Nikon D4 and D800 part 2

19. February, 2012gear, News, Tech8 comments

Hello again all.

Thanks for all your comments on my hands on preview of the d4 I posted yesterday, clearly these cameras are causing a lot of interest.

This second post I will be concentrating on the D800. This camera has a broader appeal to most since it comes in at a much cheaper £2399 (the D4 weighs in at £4700) and boasts 36 megapixels.

First impressions: D800

In the hand it feels great. Some forum goats have whined how this camera is not actually aimed at professionals. It is. Very sturdy and substantial in the hand, yet compact enough to not be huge like the D4 (there is no built in portrait grip on the body). All the controls were responsive, yet rigid. Everything clicked and rotated well giving the impression they are easy to change quickly, but hard accidentally knock. Many queues have been taken from the D4 body, the new AF point selection modes are altered via the button and wheel combo as mentioned in the D4 preview and seemed to be a good decision (real field use will tell).

The viewfinder was large and bright, D3 and 700 users will feel at home and the camera molded to my large(ish) hands well.

Image Quality

Now as with the D4, I was unable to take away samples from the camera. These are pre-production models so not finalized yet. We do however have a large high res screen on the back and I was able to study the shots in some detail. I was very, very impressed with what I saw. The limitations of screen viewings means I can’t draw comparisons with the D800, D4 and D3 in a meaningful way, but I am used to judging the quality on the back of the camera from my endless use of the D3 since 2007. Of course at low ISO’s the quality and detail is outstanding. Nikon have put up sample images here and the detail I saw when in at 1:1 reflected this. Anyone who prints big or wants/needs to crop will be very very happy indeed. Per pixel sharpness looked right on the money (the 24-70 was attached at the time). Of course at 36 megapixels everyone is wondering what the iso performance is looking like. I whacked it up to iso 6400 and took some test shots. It was dimly lit in the room so what I saw was representative of a low light scene. There was noise, but not that much of it and most if not all of the detail was still there! Ok, not quite as pin sharp, but sharp none the less and I would see no problems in selling images made at this ISO. Also, let’s not forget that if you were to down-sample at 36 megapixel image to say 16 (matching the D4) you would additional remove unwanted noise.

I was super pleased with what I saw and made me instantly consider this camera very strongly. In fact the only thing holding me putting my NPS priority order in is that Rob at Nikon mentioned I may be able to have a sample camera or two thrown my way for testing when the production one’s come in. When and if I get them I will be doing a very thorough review and comparison to the D3.

So, fact time again! I have bullet pointed some information below for you that was stated directly from Nikon…

• The d800 performs as well at video as the D4, perhaps slightly less in super high ISO, but “not an issue for most shooting conditions” (I agree btw).
• One caveat is that you do not have the 1:1 pixel mapping to HD video mode from the sensor on the D800, as the area would be very small (as a fraction of the 36 megapixels).
• 76.5 megabyte uncompressed raw files, you still can choose lossless or lossy raw compressed (no file sizes for these though).
• Yes you may need a faster machine or more cards, but if you want the quality what do you expect? Nikon make no excuses here and I agree, you can’t have your cake and eat it.
• 12 or 14 bit raw still available.
• No buffering figures were available.
• The grip is actually priced the same as the D700′s was at release time, they full expect the price to creep down as it did before after a few months
• Official battery quote for the D800 (non grip) is 900 shots, however Rob (from Nikon) shot a timelapse with it totaling 1200 shots and the battery indicator still showed two thirds full (it was noted outside in the cold too). Rob estimates (himself) that the standard D800 battery should give you 2000 shots if you don’t chimp, 5000 if you have the D4 battery in the optional grip.
• Medium format competitors may want the E version. The main example seemed to show crisper edge definition. (I personally am not interested in the E version as the improvements seem minimal but I will investigate properly when I can -Rich)
• 22nd March availability estimate for the regular version and 12th April for the E version. The grip will be available on the 22nd March as well.
• The D800 does not replace the D700, it is a different beast
• The D700 is not discontinued.

We were then showed several of the sample videos on the large screen and they looked great. I saw no artifacts, and it all looked professionally useable in the extreme.

