I pulled the trigger! Mmmm, D700!

12/06/2008 10:05:13 PM · #1

Wow! Looks amazing!

Merry Christmas to you too!

12/06/2008 09:54:27 PM · #2

I also got a couple sweet lenses today (for selling my 24-105):

50mm f/1.4:

Sigma 12-24:

I'm still hoping to trade my Sigma 105mm macro (Canon mount) for a Nikon macro or telephoto.

12/06/2008 08:41:26 PM · #3

Wow, I'm jealous of your weather! Actually, Colorado is weird in that it's bitter cold for a few days/weeks at a time, then it gets pretty nice again. It's really quite nice.

I found this awesome feature of my D700 today - interval shooting! Family portraits are now a snap! Or about a hundred snaps every three seconds. Still, in 70 shots, I had to paste my daughters face from another shot, but I'm hoping you wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't told. =)

Camera on tripod, using one shoot-through umbrella to the left:

Merry Christmas, DPC!

Message edited by author 2008-12-06 20:42:21.

12/06/2008 08:20:36 AM · #4

Ok, I'm really jealous of your camera, tank or not, I'm really jealous of your squirrels (God they're cute!!!), but I'm not at all jealous of that weather!! Then again....we're absolutely sweltering in tropical heat at the moment, its not great either!
The shots look great Smurfguy - now what WAS that squirrel doing in the shot you can't show? ;-)

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LX100

12/06/2008 12:08:36 AM · #5

Some images from walking around today. Despite the cold weather, I'm really warming up to this camera. =D

No Flatirons, because I couldn't get the vantage point I wanted and the sky wasn't very nice anyway. =/

ETA: Can't show my favorite shot of the day, perhaps for obvious reasons. =)

Message edited by author 2008-12-06 00:09:46.

spiritualspatula

12/05/2008 01:39:57 PM · #6

Originally posted by citymars:

Originally posted by jettyimages:
Don't worry about the size - in a couple of weeks anything smaller will feel like a toy to you!

Isn't that the truth! I'm now used to the size of the D300, and when I picked up my old Panasonic FZ20 the other day it literally felt like a toy in my hands. Speaking of which, anyone interested in acquiring one? Wrong forum, I know, but I thought I'd mention it.

I totally agree with this too. Before the D300, I was using a Fuji S9100 bridge, and having picked up my Fuji lately, it honestly feels like a disposable film camera in comparison (admittedly, the Fuji is a bit lighter than the typical D-SLR, but is larger and heavier than most non D-SLR cameras). You get used to the heft very quickly. Even my girlfriend who only has the most limited of experience with cameras greatly appreciated and complimented the D300 after only 10 minutes of use.

12/05/2008 11:54:50 AM · #7

Originally posted by pawdrix:

Here's a set I took with the D700 in a dark bar at ISO 3200 with an 85mm f1.4 Shot at 1.4, 1/80 sec hand held ... purdy cool...

It's very cool, I agree. With my XT, I pretty much couldn't dream of getting a shot in a dim, bulb-lit room without using the ugly pop-up flash. With the D700 and f/2.8, it's possible. And when I get my 50mm 1.4, there'll be an even high percentage of keepers. I'm quite excited by this.

ETA: Great triptych!

Message edited by author 2008-12-05 11:55:05.

pawdrix

Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D IF

12/05/2008 11:37:07 AM · #8

Here's a set I took with the D700 in a dark bar at ISO 3200 with an 85mm f1.4 Shot at 1.4, 1/80 sec hand held with smoothing and some brightening added in the RAW conversion.

[thumb]744956[/thumb]

purdy cool...

Message edited by author 2008-12-05 11:48:45.

citymars

12/05/2008 11:14:37 AM · #9

Originally posted by jettyimages:

Don't worry about the size - in a couple of weeks anything smaller will feel like a toy to you!

Isn't that the truth! I'm now used to the size of the D300, and when I picked up my old Panasonic FZ20 the other day it literally felt like a toy in my hands. Speaking of which, anyone interested in acquiring one? Wrong forum, I know, but I thought I'd mention it.

Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED

12/05/2008 10:42:58 AM · #10

Originally posted by spiritualspatula:

So where's your snowy Flatirons photo?
I got around 8 inches up in the Fort, so surely you got some there too?

