Gear for Sale

Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

I'm selling a bit of gear to make way for some new toys. I've posted it in a couple of places, and the interest is rolling in, but thought I would put it up here as well......

Nikon D200 with MB-D200 battery grip, 2x EN-EL3e batteries, boxes, and all cables, chargers, etc

I have two of them, each €750, my preference would go to a buyer in Holland or Belgium to avoid hassle of shipping

ONLY ONE REMAINING!



SOLD!!! - Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G AF-S lens, including box, soft case, lens hood, and Nikon NC 77mm filter.

€900 ono, my preference would go to a buyer in Holland or Belgium to avoid hassle of shipping, but we can discuss this.


Examples taken with this lens at www.flickr.com/photos/digitalheman/tags/1755mmf28g/



SOLD!!! - Nikon 12-24mm f/4G AF-S lens, including box, soft case, lens hood, and Rilex 77mm filter (very high quality filter).

€650 ono, my preference would go to a buyer in Holland or Belgium to avoid hassle of shipping, but we can discuss this.

This lens will go after all the other stuff is sold - I like it too much!...... just let me know if you would be interested


Examples taken with this lens at www.flickr.com/photos/digitalheman/tags/1224mmf4g/



SOLD! - Nikon 60mm f/2.8D Micro-Nikkor lens and Tiffen 62mm filter.

I bought this lens new a couple of years ago, but shot very, very few photographs with it (maybe less than 100), as I picked up a 70-180mm Micro soon after

€250, my preference would go to a buyer in Holland or Belgium to avoid hassle of shipping, but we can discuss this.

All very good condition, selling to make way for new toys :)

Gear Review: Nikon 10.5mm F/2.8G DX Fisheye lens

Queen for a day
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

A fisheye lens is defined as an ultra-wide lens, giving a close to 180 degree angle of view. There are two sorts of fisheye - a circular, or a full frame fisheye.

Back in the days of film, fisheye lenses were either very cheap (and subsequently rather unsharp) or very expensive, large, and out of the reach of the average photographer.

However, with the advent of the cropped DX sensor, not so much glass was required in order to get the full 180 degree view favored by the full frame fisheye, and Nikon's answer to this was the 10.5mm fisheye, which only works on the DX range of Nikon digital SLRs. (using this on a full frame camera will lead to vignetting, and a fairly unusable image). The 10.5mm is a compact lens of similar diameter to the 50mm F/1.8, and a little bit longer. Due to a bulging front element, the lens has a built in, non removable lens hood.

When I was in the States last year, i picked up the fish for around $600, after looking at it online and wondering whether to buy it in Europe for around €600. $600 was a very good price for this lens, and in fact, having used it for the past year, I would be more than prepared to pay the full €600 for it, should I ever need to replace it.

Images that come from full frame fisheye lenses are easy to spot, due to the curvature that gets applied to straight lines within the frame. Whilst a straight line through the center of either axis will stay straight, anything away from that will be bent to varying degrees, as you can see from the image above.

If you think back to photography 101, you will remember that the wider a lens is, the greater the depth of field in the image, and the 10.5 is no exception to this. So much so, that focusing is almost unnecessary, but with it having a f2.8 maximum aperture and in spite of not having AF-S, focusing happens fast and accurately in any case. It's not a lens for everyday shooting, due to the issues with curvature, but used sparingly, it gives fun images.



I find the images to be nice and contrasty, with good colors. Due to the large angle of view, light pours into the lens, and it can be handheld at low shutter speeds without noticeable lens blur.

Obviously due to the large angle of view, if you are using the lens as a portrait lens, as I did for the first image, you need to be very close to the subject - I was probably around 50cm from his face. The way I like to shoot when I am using it for portraits is to shoot into the sun, but use a flash either on or off camera to fill in the details in the foreground of the shot.



It is possible to 'defish' the images taken with this lens using Nikon's software, but personally I don't do this. When an image is defished, it is straightened out, and the image no longer fills a rectangle, so cropping is necessary to get it back to a frame filling image, and the edges of the frame are lost. I have other lenses, such as the 12-24mm, that I will use if I want to take an ultra wide shot with limited distortion.

So in summary, this is a fun lens, ideal if you want to give an image an extra level of interest. It does distort images, but that also adds to the image in many ways. Due to it's compact size, it is easy to throw in the bag and carry all the time, just in case the opportunity arises to use it.......