This camera really got me excited when I saw the higher iso test (on the LCD remember though) and I am very keen to try it out as it will offer unparallelled detail for my in the field shooting as well as significant cropping options and the same auto-focus that can handle teleconvertors very well. Stay tuned for more info and my full review when I get my greasy paws on them for a week or two!

Thanks to Nikon and to you for stopping by!

Rich.

Nikon D4 and D800 – Questions Answered

18. February, 2012gear, News, TechNo comments

Hello all.

I was privileged to be invited to Nikon to see the new D4 and D800 for myself. I posted over on my Facebook Page and on dpreview if any of you had questions (and a lot of you did, thank you!) for me to put to Nikon.

I am pleased to say I was genuinely impressed with the cameras and almost all the questions I and others had were answered favorably by Rob and Mark of Nikon.

First impressions: D4

Ok, I will first talk about the D4. I will cover the D800 in a post tomorrow…

In the hand. A very familiar feel compared to my D3. The body is rated lighter but felt very much the same, however the new control layout all seemed to make sense (thankfully). I won’t post spec comparison after spec comparison as those are covered very well in the usual haunts. Remember these are all simply my initial impressions…

The new AF selection joysticks felt solid and well placed, a special improvement over the D3′s portrait positioning which was a tad far away, even with my long thumbs. Adjusting the focusing selection mode, previously on the rear of the camera as a switch is now a combination of a small button by the AF-M switch (near the base of the lens) and the thumb-wheels. This seems to make sense (it seemed counter intuitive simply due to my muscle memory on the D3), I think it is a good move but the usefulness of this will only come to light after actual use. It does let you keep your eye to the viewfinder, you have an in-finder representation of the mode you are selecting. They have also redesigned the AF-M switch itself to be less susceptible to accidental knocking. A good thing!

Other subtle changes to the body, such as an alteration of the shutter release angle as well as many other lumps and bumps all felt right and I must say it did feel better in the hand.

Focusing. This has been touted as an upgrade to the existing 3500FX system, rated in much lower light than before, “moonlight” as Nikon’s Rob put it. Again, this is only based on initial quick impressions but the lock on in low light (I tested the system during one of the talks when the lights were off and the room illuminated only by the screen) was confident and sturdy. Better than the D3? I am very experienced with the D3′s AF system and the D4 did feel to be more confident in low light, perhaps even significantly so. Either way focusing was great.

Image quality. Unfortunately I was unable to take any images back with me as these are pre-production cameras, all reviewing was on the rear LCD. Noise was very well handled indeed! I won’t comment on how it compares to the D3 as I am not in a position to do so reliably. However, I took some shots in ISO 8000 and the resulting images were very smooth. Yes a touch of noise of course, but I would see no problem in selling these images and that is without any post processing clean up. They were pin sharp and the colours vivid and accurate with no smearing. Low light shooters will love this camera. I also have high hopes for the dynamic range and highlight/shadow recovery potential of the files.

Rob made a very in depth presentation on the two cameras and took many questions from other professionals invited to the event. I will bullet point some key facts I learned below. I will try and restrict it to information that you may not know from the common sources on the camera. Everything below was said explicitly by Nikon and I am simply relaying what I heard…

• The uncompressed video out via the HDMI is 10 bit, not 8 bit as has been suggested (I specifically confirmed the answer to this question and the answer was “yes, 10 bit”)
• If the card slots are empty and you are recording via the HDMI, the recording time is not limited to the 29:59 of card recording. The sensor may shut the camera down if it gets too hot, but they had shot for over an hour without this happening.
• 10 mins of video is equal to about 1 gigabyte on the memory card.
• The battery is of less capacity than the D3′s, but you should get at least as many shots out of a charge as you do on the D3 thanks to power optimizations.
• The focus point spread is the same as on the D3.
• The metering sensor that is now used (by user preference) to focus and expose for faces will expose for a face anywhere in the frame, but can only focus on the face if it resides under a focus point.
• The selected focus point will automatically mirror it’s position between portrait and landscape shooting. For example if you have the top centre point selected as you hold the camera in landscape mode, when you rotate the camera to portrait mode, it will automatically change the point to what is the matching point (in this instance the top centre) for that orientation. Very cool! This is a preference the user can disable if they wish.
• Using the new GP module you can sync camera time-clocks to sub second accuracy.
• You can use all the focus points with an f2.8 lens and the TC20III convertor and 11 of them, with one cross-heir on an f4+TC20III. Good for Telecovertor users!
• Buffer is big; RAW is approximately 98 images and large fine jpeg was tested by Rob to 220 images at full speed.
• XQD speed was for the 98 above, compact flash was 78 buffered raw files before lockout. This is huge and great! Note that if the card slots are set to mirror storage mode, you are limited to the speed of the slowest (i.e. the CF) card.
• Nikon mentioned the two card types were to keep photographers happy (i.e. let them use their existing cards), but I and most others agreed two XQD slots would have been better.

