 zoom
1 x 50mm F1.4 prime
Nikon D300
Nikon D300s

A load of lighting equipment, modifiers, elinchrom stuff, PW's etc

We used to have a lot more primes and a mixture of cheaper lenses between us, we ended up flogging the majority of it in favour of having a few really good lenses, and investing in more lighting equipment, since we decided that was more important for the type of work we predominantly receive.
We have some thinktank harness kits of events as well, and miscellaneous bags, kata and lowepro stuff.

cofe

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#230 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 24, 2010, 08:02:11 pm
i think the thing is, it's horses for courses (sorry for the cliche). that's exactly the gear you guys need for the work you do, whereas the likes of me and johnny need lighter stuff, more portable stuff. my back and shoulders are pretty sore with the stuff i carry now, i couldn't bare to think about carrying heavier stuff, and I'd probably end up leaving something i probably needed behind, just to save weight.

one problem i'm noticing is that cos the good crop format glass doesn't really exist (properly), as the pixel counts on the cameras increases, the cameras are rapidly out resolving the glass. now that's a problem. that's more a canon problem though, nikon have (for the timebeing) sensibly realised that 12mp is plenty.

Paul B

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#231 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 24, 2010, 08:13:00 pm
Both. But you'd only take one of them up a mountain.

'cos if you took the other you'd clearly need to leave your tri-cams at home.

cofe

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#232 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 24, 2010, 08:15:43 pm
he'd never leave his tri-cams at home. ever.

JamesD

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#233 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 24, 2010, 08:16:51 pm
In terms of megapixels, I prefer only having to deal with the D3's 12mp files, 24mp files are a ball ache, you have to shoot tethered if you don't want to slow the shoot down, then you have to have a secondary dual raid hard drive with you so you have a proper back up, with a back up of the backup  :lol:
Conisdering the fact that I ain't no Annie Leibowitz, and I don't have a million flipping assistants working for me, more like one usually and he's my business partner lol (I assist him too when he's shooting), it just means more time doing back ups, longer render times during retouching, and generally more time spent doing stuff you can't bill for.
Unless I know that there's a chance it might be needed for something in print above A3, then I am 100% with you on that one, 12mp is plenty.
One thing I would say from my experience, is that as damn good as the 24-70mm is, (and on the rare occasions when I have used it, the 70-200mm) when used with the D3x there are a few occasions where I might have been better off with a couple of primes, not the 50mm, but a couple of Nikons high end primes like the 85mm and one or two others, really sing on a D3x, they have that ultra impressive level of sharpness/contrast that no zoom can quite touch, although to be fair, I only really noticed this on a particularly large print that was done recently, no one else noticed apparently but then I am quite obsessive about these kind of things.

Paul B

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#234 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 24, 2010, 08:19:41 pm
(did you see the DIY photography article on making a wireless-tether, pretty funky)

Johnny Brown

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#235 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 24, 2010, 08:29:01 pm
Quote
2 x 24-70mm F2.8 zooms
1 x 14-24mm F2.8 zoom
1 x 50mm F1.4 prime

That's interesting, considering you've had chance to try a lot of them out. What are you shooting mostly, events? No portrait lenses, or do you just hire a 70-200/2.8?

Quote
they have that ultra impressive level of sharpness/contrast that no zoom can quite touch

Yeah, a few of my old OM manual lenses have that. Its frustrating to have to take a step down in quality and up in bulk.

Had a play with shooting tethered via Lightroom 3 today, works great. Will be using again, for sure.

Quote
you'd clearly need to leave your tri-cams at home

If I'm going light, I just take tricams.


JamesD

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#236 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 25, 2010, 10:18:30 am
Quote
2 x 24-70mm F2.8 zooms
1 x 14-24mm F2.8 zoom
1 x 50mm F1.4 prime

That's interesting, considering you've had chance to try a lot of them out. What are you shooting mostly, events? No portrait lenses, or do you just hire a 70-200/2.8?

Quote
they have that ultra impressive level of sharpness/contrast that no zoom can quite touch

Yeah, a few of my old OM manual lenses have that. Its frustrating to have to take a step down in quality and up in bulk.

Had a play with shooting tethered via Lightroom 3 today, works great. Will be using again, for sure.

Quote
you'd clearly need to leave your tri-cams at home

If I'm going light, I just take tricams.

Well, we started off doing weddings, events, and gigs...with the odd bit of portraiture thrown in, occasional bit of fashion/commercial work.
Now it's drifting to more and more fashion/commercial stuff, with the occasional wedding/event/gig.
I do hire the 70-200mm 2.8 in to use, it's my preferred telezoom of choice, seeing as I mainly use it for events, quick autofocus, super smooth zoom, F2.8 throughout the zoom range (massively important as the light starts to fade), and pin sharp throughout the focal range, we were going to buy one, but it's so ridiculously cheap for us to hire through our normal guys...around £25 a day I think? that it just doesn't make sense for how often I use it, 90% of the time I only really use it for weddings or really big events, where I need to be far away from the subjects to get the type of candid shots that I want, so now we are doing less of that it seems a waste of money to purchase one.
My usual event set up is a think tank modular harness system with the following strapped to me:
Holstered D3 with 24-70mm
Holstered D300 with 70-200mm
Speed changer pouch with spare pocket wizards, cables, memory cards etc.
SB800 + HV pack
Rayflash adaptor
Hotshoe flash folding softbox
Other assorted odds and ends, sometimes 2 way radios with ear pieces and high sensitivity mics, depending on the event.
In summary we ended up going with these lenses, because we needed a mixture of things, we needed fast low light capability, great image quality thats at least equal to most good primes, and we needed it in a zoom, because often at events you just don't have time to change a lens.
Like you said it's annoying seeing results that you know would be significantly better out of certain primes, but primes just aren't practical for events a lot of the time, unless you are prepared to run around with 3-4 bodies hanging off of you.
So this way we have a nice flexible set up, that's great for events, and still good for commercial stuff, although as I said since we are drifting more and more towards commercial/fashion/studio work, we might pick up a few high quality primes in the future, but probably not until next year.