Book Review: Joe McNally - The Moment It Clicks

The cover of this book claims to teach you "photography secrets from one of the world's top shooter", and 256 pages later, I feel that I have definitely gotten an insight into Joe's work ethic, and understood some of the reasons why the publisher's suggest he is a "legendary magazine photographer.

The book was published in January 2008, and I received it from Amazon (click the picture to be linked through) yesterday. After a busy Saturday, I had a free Sunday, so sat down to read the book. And didn't put it down until I had finished it......

Joe McNally has been a photographer for over 30 years, and his career has been spent shooting for magazines such as Life, People, Time, Sports Illustrated, and National Geographic. In the first two thirds of the book Joe shares these experiences with the reader. In each double page spread he presents a photograph from his portfolio, and describes, in a casual manner, some of his reasoning behind the shot, and how he achieved it technically. Sometimes this is done by relating to the shot itself, and sometimes by describing a conversation he has had or a situation he has been in, and then illustrating it with a photograph. But either way, it makes entertaining reading.

One of Joe's mantras is "the only good light is available light, and by that I mean any light that is available", and he really is the master of off camera lighting. For most of the shots he describes how the scene was lit, whether it be a white sheet from the motel he stayed in the night before ("I am a bed sheet thief") to act as a diffusor on a window, or a combination of softboxes, grids, and snoots.

The final third of the book, after a short description of the gear he uses (he is a Nikon shooter, and has shot many advertisements for them, and also made an instructional Nikon lighting DVD called "The Speed of Light" - worth a watch) covers various experiences he has been in, like the time he threw up 50 times whilst shooting a weightless flight at the Russian space camp, or the time he shot 10 frames of a pro baseball player, before realizing he hadn't advanced his film a single frame. But with each story he illustrates, he always has a message to the reader.

One thing that struck me about Joe is that in almost every shot he shows, he has had to work quickly, with high pressure. Typically his subjects give him around 10 minutes to shoot them, and, although he often spends hours before a shoot setting up his concept, he needs to make sure that his shoot works first time, and if not, the reshoot must take place at the same time. You can definitely see shots where he has made mistakes, or where there are visual errors, but that isn't the point. Keep your eye to the camera at all times, or you will miss a shot, says Joe, and he has stuck true to this.

This book is a definite recommendation for anyone who wants to start out in the field of photojournalism, and wants to hear from someone who has been there, done that, but for everyone else, it is an entertaining read, and there is a lot that any photographer can learn from Joe's musings.

Gear Review: Nikon D300

In September, for no other reason than a convincing salesman, I put myself on the waiting list for a D300. I was fairly high up on the list, and confident I would receive one in the first batch.

Come the release date, November 29th, my dealer, Schweitzer Foto Nivo, called me to inform me that I indeed had been lucky enough to get one on the day of release. Unfortunately, time was not on my side, and due to studying for an exam and a business trip to the US, I was unable to really use the D300 until my Christmas vacation to Japan.

The first couple of days of the trip were to be spent in Tokyo, which would give me more than enough subjects to test the D300 out on. My first stop on the trip was to electronics city in Akihabara, where I was lucky enough to pick up the new Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8 lens (more on that in a later post), so for most of the time this lens stayed on the camera.

My first impressions of the camera are probably fairly similar to those of a lot of other people - great camera, a D200 on steroids, and a D3 in a smaller package. The D300 has lower noise (maybe as much as 1.5-2 stops) which should be good for gig photography, better AF (for wildlife photography), and higher frames per second capabilities (again useful for the wildlife).

Taking a look at the 3 points above in more detail, lower noise than the D200 was what most interested me about the D300. The noise levels in the D200 had been what had most annoyed me about the camera, and I was always losing out when trying to shoot poorly lit concerts. I was unable to shoot higher than 640iso (with the occasional forage up to 800), and this wasn't really enough for the locations I shoot at.

So the advertised stop extra high iso was a welcome feature. And my first tests with higher ISO, at the Tsukiji fish market (1600iso) and on the Tokyo Metro (800iso), seem to be very positive. (NOTE: just click the image if you want to see it unclipped)





I also shot a test shot at 3200iso, just to see what the results are like. Whilst not perfect, it certainly shows promise. The shot below is uploaded as shot - no noise reduction or sharpening was applied. It looks fine at this resolution, but when viewed larger the noise becomes more noticeable. But definitely good enough for many purposes.