These are my first thoughts on what I learned. It is time for some dinner now (always thinking with my stomach!) I will be adding more to this post and answering some specific questions you had more directly tomorrow after I go through my notes from the day. Also stay tuned for what I thought of the D800!

Thank you all as always,

Richard.

African Photo Workshops 2013 pre-register

18. February, 2012Events, News, ToursNo comments

AFRICAN SAFARI PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS 2013

We are now fully booked for 2012 but are once again running our African tours in 2013!

• DATES: TBC, likely February for the Cats and August/September for the Migration
• CAMP: Kicheche Mara and Bush Camps, fantastic true African camps, hand picked by Richard.
• Small groups Focused, yet fun learning! See Lion, Leopard, Cheetah and the Migration!
• Cost: TBC

This time we are offering two different flavors for you! Our Big Cat safari and a new special Migration focused tour!

We are still nailing down the specifics of these trips, we really do put a lot of effort, research and experience into putting these trips together so it takes a little while, we think they are worth the wait!

The Big Cat Workshop will focus on the feline stars of the Mara, Cheetah, Lion and Leopard. We estimate heading out in February as this is a fantastic time to see the catsas well as competitive prices. The light is magical at this time of the year and combined with Richard’s experience alongside two hand picked guides (they are fantastic!) you will come away with memories that will last a lifetime and pictures to be proud of.

See a quick trip report from last year’s tour HERE

Our all new Migration Safari will focus on the spectacular annual Wildebeest Migration. We will again be using the same guides Richard always works with in the Mara to be best placed to ethically photograph not only the famous river crossings but the spectacular herds as they make their way along the migration routes. This of course concentrates the predators of the Mara so also expect to see Lions, Leopard and Cheetah and of course crocodile along the way!

Full details and brochures of these trips will be up shortly. To keep these trips enjoyable and worthwhile we only run them in small groups, with places booking up quickly. To pre-register your interest (at no obligation) use the contact section or the form below for priority allocation should you decide to join us.

Badger situation

14. February, 2012conservation, News, science, uk2 comments

Hi all.

There, as a lot of you may know, is a huge amount of contraversy surrounding the culling of Badgers here in the UK.

Now I am not qualified to render in depth analysis of the situation, for that I will direct you to the people who really do and deal with these issues on a daily basis and can put forward the arguments from a truly valid viewpoint. I will however offer up some information and provide you with resources to form your own opinions. I have, in the past had my opinions dismissed as those of someone who want’s to save Badger “simply because they are cute“. Now of course they are cute, but this really has nothing to do with the core issues here.

Firstly, as it stands the government/Defra as well as the Farmer’s Unions are intent on going ahead with the culls. Their reasoning is that the blight of Bovine TB is effecting Farmer’s stock. However, the arguments for the culling of Badgers as an effective measure to curb the spread of TB to cattle is questionable. For example the RSPCA on their blog say…

“We were devastated that, following years of contentious debate, the government confirmed that it will go ahead with a pilot badger cull in two areas of England in 2012.”

Now no one is suggesting that TB isn’t a major concern that need addressing. It most definitely does. However simple slaughtering Badgers has yet to be proven to be a fully effective cure to the problem, in fact the opposite. Farmers needs certainly need addressing and to dismiss them is just as wrong as the opposing view. However a balanced, open discussion on the subject needs to take place without old values being trodden into the ground over and over again.

