Tag Archives: f/1.8

Deals and Sales, Equipment

Nikon’s New Df DSLR

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Nikon Df DSLR
Nikon Df DSLR

Today Nikon announced a new Nikon Df DSLR camera that is revolutionary because it is retro! ;-)

Today there are many who find some features of older SLR cameras to be appealing and perhaps, in some ways, preferable to some of the interface elements on modern DSLRs. (Among these people are an older generation that started out with those classic camera and a newer generation that has rediscovered the older cameras at thrift shops and garage sales.) The older SLR film cameras were often tightly constructed, mostly of metal, with clean lines, and they came with lenses that were often much smaller than the big lenses that seem to be in vogue today. Perhaps most important, they featured external manual controls for essentially all features of the camera. Using them was, in many ways, a very different experience from using todays digital cameras, where single dials and buttons perform multiple functions and you must look at LCD displays to see what you are adjusting.

It seems to me that what Nikon may have done here is take some of the best features of the older cameras (physical control knobs, smaller and tighter design, liberal use of metal parts, etc) and fuse them with a thoroughly modern digital camera. Make no mistake, this is not an “old school” camera – it is a modern camera that carries forward some proven design elements from an earlier era. This may not be for everyone, but lots of photographers are going to like this.

You can pre-order the camera and a new 50mm lens that was designed to complement it at B&H now.

© Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Commentary, Equipment, Photographs: Nature

Canon EOS 5D II: Notes on Today’s Photograph

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Since today’s photograph (“Redwood Forest, Morning“) was one of the first landscape photographs I shot with my new Canon EOS 5D II, I was interested to see how the camera would perform and what print quality might look like.

This photograph was a bit trickier than may be apparent. It was overcast and early in the morning, I was in the bottom of a deep valley, the wind was blowing, and the light was constantly changing. In addition I used a 85mm lens (the excellent EF 85mm f/1.8) on a full frame DSLR, so I had to shoot at a rather small aperture for DOF reasons, necessitating a very slow shutter speed in order to work at my preferred ISO 100.

With all of those challenges, when I made the first small test print of this photograph last night I was very impressed with the level of detail in the photograph and I’m certain that it will work as a very good sized print – in fact, this particular image almost needs to displayed large.

When a new camera body is introduced there always seems to be a string of reports of poor performance. Sometimes there is some truth to the reports, but it is my opinion that many of the reports are the result of poor technique, unrealistic expectations,  obsession with “issues” that are irrelevant in actual photographs, and general mistrust of any Big Company that sells expensive camera equipment. I read these reports and think about them a bit, but I don’t assume that they are correct until I see evidence – preferably evidence that I produce myself. The first direct evidence comes from looking closely at photographs on the monitor as I work on them in ACR and then in Photoshop, but the real evidence comes when I make a print. After doing both of the above – and contrary to some rumors you may hear – there are no issues with noise in the shadows and the overall image – even with the increased number of photosites – seems excellent in every way to me.

Does my Canon EOS 5D II produce excellent image quality? Yes. Am I seeing unusual or troubling amounts of noise? No. Are banding problems in the shadows impairing my photographs? No. Do carefully made photographs using this equipment have the potential to produce excellent prints? Yes.

Am I pleased with the results from my 5DII at this point? Yes.

Commentary, Equipment

Notes on Today’s Photograph

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