The new AF system, in the form of the CAM3500 module, is also a welcome improvement. With the D200 I had 11 focus points, with one cross type, which, whilst generally enough for general photography, I didn't find sufficient for photographing medium sized objects moving, for example birds. The gaps between the individual sensors meant that the AF would lose track of what it was tracking, leaving it to hunt unnecessarily, and lose the shot, even when set to AF lag long (or whatever Nikon calls it). Now, with the 51 sensors (with 15 cross) of the CAM3500, they are packed tightly together, and the 3D AF system really means that even small objects with unpredictable movement can be tracked successfully.

The D300 was also advertised as being capable of 8fps. This is true, although this comes at a cost. On it's own, with the EN-EL3e battery inserted, the camera can pump out an impressive 6fps, but in order to achieve 8fps, one needs the MB-D10 (which I have), and either AA batteries, or the EN-EL4e battery delivered with the D2X or D3 camera. If you are not an exisiting pro shooter, this means the purchase of the EN-EL4e battery (around 125 Euros) and the MH-21 charger (around 125 Euros) to go with it, as well as the BL-3 battery cover to go with it - a fairly pricey way of getting to 8fps. Granted you should also be able to get to 8 with AA batteries, but these won't last for so long.

In addition to the main 3 points above, there are a number of small improvements over the D200 worth mentioning:

- Larger LCD display on the back
- the ability to see shooting info pre shot (useful for tripod shooting)
- Live view (basically the ability to see the image on the rear view LCD, a la point and shoot camera). Live view in itself has some limitations (slow, hard to focus) but in the situation where the camera needs to be very low or very high, I can see it having some use. I have used it for a couple of shots, and it seems usable
- In built sensor cleaning. The camera can be set to clean the sensor each time the camera starts up, or on request. Will be very useful for keeping the sensor clean whilst on location
- Better battery life. Supposedly using the EN-EL3e battery it is now possible to get close to 1000 shots per charge. To be honest I haven't experienced this yet, but I was using the LCD quite extensively

So, definitely a number of pros for the D300. What about the cons? To be honest, there are very few - most of the features of the D3 (excluding the FX sensor and better high iso performance) available in a package around one third of the cost. A high speed camera with a great AF system. I have only two minor, and I mean *minor* points to complain about.

Firstly, it is no longer possible to choose the AF focus point on the LCD display on the top of the camera. I used to use this function on the D200 when the camera was mounted on a tripod to predetermine where the camera would focus. Now, instead of seeing the focus point, you see all 51 points simultaneously.

Secondly, if you want to be able to set up your image review to display highlights on the images, it is no longer possible to have a display of just the image when going through image review. With the D200 I had my image review set up to show me one full screen image with no annotations, and a second full screen image to show me the highlights. Now, if image review with highlights is enabled, it is no longer to have a clear full screen image as well. Admittedly two very small points, easily outweighed by the other great features the D300 offers, but nevertheless worth mentioning.

So, in conclusion, am I happy with the D300, based upon the limited amount of shooting I have done with it? Yes. For me, the improved auto focus system and the lower noise at high ISO were enough for me to upgrade. The D200 is still an excellent camera, and I expect both of my D200s to stay with me in the future, but progress is good, and the D300 is certainly an example of this.

Nikon in Tokyo

One thing I noticed whilst in Tokyo was how readily available Nikon cameras and accessories were.

In a time where Nikon D3s are rarer than hen's teeth, pretty much every store in Tokyo had one on display, and the larger ones claimed to be able to deliver out of stock (maybe a reason why the rest of the world is having such difficulty finding them). Although some of them said they would only sell to people resident in Japan at present.

Also relatively rare (in European terms) lenses were available off the shelf - I was in store that had all the Nikon big guns (400, 500, and 600) in stock, although my temporary excitement disappeared when the shop realised they were advertising the VR version a bit too early....

I was also able to stock up on Nikon accessories, all at low prices compared to Europe. Things like Nikon NC filters, lens caps, gel filters, extension tubes, and the coveted BL-3 battery cover for the MB-D10 were available even from electrical superstores....



But what impressed me the most were two dedicated Nikon stores - one in Ginza, NikonHouse, which only stocked second hand Nikon (but had a good selection at reasonable prices - warning, the owner doesn't speak too much English), and another one in Shinjuku (whose name I forgot to write down, but you will find it if you walk down the main street in Shinjuku) which sold everything Nikon, both second hand and brand new. Also in Ginza you can find Nikon Plaza, which is one of many Nikon showrooms in the city, run by Nikon, and also housing NPS. Here you can play with new Nikon gear, although unfortunately they also were unable to show me the 600mm :(

Happy New Year!

As 2007 ends, I wanted to wish a Happy New Year to all of my loyal readers - thanks for stopping by and reading from time to time.