The two areas in question in England are West Somerset/Taunton Deane and in the Forest of Dean/Tewkesbury area. If you live in or near either of these areas the RSPCA is in need of you help and you can get in touch on campaigns@rspca.org.uk

You can (and please do) find out more at the following links. These people are working tirelessly so please give them a little of your time and if you are in a position to help get in touch with them

• http://pembrokeshireagainstthecull.org.uk/
• Pembrookshire Against The Cull  is a group of  landowners, farmers and residents living in the proposed badger cull area.
• 38 Degrees petition
• Sign up to this to voice your opposition
• RSPCA Badger Campain facts
• And of course the Badger Trust

The Nikon D800

13. February, 2012gear, News, Uncategorized2 comments

Well, well, well…

In as many weeks we have another flagship release from Nikon, the long awaited D800. A couple of weeks back I posted some initial thoughts on the D4 camera. It was stongly rumoured that the D800 was to be announced… and it was!

So what does this machine offer, how is it different from what has come before and the D4?

Again, I will leave the spec junkies to battle it out in the forums as usual (we already have the usual “what were Nikon thinking”, “Canon are out of business, I’m switching” crowd shouting in the usual haunts as always), I will simply overview what is initially relevant to me and my style of shooting.

So, what do we have?

NEW GUBBINS – THE HIGHLIGHTS

• An all new, 36 megapixel sensor has been thrown in here. Yes, that is 36 megapixels, the highest of any DSLR to date I believe.
• An “E” option that removed the anti aliasing filter (called the D800E)
• A host of goodies from the D4 more on these below
• Smaller body (just) than the d700

Well the headline feature certainly is the sensor. Weighing in at 36 megapixels this certainly is a significant difference than the D3(s) 12 megapixels and even the D4′s 16. In true Nikon style (unlike another brand I won’t mention) they have put full resolution samples up right from the announcement, they are proud of this camera and want to show off what it can do. You can view them on the official Nikon site here. The amount of detail is staggering, truly in medium format territory. So what does this mean for me, a field-craft wildlife photographer?

Well of course if I can have more resolution I will take it, but the question is at what cost? Now I have not had my hands on the camera yet (I am attending a Nikon NPS event later this month where I will have my grubby mits on the camera) and will report back. Firstly this camera is significantly slower in some areas than the speed cameras (D3 and D4). We are limited to 4 frames per second (6 with the optional grip I believe). I say limited, even as a Wildlife Photographer, 8/10 situations I find myself  in don’t call for machine gun action. Blasting away means filling buffers, more computer time sifting through them and more noise to alert the subject to my presence. What does interest me is the built in teleconvertor this (effectively) gives you. Cropping from the centre down to 12 megapixels will give me a good (effective, not actual) zoom boost, albeit at the expense of pixels. But I am delivering 12 megapixels to my clients at the moment anyway so the 15 megapixels you get in DX mode is actually a step up and more than acceptable.

As for low light performance, the D4 is (or should be, as I have yet to play with one) the king for this, but downsizing images does in essence remove noise, and downsampling a 36 megapixel image to match a 16 megapixel size may give just as good a low light, noise free image as the D4. This will need some testing which I intend to do so as soon as possible. Dynamic range performance is all subject to guess work at the moment so I will leave any comment on that until I have seen both with my own eyes.

The body is mostly the same as the excellent one from the D700, albeit very slightly smaller. The D700 had great ergonomics (I personally prefer the larger D3 type bodies myself though). Weather sealed, tough (two very important factors for outdoor photographers), typical Nikon quality which is great!

So, will I be getting one?

I had great luck with the Migration crossings last year (pics coming soon after some rights issues expire!), but I really missed not being able to get some super tight shots of the action, I refuse to encroach on the crossing to get a closer view like some less ethical photographers/tourists sometimes do as this can have a negative impact on the crossings. I have a few remote plans this year, but wanted the d7000 for its DX format sensor which would allow for a longer (effectively) zoom from my lenses. Now the d800 would allow practically the same number of pixels on the centre lens area that the d7000 does, with the added benefit of the 36 megapixel options as well as all the new gubbins inside.

Another twist on this though is that I have the option of using a Nikon V1 with the accompanying FT-1 adapter (letting me use my large Nikon lenses on this compact camera). This would turn my 200-400 (a great lens!) into a monster 540-1080mm! I will be reviewing this combo shortly and weighing up its pros and cons. On paper the V1 is the choice for now, but I need to test this entirely new set-up in the field before committing to it. That said if a few commercial enquiries come off that are in the pipeline I will get both. Freelance photography is far from a certain business and I need to roll with the high and low times.

