Pulling the trigger... Nikon D700.

jlykins · Dec 3, 2008

I was happy when I upgraded to my D300 from the D70. I thought the lack of noise was awesome... You made my wife very unhappy Jerry, now she has to hear me whine about wanting a FX...

JerryPH · Dec 3, 2008

I'm sure you can send me a picture of her crying on your shoulder and you consoling her... in FX format one day... lol

sabbath999 · Dec 3, 2008

Darn it, Jerry, you are trying VERY hard to cost me $3K US...

passerby · Dec 3, 2008

sabbath999 said:
Darn it, Jerry, you are trying VERY hard to cost me $3K US...

$$ $ $ $ $ $ $ :cry:

Man, be generous with your D300. The path to heaven is very narrow so I heard, but Australian door is wide open for anything that is free. We are very thankful people too even before the goods arrive. Your sadness is not necessarily bad thing if it makes the other side smiling.

:razz:

JerryPH · Dec 4, 2008

I tested out a few shots at maximum ISO ad then forgot all about them. Well, today I took them out and of course expected the pictures to be unusable. The focus point was the glass at the back, and it came close to nailing the focus on the head.

ISO 25,600, straight from the camera:

(click on the pic for a bigger size to see the real ugly... lol)

It is really harsh and visible, and not something that I would share with a paying client, however, it doesn't seem as intrusive as my D200's ISO 3200 was... with a lot less noise at the luminescence level.

The same picture again, but this time I just applied a hefty amount of noise reduction using Imagenomic's Noiseware Pro:

(click on the pic for a bigger size)

Now, it is still not what I would call "client worthy" as you see a ton of artifacts all over the place... but, one has to remember... ISO 25,600... that is as high as I can get the camera to go and as bad as I can get the noise to get and still pull back into some semblance of a usable picture, which I think it is... very usable. I don't see the great loss in detail vs applying the same amount of NR to a D200/ISO3200 pic.

Now, before people say all this is, is a bright room pic at ISO 25,600, which would NOT show near the same amount of noise... I ask that you look at the EXIF:

Exposure: 0.04 sec (1/25th)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 25600
Lens: Nikkor 70-200 @ 70mm

That's 1/25th... HAND HELD at F/8 and ISO 25,600. The room was dark... very dark (as in past 8:30PM dark). Now, there was one light turned on, but it was from the other room (in the kitchen, this pic was from the dining room), and it was a single 40 watt light that is above our stove in one of those fan/light units (that thing that draws out all the smoke when you burn something on the stove... lol).

Again, I am pretty stunned with what this camera can do... and even when it does "bad", it's not that bad and can be pulled back to what I call a savable state.

This has to be a wedding photographer's dream camera!

passerby · Dec 5, 2008

JerryPH said:
Exposure: 0.04 sec (1/25th)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 25600
Lens: Nikkor 70-200 @ 70mm

That's 1/25th... HAND HELD at F/8 and ISO 25,600. The room was dark... very dark (as in past 8:30PM dark). Now, there was one light turned on, but it was from the other room (in the kitchen, this pic was from the dining room), and it was a single 40 watt light that is above our stove in one of those fan/light units (that thing that draws out all the smoke when you burn something on the stove... lol).

I was tempted to outperform you with my D40 at 3200 f/8 - and I only manage with 1.3 seconds SS :lol:

. No I am not going to spend any money as I promised to myself, until next year. Promise not to be broken.

Anyway thanks for the sample mate. And thanks for small sample instead of 60 mb of Canon :mrgreen:.

Ejazzle · Dec 18, 2008

How akward does it feel? I know the 24-70 on that body has to feel weird. Does the grip help balance it better?

JerryPH · Dec 18, 2008

It is a very heavy combination, but it is oh so perfectly balanced. Slam an EN-EL4a into the grip, an EN-EL3e into the camera and the 24-70 and you are good to go.

I am getting used to the weight, but this is the first camera that can give me a sore neck/back after 4-5 hours use... thats something no other camera ever did to me. I will get used to it, but it will take a few months... lol

Ejazzle · Dec 18, 2008

nice! thats good to hear.

sore neck = have the g/f give you a message. lol

Does the D200 get any love any more?

jlykins · Dec 18, 2008

I was shooting with my buddies D700 today. We were just at our local conservatory, nothing too low light, but man I love that camera. I can't wait to upgrade from my 300.

JerryPH · Dec 18, 2008

Ejazzle said:
nice! thats good to hear.
sore neck = have the g/f give you a message. lol
Does the D200 get any love any more?

Good idea, I'll have her give me a nice long one with a nice warming gel right away... just so that she gets some practice.

The D200 is getting it's love for sure. It is now my backup camera and the camera that my father uses anytime he wants.

JerryPH · Dec 18, 2008

jlykins said:
I was shooting with my buddies D700 today. We were just at our local conservatory, nothing too low light, but man I love that camera. I can't wait to upgrade from my 300.

I took the day off and went to my fav place to shoot... the oratory. Usually I would crank it up to ISO 1600 and F/2.8, but I pushed things a little more today... I upped the aperture to between F/8 and F/22, so anything between 3200 to 25,600 and I so loved the results compared to anything the D200 could ever do.

What were you shooting?