I hope 2008 brings you success in all that you do, both in your personal and professional lives....

I'm currently in Japan, with my new D300 and 24-70mm, returning to the Netherlands in a couple of days. And I promise one of my resolutions for 2008 is to write more blog posts!

Lazy

Well, I've been a bit lazy the past couple of months with regards to keeping this blog up to date. I've started a new job, and that seems to be taking up a lot of my time.

But I did have time to update my website - stop by and take a look, I've put a gallery up of a lot of the stuff I have done earlier this year.

Asides from that, I'm getting ready to take delivery of my new D300 towards the end of next week. Stay tuned for a hands on review.....

Gear Review: Nikon 85mm F/1.4D lens - the cream machine

Sigal 9
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

Back in the days of 35mm film photography, 85mm was seen as the ideal focal length for a portrait lens. It was slightly longer than a 'normal' 50mm lens, and this was felt to be more flattering to models, as it compressed the background just enough to look good.

Nikon has had two 85mm AF portrait lenses for a number of years - one that has a F/1.8 maximum aperture, and the other with a F/1.4. At first, with the exception of the aperture, the main difference between these lenses is the price - the 1.8 comes in at around €400, whereas the 1.4 is three times the price, at around €1150. But there is a lot more to the 1.4 - having a wider aperture lets approx 50% more light in than with the 1.8, and this means for a brighter viewfinder image when focusing, as well as a more useful lens for low light photography. The 1.4 also has a more pro build to it - the majority of the construction is a dappled metallic finish (similar to the 105mm DC), whereas the 1.8 is primarily plastic. And the 1.4 also takes the pro standard 77mm, whereas the 1.8 takes a 62mm filter.

Since the introduction of the of the DX format digital SLR, 85mm lenses have fallen out of favor with some photographers, feeling the 85mm lens (which becomes 127mm after the DX conversion) is a little too long to be used as a portrait lens, and this is part of the reason that they can be picked up on eBay relatively cheaply (I think I paid around €550 for mine a couple of years ago.) This is likely to change shortly though, as Nikon has now announced the full frame D3, so the 85mm becomes an 85mm lens again....

Probably the main selling point for the 85mm F/1.4, and the reason for it's nickname, 'the cream machine', is the bokeh that this lens can produce. Bokeh is a Japanese term for the area of the photo which is thrown out of focus through the depth of field used in the image, or basically the blurry bit.



Bokeh depends on two things - the aperture used, and the distance between the subject and the background - the wider the aperture, the better the bokeh, and the further the distance between subject and background, the better the bokeh. The examples accompanying this blog both show good bokeh - the first one of SIgal was shot at F/3.2, whereas the second one of Natalia was shot wide open at F/1.4.

The use of bokeh in a portrait helps the viewer to focus on the subject without the distractions of the background clouding his vision, and the 85mm F/1.4 allows just this - the autofocus parts of the image just melt into one another, making the background barely recognisable.

The F/1.4 is known as a superior performer, providing images that are sharp and contrasty. It is sharp all the way to F/1.4, and should be in every portrait and wedding photographer's arsenal of tools. Although this lens focuses relatively quickly on any modern Nikon body, due to the wide aperture and the amount of light that is available to assist the camera, if I have wish for the following release of this beautiful lens, it would be to add AF-S to the list of features.

Digital Printing online - a recommendation

Leopard in a tree.....
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

For reasons of space and running costs, I have never had reason to purchase a colour photo printer for home use. Although having my own printer would give me a lot more flexibility in to what I printed and when, I feel the cost per print is not much different to various online services.

So over time I have tried out a number of online photo services in the Netherlands, but have now finally found one company that, after a number of positive experiences, am going to stick with.

The company, ProFotoNet, a division of FotoSystems in Gouda, has a very simple to use website. It is possible to either download some software (for Windows) or use their online tool (for Mac users) to upload the pictures to their server.

Previously, Mac users were a bit limited to the browsers they could use to upload their pictures, but with the latest version of the online software I have successfully uploaded with both Mozilla variants (Flock) and Safari.

The quality of the images is stunning - they print everything on Kodak Endura paper, and I choose the Endura Metallica finish, which has a layer of silver in the paper to give certain colours a metallic look when held to the light. One of the reasons that the colours are so good, and can accurately represent the image as it is on the screen, is that ProFotoNet provides icc calibration profiles, to which the images can be converted before they are uploaded. But also without these profiles, providing the images are uploaded in either AdobeRGB or sRGB, they will do the conversion for you.