The D800′s price is very, very competitive ( £2399 over on Amazon ) and you get a whole of camera for your money. This makes it a much easier buy for most users than the D4, which clocking in over £4k is a real stretch, even more so if, like me, you are very happy with the D3.

Later this month I am testing out all of these options and will be doing a full write up here, sharing the results and my thoughts. Until then the D3 stays with me, after some quality time with the new cameras, who knows!!

Cheers as always!!

Richard.

Eagles slideshow

27. January, 2012News, SlideshowsNo comments

Hi all!

I have just put together a quick slideshow showing some of my work with Eagles, I hope you enjoy!

Richard.

iPhone/iPad users click here to see the slideshow on your device!

Leopards!

26. January, 2012News, Slideshows, UncategorizedNo comments

Morning all.

I have been itching to make a dent in the raw queue from Africa, and especially the Leopards! Well I have finally found a few moments over the last couple of evenings.

This has also offered me a good chance to give Lightroom 4′s new raw processing engine a workout and I must say I am liking the new shadow/highlight controls. Makes processing much quicker as I am not having to battle artifacts that can crop u even with minor shadow boosting. I always keep my processing to minor cropping and colour/contrast correction and anything that can speed this up further is great!

You can see the first few images out of the gate in the below slideshow, iPhone/iPad users click here for mobile viewing as the slideshow below will appear as a single image for you.

Thanks all, Rich.

The Nikon D4

24. January, 2012gear, News, TechNo comments

**note I have now had my hands on a D4 and D800, click here to know more**

Hi everyone!

I hope you are enjoying the new look website and have had a chance to search and browse through the image library? This now hooks directly into Lightroom and will enable a much quicker camera to library workflow. New images will be added each week and there is a new slideshow section coming shortly to showcase some of my best from the hundreds of different species/locations I have worked with. Sign up to the newsletter (form to the right —>) or follow us on facebook to stay up to speed!

Well… The D4. I still get a few kind emails regarding the practical review of the D3 (Read that review here), I did back when it came out in 2007 and changed the way I worked forever (it really did).

Four and some years later, here we are and Nikon have announced the new flagship of their line, the D4. I won’t run you though every single improvement or tech spec here as there are too many to list and it gets rather tiresome after 5 pages! However here are the improvements that are of note to me…

NEW IMAGE SENSOR

Upgraded from the D3(s) from 12 megapixels to 16 as well as image processing improvements.

There is a lot of forum chatter about this new sensor (most of it unsubstantiated brand clatter I might add). Some people were hoping for more pixels whilst other were hoping for higher performance whilst remaining at 12 megapixels. Nikon seem to have gone the route of maintaining or even slightly improving the same high ISO performance as was found on the D3(s) whilst pushing the megapixels up as far as is reasonable. Now the jump from 12 to 16 is not significant, indeed Nikon offer a 24 megapixel D3x for the detail junkies. However you can expect a visible improvement of rendered detail thanks to those extra pixels, although not a night and day difference and certainly not in most printing outputs other than very large format.

I am going to reserve judgement on the image quality until I have had one out in the field with me, many people are making claims both good and bad simply with guesswork or by looking at rushed test images sneaked out from presentation events. Now I am certain it will offer better image quality than the D3(s), but how much better is the question. Coming in at £4700 this is a real dent in the wallet, even after trading in my D3 bodies. It is for this reason I am breaking with tradition and holding off ordering one until I have tested it personally. My clients very, very rarely have a problem with the detail (quantity)  in my images, even at “only” 12 megapixels the D3 offers all I need for my (and my agent’s) business. More would certainly be welcome, but not at any price.

VIDEO OPTIONS

This is where the D4 is a must have upgrade for professionals. If you are making video content.

Nikon have really (really) beefed up the video offering on this model. This is the first model Nikon have produced where they appear to have taken video very seriously. Canon have had the edge on Nikon in this area since the 5DII, which proved a huge hit with the high end video market (to the point where an entire episode of “House” was shot with it).

The highlights of the video options are..

