Tag Archives: Photography
D600 Fun
I love photography. It’s no secret, and I love trying new things and playing around with my gear. There is a danger to “chasing gear” where gear becomes the most important thing in photography and the art of the photograph, of composition, lighting and even post production get left by the side of the road – as long as a person has cool gear.
Gear is really one of the least important things. As a camera, cell phones are horrible – when compared to DSLRs, yet there are some incredible pictures taken with the camera that comes with your phone. This proves my point. Truly the best camera is the one you have with you.
The camera that I have with me now however is the Nikon D600. I’ve come to think of it as a the full-frame version of the D90 (a camera I still own and love). It is replacing my D300s, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag on this “upgrade”. The D300s is a Corvette. It’s fast, works great, has a lot of options and is one of the best camera’s in its class – likely the best DX-format camera ever made. The build quality is outstanding. The feel of it in your hand is comforting. I do love it.
The D600 though is more of a Cadillac. It’s probably a better car, but you lose of the flash and zip of the D300s. The build quality is not as impressive – and while I’m sure it will stand up to years of use, it still feels a little on the mainstream side. It loses a lot of bracketing options, but replaces those with better dynamic range. It’s a toss-up for sure, but as soon as you start looking at image quality – there is no contest. The Nikon D600 is in a class of it’s own in that price range.
There will be more images from me shortly, but I thought I’d try and show off a few pictures that I’ve taken as test shots on this camera up to this point. I will be heading out early this week – armed with this camera to a escape in Banff, Alberta. Stay tuned.
Here’s the D600 Test Flickr set I’m working on.
Nikon D4 Launch
If you have a bit of time this morning (January 24), you can head on over to Kelby TV and watch the big unveiling and demo of the new Nikon D4. I’m pretty excited about the technology although I won’t ever be able to afford this. The interesting thing is that that it features a full webserver, Cat 5 network and a lot more.
More info about the D4 of course over at Nikon.
HDR – Video? Yes Indeed.
Online galleries are fully of over saturated HDR pictures that consists more of exposure blending that actual “High Dynamic Range” processing. Still, the effect is pretty interesting and if done properly – doesn’t look horrible and can enhance a photo. The downside is that many people overuse HDR and saturate too much for an unrealistic photo effect. While this is certainly good for illustration purposes – it isn’t always indicative of true “photography” – IMHO.
That being said – video has been left out of the loop – until now. Soviet Montage Productions has posted up some HDR video that they achieved by shooting with two Canon 5D Mk II cameras. In order to shoot the exact same image, they used a beam splitter to send the exact same image to each camera. The end result is pretty interesting.
HDR Video Demonstration Using Two Canon 5D mark II’s from Soviet Montage on Vimeo.
Although the effect on buildings, traffic and scenery looks pretty natural – the effect on people is a little different.
