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Author Topic: Michael gets Nikon gear  (Read 21081 times)

Sfleming

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Michael gets Nikon gear
« Reply #20 on: November 27, 2007, 10:15:00 pm »

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I tested the 24-120 (non IS) with charts when it first came out in the last 90s. The resolution was quite good, but what bothered me in those film days was the huge distortion. Yet, I used it as my main lens before switching to Canon, exactly for the same reasons as Michael. About the TS lenses, I heard that they are not in themselves a profitable line for Canon, but that their existence helped quite a few to switch.
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IzatzU QT?  So whatrU shooting these days?

 
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mikeseb

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Michael gets Nikon gear
« Reply #21 on: November 27, 2007, 10:57:20 pm »

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Michael suggests in his front-page note that there's a high-res D3 coming next year, which I have heard rumored, but also denied. Is there any new rumor, or an uber-rumor that dominates all other rumors? Inside information?
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Quite curious about this myself. My D300 arrives tomorrow, if Mr UPS-man is on his game. Thanksgiving screwed up the shipping schedule from Calumet...

I passed (for now) on the D3, since I judged that the D300 would do 90% as well for my purposes, and that the D3's 12.x megapixels--its other fabulous capabilities and FX format notwithstanding--did not represent enough of a resolution jump over my current gear to warrant its serious price premium over the D300. Same calculus I'm sure a lot of Nikon shooters have run thru lately.

If I "knew" with high confidence than an 18+ MP D3? was coming next year, it'd make me feel better about not having first-day-preordered the D3 along with the D300!! This gear envy is a terrible thing!

Michael, what say you? Jump on the rumor train mon frere!
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Christopher

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Michael gets Nikon gear
« Reply #22 on: November 28, 2007, 04:16:44 am »

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Michael, what say you? Jump on the rumor train mon frere!
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There will be a higher res version, but when ? I certainly don't think in the first half of 2008. If Nikon would be able to bring it so soon they would already have anounced it. A announced high res FF camera from Nikon would kill some 1DsMk3 sales, but you can only announce something if its on the way.
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BernardLanguillier

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Michael gets Nikon gear
« Reply #23 on: November 28, 2007, 04:31:56 am »

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There will be a higher res version, but when ? I certainly don't think in the first half of 2008. If Nikon would be able to bring it so soon they would already have anounced it. A announced high res FF camera from Nikon would kill some 1DsMk3 sales, but you can only announce something if its on the way.
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My personnal guess would be around PMA 08.

Cheers,
Bernard

Kevin Gallagher

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Michael gets Nikon gear
« Reply #24 on: November 28, 2007, 06:23:22 am »

At the moment I have the 17-35mm, 50mm 1/4, and 24-120mm VR. I'll expand this as time goes on.

Michael
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 Michael I've got a 600 F4 you can try out.. and an 85 F1.4 which some consider to one of Nikon's sharpest lenses.     Meet you halfway between Toronto & CT
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michael

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Michael gets Nikon gear
« Reply #25 on: November 28, 2007, 07:24:29 am »

A higher res D3 version is conjecture of course. But it's informed conjecture.

Firstly, I have heard about it from two well connected industry sources. This is not my brotherinlaw knows someone's second cousin, but rather people whose creditability is well known to me.

Secondly, it's a no-brainer. Just as Canon uses the same body for the 1D MKIII and the 1Ds MKIII, changing essentially only the chip, the same will be true of Nikon with the D3. Anyone that assumes that the D3 at 12MP is what Nikon is going to hang its hat on against Canon's 21MP camera, just isn't thinking.

Timing is everything, of course. The sooner the better in terms of the competitive marketplace. PMA is just a few months away, and then Photokina in the fall, of course, but that seems too far off.

My guess is that Nikon wants to get the D3 rolling, and work out production kinks. I have no idea what yields are like for Sony on a higher-res FF chip, but I'm sure that's a factor as well. It takes time to get yields up and prices down on big pieces of silicon like this.

Michael
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michael

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Michael gets Nikon gear
« Reply #26 on: November 28, 2007, 07:27:03 am »

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At the moment I have the 17-35mm, 50mm 1/4, and 24-120mm VR. I'll expand this as time goes on.

Michael
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 Michael I've got a 600 F4 you can try out.. and an 85 F1.4 which some consider to one of Nikon's sharpest lenses.     Meet you halfway between Toronto & CT
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Kevin, thanks for the offer. There are many photographers that I know here in Toronto with full Nikon lens arsenals that I can borrow, along with major rental houses. I have my hands full for the moment though just becoming Nikon literate again.

The D300 is enough like my old F4 that it feels like an old friend, but there are some many ways that it's so different than Canon that it's going to take some time to properly get up to speed.

Michael
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Hank

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Michael gets Nikon gear
« Reply #27 on: November 28, 2007, 02:46:35 pm »

Glad to hear you picked up the 24-120 along with the D300.  I'm interested in your reactions to both.

In the long term, I'm hoping you can add your voice and any potential influence to the cry for a pro replacement for the lens.  We use three of them in our business and find, like you, that it has an incredibly useful focal range while being a bit soft.  The variable aperture is also problematic, along with the rather cheap build for hard use.  