Uncompressed 4:2:2 output from the hdmi. This is a big deal for higher end productions as it means you bypass any compression the camera needs to do to save the video to the media card and get a very high quality output. You will need an external device to capture this video, but if you do need it, you can afford it. Canon deliberately cripple this option on their SLR cameras to protect their high end video camera sales. This move from Nikon is a clever (and well needed) one that may force canon to follow suit.

B-Frame h.264 compression and a whole host of other tech changes mean that if you are not using an external recorder you will get great quality video, with minimal rolling shutter.

Now I have mentioned the video options here as they are significant for this camera. However I am a stills shooter and don’t as of yet need to offer video content to my clients. If I did however, I would have put my order with NPS in the moment it was announced.

SPEED

This area however is of most interest to me second to image quality. Thanks to image readout and processing moving on a generation this camera is a speed demon. The buffer has been increased dramatically allowing 100 (estimated) shots in raw before petering out to the card. This is great for sports shooters or when I am following Cheetahs on a hunt for example.

Additional tweaks to the already great AF system means that initial AF acquisition is quicker and more reliable. This means that running/flight sequences will lock on quicker of the mark, the tracking however has remained the same apparently (once acquired). I have always been very pleased with the D3′s AF system. Similar to image quality I will need to asses just how much improved the system is before I would commit to purchase.

CARD STORAGE

Nikon have unfortunately decided to go for a mixed route on this occasion.

In my initial review of the D3, I applauded the fantastic setup of dual Compact Flash slots. This meant I had two matching slots to load up that would perform the same as each other and offer either seamless overflow or backup pending the users’ choice.

On the D4, Nikon have put in 1 Compact Flash slot and 1 XQD card socket. XQD is a brand new standard that will offer a more durable card (no pins to break) as well as faster speeds now and especially in the future. So why am I disapointed? Well now we have a situation where users will realistically have to (or will) get the new XQD cards anyway (otherwise they limit themselves to a single slot and reduced speed), but be forced to use older CF cards as well.

Now, people who throw £4700 on a camera will probably also have the ability/need to load up on XQD cards as well. Yes it would be a little annoying to sell off all those old CF cards, but that’s the price of upgrading and technology moving on.  I would have much rather had either two XQD slots or two CF slots. A mix of the two is a compromise and in flagship cameras I don’t believe there is room for compromise. As I mentioned anyone who needs the D4 for it’s speed will not begrudge buying a new range of cards to get the most out of the camera. This seems like a move to keep peace with people who probably wouldn’t likely buy or benefit a camera like this anyway.

THE REST

There are some potentially fantastic wireless options with this camera. This could be a great boon for those that do remote camera work. This is one area where if I did more remote work (and I do have some upcoming plans in this area for next year) then would potentially be worth the upgrade. See the video below for a quick demonstration of what can be done..

Minor but helpful alterations to the body of the D3 have also been made, including an excellent moved additional joystick for AF point selection when in portrait mode.

ROUNDUP

Well, that’s a quick overview from my perspective on the camera. Please remember I have kept this brief as I have yet to use it, so this is all based simply on the information I have learned. Nikon NPS have a roadshow for their professional users in a week or two at which point I’ll report back more.

As it stands at the moment, I have far more pressing areas of the business to focus the money on, rather than upgrade a camera (the D3) I am immensely satisfied with. Remember if I (as with most working professionals) upgrade, I have to have two bodies, with one as a backup/lens flexibility option. Should, after some hands on time (and I will be doing a full review either way) I decide the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, I may well take the plunge. But until then I feel it is simply an evolutionary (for stills) upgrade that I will be keeping a close eye on. That said if Nikon need to sponsor someone, I am more than happy to take delivery of one or two of them!

When Nikon released the D3 back in 2007, it genuinely was (an I HATE this phrase now-days) a game changer. It took high iso photography to the next level and stomped a great big boot onto the megapixel race. I took delivery from the first UK batch and they still serves me very well to this day. The D4 steps this on further, how much further I am looking forward to seeing. For professional video users though, it is a must buy.

Cheers all!

Richard.

Email backlog

24. January, 2012NewsNo comments

Hi all!

Just to let you know, if you have got in touch with us over the last 48 hours, we do have your emails and will get back to you all shortly. The mail server needed to be backed up and restored which is all but finished now and normal service can then resume!

Computers eh…

Thanks for your patience!

Richard.