Yesterday it was foggy, cold, and snowing all day - your couldn't even see the Flatirons. =/

Today I got some "trees in the mist" shots. We'll see how they turn out.

caba

Nikon D800

12/05/2008 04:44:59 AM · #11

Buydig.com has it for $2349.00 plus a free 4gig memory card, can we say "price wars"?

spiritualspatula

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LX100

12/05/2008 03:25:46 AM · #12

So where's your snowy Flatirons photo?
I got around 8 inches up in the Fort, so surely you got some there too?

parallax

12/05/2008 01:09:29 AM · #13

I just got my new D700.

First impression... feels like i'm holding a tank.
And i thought D200 was durable :)

I'm so exited I can't wait to go out shooting.
Soon photos to come...

12/04/2008 10:58:30 PM · #14

Trish,

I snapped some shots off while waiting for dinner tonight. I probably didn't control all the right variables, but it's a data point anyway.

I used auto WB, ISO 800 and 1600, each with NR on normal and off. Here is the whole scene and 100% crops, straight out of the camera.

Full-size JPEG of 100% comparison crops

It probably doesn't compare well to your series, but I hope it gives you some idea!

Cheers,
-Jeff

12/04/2008 05:26:51 PM · #15

Don't know - I'm going to have to do the whole shoot (BORING!!!!) and have a reasonably good noise remover in PhotoTools. Will let you know, and look forward to what you come up with. You would think ISO800 would be fine, wouldn't you! Its strange though, I've shot at 800 before, but never with so much noise, but red has always been a little dodgy when I've had to bring up shadows even in ISO200. Very weird.

12/04/2008 05:09:27 PM · #16

Rough... Will neat image / noise ninja be able to help?

I'm happy to take some shots for you, though I won't be able to post images until this evening. I'll try it with NR at Normal and Off. My gut feeling is that ISO800 will be pretty nice.

12/04/2008 04:46:32 PM · #17

I've just had a bit of a depressing experience with my D300....had to shoot an event in town last night, it was from 6.30pm - 8pm, and everyone seemed to be wearing red, red balloons everywhere, santa, reindeers, etc etc. I had to pump up the D300 to ISO 800 to give me decent background exposure with the flash on TTL BL, and there is HEAPS of colour noise, especially on red. Very disappointing! They say the D700 is superlative in that regard, so it might have to be sooner than I think. Smurfguy, can you take a shot at ISO800 of something red and post it here? I'd be really interested to see what the difference is.

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

12/04/2008 01:20:07 AM · #18

Originally posted by MattO:

Exif says 2800ISO and Tungsten WB setting.

LOL, so it does! Sorry - ISO2800, then! See, with Auto-ISO, you too can have no idea what it's doing. =D 3200 is what I set its max to, and most of the shots in that light were, so I just assumed.

Here's playing with a "product shot". Had to crank it to f/18, ISO 1250 to get the whole thing in focus. There's a flash behind a diffuser (read: sheet of paper) to the right and a reflector (read: another sheet of paper) on the left. Paper is perhaps one of my greatest allies. But given my processing (noise, sharpen, clone in bg), this images doesn't tell you anything about the camera...

Sorry - couldn't help myself. I'm so giddy I'm taking pictures of my camera gear! I'll try to take some untouched landscapes tomorrow. The Flatirons might be snow-kissed in the AM... We'll see if we can't outdo this older shot from Rebel XT and kit lens. In reality, probably not - but then, Ken Rockwell could have told you that! =D

MattO

Nikon D4

12/04/2008 12:44:50 AM · #19

Originally posted by smurfguy:

I believe that's tungsten, though I was switching back and forth between tungsten and auto. I updated my edit to be slightly less yellow-ish. =) The light was awful. Maybe I should shoot a gray card and try custom in a setting like that...

Anyway, I'll take some shots in better light, with the flashes and outdoors and what have you. =)

Exif says 2800ISO and Tungsten WB setting.

IMpressively clean..........for a Nikon. :D

Grats on the new equipment.

Matt

12/04/2008 12:23:13 AM · #20

12/03/2008 11:58:50 PM · #21

Thats pretty good for ISO 3200 - can't wait to see more images as you take them. Are you using auto white balance?
Don't worry about the size - in a couple of weeks anything smaller will feel like a toy to you!

Prash

Nikon D90

12/03/2008 11:55:37 PM · #22

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

Grats again!

Enjoy!

