Pulling the trigger... Nikon D700.

potownrob · Nov 25, 2008

nice pics! were those taken with the 24-70?

JerryPH · Nov 25, 2008

Yes, it was the 24-70.
(...and though I do not think much of the pics, very ordinary to say the least... thank-you

)

potownrob · Nov 25, 2008

The choice of what you shot may be somewhat mundane (compared to, say, shooting a hot air balloon race), but the quality of them at such high ISO is amazing.

S2K1 · Nov 26, 2008

Those low noise shots make me rather jealous.

JerryPH · Nov 27, 2008

Ok, I promised a little something before the end of today. I had a blast taking my mother along and doing a little pre-Christmas shopping, getting ready with a few props for the Dec 13 Strobist meet (picked up a few xmas props... lol), having a nice long lunch and spending a couple hours in Montreal's St. Joseph's Oratory.

Those of you who have been there, KNOW how dark this place is. Now go on a very overcast day like today was, and things get even more fun.

Choose how you want to see them (I left the EXIF in the pics for those interested. I averaged between ISO 800 to 6400, most were in the 1600-3200 range becuase thats all it took... damn this camera is SENSITIVE, and the biggest lesson I learned... watch the DOF, its very shallow withe FX camera/lens combos!)

The Flickr set

The Flickr slideshow

I used the 10-20mm Sigma DX lens in DX cropped mode, the FX mode was for the Nikkor 24-70 and a couple Nikkor 85mm F/1.4 shots slipped in. Short time, but I had a lot of fun!

Enjoy!

Ejazzle · Nov 27, 2008

what noise? lol thats amazingly awesome!!

JerryPH · Nov 28, 2008

I'm just waiting to see what Sabbath says... it's all his fault I took Thursday off and had some fun. I also forgot to thank him for the motivation to do it... lol.

DWS · Nov 28, 2008

congrats and :banghead: in the same breath, for I now have that voice inside my head saying Do it, do it, get the D700, you know you must have it!

JerryPH · Nov 28, 2008

DWS said:
congrats and :banghead: in the same breath, for I now have that voice inside my head saying Do it, do it, get the D700, you know you must have it!

Oh! THAT'S where that voice went! I thought I lost it after I ordered mine... thanks for finding it! :lmao: :lol:

potownrob · Nov 28, 2008

Those are amazing, Jerry!! First shot I looked at, saw no noise and figured it was shot at ISO 800. Looked at exif and my jaw dropped when I saw it was taken at 6400!!!! Love the church shots especially!!

JerryPH · Nov 28, 2008

:blushing: The ISO 6400 ones are not SOOC... I have applied noise reduction to them, but it is about 20% of what I would have had to apply to a ISO 1600 picture from the D200 (matter of fact, it is exactly 1/5th the intensity!). Even though, the noise is very low, especially at the luminescence, where on my D200, I would see red and green noise artifacts, there is none of that on the D700 at all, it is very "clean" noise, for lack of a better term. For me to start to see those artifacts, I have to crank it up to ISO 25,600... which I could not find a need to go over 6400 anywhere in that place, literally.

The ISO 3200 and down pics are untouched by noise reduction software but are sharpened and WB balanced. I always set sharpness very low in camera and WB on auto and adjust it later in post.

The low amount of noise this camera generates at higher ISO is incredible. I knew it was good, but not THAT good. I also cannot get over how warm and sharp the shots that come out of this camera show.

That first ISO 6400 shot was taken on a Sigma 10-20mm lens at F/7.1 (hand held), which is a DX lens and that causes the pics to drop from 12MP to 5MP. I was told that DX lens pictures came out really crappy on these FX cameras and I think that is just not true... though, of course I prefer using FX lenses on this camera for best effect, I just don't have a UWA for the D700... yet.