The best thing about the service is the price - a 10x15cm print is only 0,32€, a 20x30 print on Endura Metallic is 2,99€, and a 30x45cm print comes in at 7,50€. Admittedly this is a bit more expensive than somewhere like the Hema, but this is a pro service, and delivers pro results.

A couple of other things worth mentioning - firstly the speed: recently I placed an order at 10pm on Sunday evening, and received the order Tuesday morning by 10am. This is normal for ProFotoNet, I think they mention on their website that if images are uploaded by 3pm, they will normally be shipped out the same day. Also the payment is very easy - the prints are made on credit, and an invoice is sent along with he prints, with the request to make payment within 14 days.

As I said, I have used a number of services in the Netherlands, but this one by far gives superior quality at reasonable prices......

Bird Photography in Scotland and Northumberland

Cleared for take off......
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

It's been a couple of weeks now since I came back from a camping trip to Scotland and the North of England. The aim behind the trip was to photograph the puffins on the islands along the east coast before they all flew away again for the summer. We had decided to camp primarily as a cost saving exercise, but we hadn't expected the weather to be so incredibly poor as it was.

Campsites along the route were fairly easy to find, but this probably had something to do with the frequent deluges that were making the ground almost uncampable. We started off camping near St Andrews, since the trip we had initially planned to Bass Rock was rained off. A short distance from St Andrews is the port of Anstruther, from where the pleasure cruiser May Princess starts her 8km trip to the island.

Again, due to the poor weather, two of our three planned trips were cancelled, but the third trip provided us with good enough weather to get a couple of good shots. It seems that the puffins are relatively 'tame', and don't seem to be frightened by the boat loads of tourists that are landing at regular intervals, but it is still necessary to keep a distance from them and show them respect. As for most of the remainder of the trip, the Nikon 200-400mm F/4G VR lens was invaluable here, and, when used together with my Gitzo 1348 and Markins M10/Wimberley Sidekick head was adequately supported to give me sharp images.

There are a number of spots on the island where it is possible to get a good position to shoot the birds, but I found keeping away from the crowds helped in getting better shots.

Our next trip was a couple of days later to Bass Rock. This is a trip organised for photographers by the Scottish Seabird Centre, and although rather pricey at around 80 pounds per person does give some very close up views of around 100000 pairs of Northern Gannets that inhabit this otherwise deserted island.

Landing on the island really depends on good weather and the right tides, as the 'dock' is merely a few iron rungs connected to the rock. It is a good idea to rationalise the amount of equipment taken onto the island, as everything needs to be carried to the top of the rock (and Beach Rollys are not welcome here....)



It is not necessary to have a really long telephoto on Bass Rock, as many good shots (especially flight shots) can be obtained with lenses such as the Nikon 70-200mm F/2.8G VR lens, as shown in the shot above. One thing to watch out for though is 'messages from above' as the birds don't seem to be toilet trained..... your equipment and clothing _will_ get covered in white spots however hard you try to avoid it......

The final destination for our group was the Farne and Staple Islands, back over the English border. Both of these islands belong to the National Trust, and it is worth noting that regardless of which tour operator sails you to the island, you will still need to pay a landing fee of around 4.50 pounds to enter each of the islands. Worth considering joining the National Trust if you are staying a couple of days, as this will pay for itself in the long run.

We camped just outside Seahouses, and used Billy Shiels MBE ferries to get us to and from the islands. There is a photographers trip which takes you to Staple Island in the morning, and then onto Inner Farne in the afternoon for around 25 pounds, and this is worth doing if you want to visit both islands. Note that there are no facilities on Staple, and only a basic toilet on Inner Farne, so any food to be consumed needs to be carried over from the main land.



Again, the 200-400mm comes in useful on both of these islands, but nevertheless it is possible to get close to the puffins, especially on Inner Farne where the pathway runs inbetween the puffins' burrows.

In addition to the puffins, Inner Farne is also home to a flock of arctic terns. Note that the terns will attack people as they disembark from the boat and attempt to walk up onto the island. This is because they are nesting either side of the pathway, and wish to protect their young. The peck from the tern can draw blood, so it is a good idea to wear a hat or carry an umbrella (or, as we did, carry your tripod above your head)



The three locations mentioned above definitely give the photographer a number of good opportunities for photographing puffins, terns, guillemots, and shags. With the exception of seasickness tablets and a good pair of walking shoes, there is nothing stopping anyone from taking images such as the ones displayed here.