JamesD

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#237 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 25, 2010, 10:20:24 am
(did you see the DIY photography article on making a wireless-tether, pretty funky)

Interesting, £10-15 for a cable using software you already have is pretty cheap already though lol  ;)

Link?

Johnny Brown

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#238 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 25, 2010, 10:38:14 am
Bit of googling suggests this?

Keen to see some of your stuff, got a site? You done any climbing photography yet?

cofe

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#239 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 25, 2010, 10:39:28 am
but primes just aren't practical for events a lot of the time

I'd agree with that.

You thought about buying gear like the 70-200 and then hiring it back out? A good friend of mine invested in a lot of Canon gear for video and they make good money hiring it back out to other smaller production companies.

JamesD

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#240 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 25, 2010, 10:49:24 am
Bit of googling suggests this?

Keen to see some of your stuff, got a site? You done any climbing photography yet?

www.321collective.com

www.davishicksphotography.co.uk

http://www.digihalide.com/ (mostly Matts gig stuff, but I think a few of my bits made it up there too)

Yeah we have considered it Cofe, it's tricky though, because as I said there are other bits that we need to spend on which can earn there money back after 2-3 jobs, and a £2k lens that hires out on average at £30-40 a time isn't one of them currently, especially with the move further into video this year, which makes photography look cheap lol.

Not done any climbing stuff yet, got a seriously busy month or two coming up, I think after I come back from holiday it's probably 2-3 weeks without a weekend off, I think nearer to autumn I will have more spare time, maybe then, would definitely be up for doing some stuff in the peak district.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2010, 10:57:02 am by JamesD »

Paul B

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#241 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 25, 2010, 11:46:49 am
JB was on the money although there were other alternatives linked in this:
http://www.diyphotography.net/wireless-tethering-shoot-tethered-wireless

JamesD

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#242 Re: Nikon DSLR
June 25, 2010, 05:28:39 pm
Cool stuff, if I ever needed to shoot wireless tethered that'd be worth a pop, my business partner tends to be the more tech savvy out of the two of us though, so would probably check with him before I start pulling apart stuff like that lol.
God my guts are a state today, I told myself I was going to get some work done, but with a stomach ache like this about the most energetic thing i've managed is to walk to the toilet a load of times ::) Off to the pub in an hour with Business partner/best mate to talk about "work" i'm sure I heard something somewhere about whisky being good for a dodgy stomach..... :alky: ?

Tris

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#243 Re: Nikon DSLR
August 14, 2010, 05:19:19 pm
Looks like Nikon are finally going full HD

And ISO 12800  :o

Still no sign of a D700 replacement with 1080p video :(

cofe

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#244 Re: Nikon DSLR
August 14, 2010, 05:55:40 pm
pretty crazy what £500 gets you these days.

Jim

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#245 Re: Nikon DSLR
August 14, 2010, 07:20:51 pm
thats only 200 fuck-all's

dave

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#246 Re: Nikon DSLR
August 15, 2010, 09:59:23 pm
And ISO 12800  :o

must be easier just to take the lenscap off though.

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#247 Re: Nikon DSLR
August 16, 2010, 09:11:02 am
And ISO 12800  :o

must be easier just to take the lenscap off though.
I think Nikon are trying to break into the welsh market or other people still using candles for indoor lighting  :P

dave

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#248 Re: Nikon DSLR
August 21, 2010, 10:35:33 pm
To illustrate the point about bigger cameras not necessarily equaling (or indeed required for) bigger image quality, here's a couple of crops from a review of the panasonic m4/3 20mm lens on an EP2. Compared to D3s with a 50mm 1.8 (a very sharp lens), same raw processor for both, both 12mp, both same base ISO, (almost same aperture for both shots, 1/3 of a stop difference cos the guy fucked up).

center crop:





The questions is, which ones of those images is "pro quality"?

http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2010/01/18/the-pansonic-lumix-g-20-1-7-lens-review/

Just to follow up on this, since I have both lenses and a m4/3 body. Did a quick test of both lenses center performance. Now I had always thought the nikon 50mm (AFD 1.8 ) was a pretty fucking sharp lens, but as far as at least center performance is concerned, the panasonic 20mm is better by a shit load. I was actually quite surprised, even having seen the test I linked to in the above post. Basically with the Nikon stopped down to its best, somewhere in the f/4 - f/8 range, its only just about as sharp as the panasonic is at f/1.8 or wide open. Comparing both wide open is like night and day. Its pretty fucking impressive. Also the 20mm seems to have better contrast although the nikon might be losing a bit to internal flare what with it being shot on a smaller format than intended.

Addendum: Even when downsampling my shots to give an equivalent pixel pitch of the D3X (instead of the theoretical 50mp FX equivalent of my test), which would mask the differences to the favour of the nikon, the 20mm lens still wins. God I hope the upcoming panasonic 14mm is this good.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2010, 12:40:06 pm by dave »

Johnny Brown

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#249 Re: Nikon DSLR
August 23, 2010, 01:35:08 pm
Sounds impressive. Getting on with the handling alright then?

Quote
Even when downsampling my shots to give an equivalent pixel pitch of the D3X

Not sure I follow that. Did you do the test on your D70?

 

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