And when you go out to take images t'rrw, dont forget a bunch of us are waiting with eyes and tongues out to see the results:-)

12/03/2008 11:44:49 PM · #23

The brown truck arrived today. My and my wife's very first words were - it's a beast. Probably twice as heavy and much more bulky than my old Rebel XT.

I'd been reading up, and I'm very excited about Auto-ISO and some of the auto-focus options on the D700. The low-light performance did not disappoint, nor did the focus; even with my quick-moving little girl and the not-terribly-expensive Tamron 28-75 f/2.8.

Here's an ISO3200, f/2.8, 1/60 shot from tonight, indoor and under terrible lighting:

...

Out of camera . . . . . . . . . 100% crop . . . . . . . . . . . edited

I can't wait to bust out my flashes and use some decent light.

12/02/2008 10:47:39 PM · #24

Originally posted by Prash:

Originally posted by jettyimages:

Originally posted by breadfan35:

Originally posted by jettyimages:
PS if I had enough money I would still DEFINITELY go with the 1D over any of the Nikons

I'm curious as to why you say this.

Because personally I prefer the Canon image quality over the Nikon in artistic terms. Its something I've discussed here before, its very hard to describe and I have used the word 'luminescence', unsuccessfully. In my opinion the top level canons seem to be able to provide a smoother and higher dynamic ratio, less punchy and contrasty than Nikon. Some Nikonians don't seem to like the 'softness' of a Canon image - its not that the clarity or sharpness is there, it certainly is - but I think its the softness of the light thats between the subject and the lens that the canon manages to pick up. I love that, and wish the Nikons did. Nikon is razor sharp and great at picking up immense detail, colour and form, but - perhaps its the glass rather than the camera, I'm not sure yet - the Canon 1D seems to make artwork out of an image far more easily than Nikon. IMHO.
Oh boy, I'm going to get shot by both sides now. I'm not fence sitting though, and I'm not grabbing onto one particular brand with vehemence. I just like certain things about Canon, and certain things about Nikon. At this point in time, I do a lot of natural portraits with kids and families running around on beaches etc, and a lot of weddings, so I need to be able to grab the camera with my toes if necessary and shoot a good image in micro seconds. The Nikon is better for me there, probably because I've always shot NIkon, film or digital. If I were only shooting in the studio or concentrating on landscapes and art shots, I would definitely want the Canon as it records the feeling as well as the image in a way that I understand better. Maybe some people can find that quality in their Nikons, if so I'd love to know how. Obviously you need to know how to use a camera, regardless of what brand it is, and you need to be highly skilled in order to make artwork instead of snapshot, thats all a given, and I'm always going to be learning.

I am not experienced enough with DSLRs yet, but I can comment on at least one thing: vibrant colors.

Prash I think you've got it in a nutshell. Perhaps it depends on the subjects that you're capturing as to which camera is best. Its very true, the NIkon cameras offer vibrancy of colour and contrast above the Canon, but the Canon offers true to life colours and a more gentle approach to dynamic range for when you want a softer, clearer image. It really is personal taste, both brands are excellent, and there may be times when I really prefer the Nikon punchiness over the Canon and vice versa. Maybe we should all have two!

A friend of mine has a Nikon D70 (I know.. not hot anymore), and I have a Canon 450D. I invited him over once to try each other's cameras out. We took portraits of his pretty baby daughter (<3 yrs of age) from the same location in the same lighting condition at the same lens settings down to aperture.

Our findings?

He started praising how my Canon kept the colors faithful with good colors even in the background.. while I started raving about how vibrant and contrasty the picture was from his Nikon. He was using the Nikon 18-200 mm lens (I think without the VR). I used the 28-105 f3.5-5.6. Another thing I liked about the Nikon image was how the background wrapped around the subject. I tried to replicate the same color tones by tweaking the picture styles on the Canon body (saturation, brightness, contrast, sharpness), but could never get the same effect.

So as you said, I like some things about the Canon (liveView, faithful colors, etc.), while the vibrant colors and good contrast in the D70. I actually started looking to swap the XSi with a D90.. only two things stopped me: higher price with the D90, and an extrapolation from lower resolution images at higher zooms in live view.

One more thing: I do agree a lens may have something to do with the final image quality.. but I am leaning to think it is also the individual sensor elements that affect how different color frequencies get transpired to relative pixel channel values (RGB etc.).

I will try to post the comparison images.

Prash

Nikon D90