Pulling the trigger... Nikon D700.

Ejazzle · Nov 22, 2008

you are soooooo lucky! i love the little gold "fx" on the bottom right corner.

passerby · Nov 23, 2008

So you people in Canada still can afford this thingy? Amazing, I thought you've been gobbled up by the next door almighty slide :lol:

. I hope you still have couple coins left for your daily bread.

Blessed are the poor and the destitute for they shall be hanged with D700.
Blessed are those who sacrificed themselves for the glory of mighty machinery :lol:

Congrats by the way. And pictures please.

JerryPH · Nov 23, 2008

passerby said:
So you people in Canada still can afford this thingy?

Should be no problem. It's all about balance. Gas prices dropped 50% and everything else went up... lol

passerby said:
Congrats by the way. And pictures please.

Coming soon. One of the reasons I can afford little toys like this is I work very hard so play time is sometimes very scarce. As I type this I've been awake for 14 hours and am almost completed a job that entails the training and project management of a government office migration from Novell to Microsoft 2008 servers. It's not very challenging, but it was a nicely rewarding (financially) contract. When I get home in about 5 hours, I am taking myself and my lady out to a nice dinner and then hitting the sack.

notelliot · Nov 23, 2008

JerryPH said:
Should be no problem. It's all about balance. Gas prices dropped 50% and everything else went up... lol

blew my mind to see 89.9 on the signs. I'm also paying 3-4 dollars PER PACK less for cigarettes since I moved to MTL.

PS, I had a 'meeting' with a guy a couple weeks ago who looked A LOT like your avatar, he had a D700 and bought my grip. I almost thought it WAS you until I saw this thread lol.
Congrats on the purchase, hope it treats you well.

JerryPH · Nov 23, 2008

Oh no, it wasn't me for sure. However, if you do want to get together here locally in Montreal, on December 13th at 3:00PM, there is a Montreal Strobist metting. We're getting together at a small local photo studio with several models and a ton of camera/strobist enthusiasts and just have at it both indoors in the studio and likely also outside in some interesting areas close-by.

If you're interested, just join the Flickr Montreal Strobist group, and join the fun!

(PS - Me and the D700 are going to be there for sure

)

PatrickHMS · Nov 23, 2008

WOW! Nice gear!

Unless you paid cash, your CC cardholder must love you. You obviously paid a heap for the camera, and another pile of heap for that AWESOME 24-70mm lens that cost more than any Nikon body I know of below the D300.

rubbertree · Nov 23, 2008

she's there! Congratulations again and have a fun time shooting this weekend (and for many more weekends to come!)
PS. Gas is 79.4 here!

Universal Polymath · Nov 25, 2008

Hey, congrats!

The D700/MB-D10 Battery Pack is my expected Christmas present this year (it'll be an upgrade from the D200 for me). I absolutely cannot wait until Christmas morning!

JerryPH · Nov 25, 2008

Universal Polymath said:
Hey, congrats!

The D700/MB-D10 Battery Pack is my expected Christmas present this year (it'll be an upgrade from the D200 for me). I absolutely cannot wait until Christmas morning!

That's where I upgraded from too. You are in for a treat, let me tell you! Personally I would go nuts knowing that it is coming and not be able to get it sooner... lol

notelliot · Nov 25, 2008

JerryPH said:
Oh no, it wasn't me for sure. However, if you do want to get together here locally in Montreal, on December 13th at 3:00PM, there is a Montreal Strobist metting. We're getting together at a small local photo studio with several models and a ton of camera/strobist enthusiasts and just have at it both indoors in the studio and likely also outside in some interesting areas close-by.

If you're interested, just join the Flickr Montreal Strobist group, and join the fun!

(PS - Me and the D700 are going to be there for sure )

By any chance, is the studio Studio4Fun on rue Lenoir?

sabbath999 · Nov 25, 2008

JerryPH said:
Coming soon. One of the reasons I can afford little toys like this is I work very hard so play time is sometimes very scarce. As I type this I've been awake for 14 hours and am almost completed a job that entails the training and project management of a government office migration from Novell to Microsoft 2008 servers.

Blah blah blah, excuses excuses excuses, let's see those shots brudda!

notelliot · Nov 25, 2008

hah, I joined the group, and it IS Studio4Fun. I can walk there

. I actually just met Hai Au Bui, the project manager, yesterday. Nice guy. Nikon guy

. Just might see you there!

JerryPH · Nov 25, 2008

sabbath999 said:
Blah blah blah, excuses excuses excuses, let's see those shots brudda!

Oh crap... ok, ok... I just emptied out my Thursday schedule so that I can specifically go to the Oratory in Montreal and play with the camera some. Just for you, you see, becuase I am not into this photo thing... lol

I'll have something to show by end of the day on Thursday!

notelliot said:
hah, I joined the group, and it IS Studio4Fun. I can walk there . I actually just met Hai Au Bui, the project manager, yesterday. Nice guy. Nikon guy . Just might see you there!

Drop by, it would be nice to meet ya!

Nikon guy, huh? I like him already. :lol:

I'm quite excited about this event... I heard it may be a little packed and all, but I'm still going to go!

Heck, if I have to, I'll grab a model, head for the nearest Metro somewhere and do a shoot underground... wait, I just thought about something... I thought I was kidding about the Metro thing, but maybe not. I need to talk to a certain lady tonight... I may have something interesting to show, if she is available! :lmao:

Universal Polymath · Nov 25, 2008

JerryPH said:
That's where I upgraded from too. You are in for a treat, let me tell you! Personally I would go nuts knowing that it is coming and not be able to get it sooner... lol

Trust me, I am going nuts. I'm spending a good deal of time every day drooling over reviews and pictures of it.

Glad to hear you're enjoying yours so much! Although hearing things like that will only make me more nuts.

One month to go ...

JerryPH · Nov 25, 2008

Alright, I pretty much just got home a while ago and took 2 shots and without doing ANY processing other than conversion to JPG and uploading to flickr (unless mentioned like in the last pic), here are the results.

Please keep in mind that I have less than 50 pictures experience with the camera at this point (my dad has played with it more than I have... lol), its at 100% factory settings (except for +1/3 EV which I only saw later), and the room was lit by ONLY two 30 watt bulbs and the 32" TV set (that's why our Lhasa Apso looks a touch blue, she was just to the right of the TV!).

The camera was in Aperture Priority Mode and I know the camera can do better... but for now the person behind the lens is lacking some knowledge and practice with it, so don't judge the camera too harshly, its more me than the camera at this point.

Click on any pic below for bigger shots. The 100% crops will be true 100% crops in the larger versions.

With that said:

ISO 3200 shot:
Exposure: 0.033 sec (1/30) - Handheld
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 3200

A 100% Crop of the noisiest section I could find in this pic:

ISO 6400 shot info:
Exposure: 0.067 sec (1/15) - Handheld
Aperture: f/5
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 6400

A 100% Crop of the noisiest section I could find in this pic:

Just for $hits and giggles, I applied about 50% of the amount of noise reduction I would normally put on a pic that came out of my D200 at ISO 1600 and these were the results:

The shots came out a touch underexposed and I know that I could have fixed this in PP, but then they would not be SOOC. Chalk it up to my inexperience with this camera... for now.

More proper low light shots at my favorite place to shoot will come on Thursday, once I get some time to take a breath and stop running around all the time!