We have been hoping that Canon's highly regarded 24-105 f/4 (approximate range-memory fails) would pressure Nikon into a similar release.  Any influence you can add to create a din will be greatly appreciated.
« Last Edit: November 28, 2007, 02:47:42 pm by Hank »
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Jonathan Wienke

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Michael gets Nikon gear
« Reply #28 on: November 28, 2007, 03:22:34 pm »

I'm pleased to see that Nikon is putting some actual pressure on Canon on the high end of the product line. Maybe Canon will finally add a MLU button, and prices will likely drop...
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Kenneth Sky

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Michael gets Nikon gear
« Reply #29 on: November 28, 2007, 05:56:24 pm »

How applicable will the data on the Nikon D300 be to the Sony A700? They have the same sensor but obviously different CPUs and AF sensors. It seems strange that all of the initial previews on the Sony A700 came out 2 months ago and the units have been shipping for over a month and none of the reviewers completed the IQs for publishing. As Michael has said, "Sony remains the elephant in the room"
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BernardLanguillier

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Michael gets Nikon gear
« Reply #30 on: November 28, 2007, 10:29:51 pm »

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It seems strange that all of the initial previews on the Sony A700 came out 2 months ago and the units have been shipping for over a month and none of the reviewers completed the IQs for publishing. As Michael has said, "Sony remains the elephant in the room"
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Numerous reviews of the Sony have been published in the Japanese and European press (Chasseur d'Image and Reponse Photo to cite my favourite 2 publications).

The last I saw was a direct comparison of the Sony vs the 40D in Reponse photo, and the Sony was basically coming out slightly on top overall.

There was also a D300, A700 and D40 review in one of the Japanese magazines this month (probably "Digital camera") and the 40D was overall on top, but some of their conclusions were pretty questionable I thought.

Anyway, it looks like the A700 is a very capable camera.

Cheers,
Bernard

oldcsar

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« Reply #31 on: November 29, 2007, 12:42:59 am »

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How applicable will the data on the Nikon D300 be to the Sony A700? They have the same sensor but obviously different CPUs and AF sensors. It seems strange that all of the initial previews on the Sony A700 came out 2 months ago and the units have been shipping for over a month and none of the reviewers completed the IQs for publishing. As Michael has said, "Sony remains the elephant in the room"
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When you say none of the reviewers reviewed A700 IQ, how hard did you look?

[a href=\"http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Sony_Alpha_DSLR_A700/outdoor_results.shtml]http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Sony_Alp...r_results.shtml[/url]
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luong

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Michael gets Nikon gear
« Reply #32 on: November 29, 2007, 04:39:24 am »

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IzatzU QT?  So whatrU shooting these days?

 
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1Ds2 and 5x7 film. See [a href=\"http://www.terragalleria.com/photography/tech.html]http://www.terragalleria.com/photography/tech.html[/url]
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Tim Gray

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Michael gets Nikon gear
« Reply #33 on: November 30, 2007, 10:32:16 am »

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bjanes

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Michael gets Nikon gear
« Reply #34 on: November 30, 2007, 11:11:52 am »

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Michael suggests in his front-page note that there's a high-res D3 coming next year, which I have heard rumored, but also denied. Is there any new rumor, or an uber-rumor that dominates all other rumors? Inside information?
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A high-res camera is most likely coming and should one wait for it or buy the D3 now?

That would depend on the intended use. As Michael likes to say, "Horses for courses." If you are mainly interested in landscape photography where high resolution is desirable and you are able to use focus bracketing, mirror lockup, and a sturdy tripod, then you might want to wait.

On the other hand if you are doing hand held documentary type work, how much resolution can you get under these conditions? [a href=\"http://www.imx.nl/photo/technique/leica_lenses_and_digital_ne.html]Erwin Puts[/url] states that it is difficult to get 40 lp/mm under these conditions. I don't know how image stabilization would affect these results, but it is mainly useful when one can't use a high shutter speed and it might not affect maximum obtainable resolution, especially in view of the D3's good high ISO performance . The Nyquist of the D3 is 59 lp/mm and in practice you might get 75% of Nyquist or around 44 lp/mm. This is sufficient for this type of work. Michael used the 1Ds MIII on his recent trip, but how much of that resolution was he actually able to use under the shooting conditons? In dim light, it might be better to have used the D3 if it has better high ISO performance as many predict.

Bill
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Leping

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Michael gets Nikon gear
« Reply #35 on: November 30, 2007, 04:42:22 pm »

Studying D300's manual and playing with the LCD in Live Modes made me understand the Nikon's screen magnification settings:

The LCD screen is 640x480 pixels.  With 3:2 image ratio the "1x" display is 640x426.7, so the "Low" magnification of 13x brings to 5547 pixels on the short side, or 194%.  I guess the "13x" is approximate and actually it is 200%.

Follow the same the "Medium" of 20x is 299% and 300% actual, and the "Large" or 27x is 403% and 400% actual.

The D300/D3's 3" LCDs are so fine that at  300% you can barely see pixels if you look real hard, so I program my Multi-selector center to "Medium".  At "Large" settings the pixelation becomes obvious.

With such magnitudes of magnification available it is a joy to manual focus in the Live (Tripod) Mode, and to study things such as lens field curvature.  I have just found amazingly a lot of corner softness are actually from the curvatures.
« Last Edit: November 30, 2007, 04:48:39 pm by LEPING »
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