Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Digital Cameras & Shooting Techniques => Topic started by: eronald on February 03, 2009, 04:30:24 am
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Hi Folks,
I'm creating this thread as a resource for us Nikon D3x users. Feel free to post tips or links to tips.
D3 users are welcome to contribute about camera focus and handling as it's the same body chassis.
Please refrain from tech discussions. It's not about how good the cameras are, it's about actually using them.
Edmund
PS. As a starter, anyone know whether one needs very fast CF cards for the D3x camera (Sandisk Extreme 4) or whether Extreme 3 are fast enough ?
Anyone hit the buffer yet during real shooting ?
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PS. As a starter, anyone know whether one needs very fast CF cards for the D3x camera (Sandisk Extreme 4) or whether Extreme 3 are fast enough ?
Anyone hit the buffer yet during real shooting ?
Good idea for a thread!
I have been using cheap Transcend 32GB 133x cards on the D3x (they sell for 65US$ here in Tokyo...) and have only hit the buffer once while doing a quick high image count panorama shooting.
Other than that, the main difference I saw between the D3x and D3 is in highlight recovery relative to the in camera histogram.
The D3's histogram appears to be showing more exposure than there really is, meaning that there is a very large highlight recovry capability in most raw converters. On the other hand the D3x histogram appears to be closer to the actual saturation status, and the result is less apparent highlight recovery capability, but there is tremendous shadow detail and very low shadow noise at low ISO.
Cheers,
Bernard
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The D3's histogram appears to be showing more exposure than there really is, meaning that there is a very large highlight recovry capability in most raw converters. On the other hand the D3x histogram appears to be closer to the actual saturation status, and the result is less apparent highlight recovery capability, but there is tremendous shadow detail and very low shadow noise at low ISO.
Bernard,
You are not using LR / ACR with the D3 by any chance, not correcting their hidden basepoint exposure 'correction' ? (no idea what LR ACR do with the D3x)
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Bernard,
You are not using LR / ACR with the D3 by any chance, not correcting their hidden basepoint exposure 'correction' ? (no idea what LR ACR do with the D3x)
Thks for the tip, but no I am not. Work mostly with C1 or Raw Developper these days.
Cheers,
Bernard
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Best method to fine-adjust focus ? I find my 85/1.4 is backfocusing slightly at 20-30 meters.
Edmund
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Best method to fine-adjust focus ? I find my 85/1.4 is backfocusing slightly at 20-30 meters.
Are you familiar with this?
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/...lensalign.shtml (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/accessories/lensalign.shtml)
Haven't ordered one yet, but my 180mm f2.8 is front focusing a bit and I am considering investing in one.
Cheers,
Bernard
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Have you tried the Moiré method ?
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article...adjustment.html (http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/cameras/1ds3_af_micoadjustment.html)
Edmund
Are you familiar with this?
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/...lensalign.shtml (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/accessories/lensalign.shtml)
Haven't ordered one yet, but my 180mm f2.8 is front focusing a bit and I am considering investing in one.
Cheers,
Bernard
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Have you tried the Moiré method ?
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article...adjustment.html (http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/cameras/1ds3_af_micoadjustment.html)
Edmund
Interesting, thanks for the link.
Cheers,
Bernard
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Have you tried the Moiré method ?
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article...adjustment.html (http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/cameras/1ds3_af_micoadjustment.html)
Edmund
I'm a long time Canon shooter, but I'm glad you guys are enjoying the D3x. It looks like the best DSLR available right now.
Thanks for the NL link. Looks promising. The only problem is I had my heart set on spending, what is it now, $130 US or something for a few pieces of plastic and a ruler?
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Live View histogram (D3x): is it supposed to look like the histogram that displays after taking the image? In aperture-priority mode, dialing in exposure compensation doesn't seem to affect the Live View histogram very much at all, although the after-shooting histograms do change as I would expect.
This is my first Nikon Live View system; am I doing something wrong? Thanks.
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This is a great idea, Edmund. I hope you don't mind if I copy it for Sony fullframe??
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This is a great idea, Edmund. I hope you don't mind if I copy it for Sony fullframe? That is, assuming there actually ARE Sony FF users on this site.
Well, there are is at least one other Sony FF user here, he's called Michael
Try to keep the PixelPeepers from killing your thread by insisting that it be for *practical* information only
Edmund
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Love the "useful D3x stuff" thread - C1 seems to work really well with this beast (although I miss the file organization capability of Aperture and Lightroom). What are other folks doing for a print workflow? My current best (which is stunningly sharp up to 24x36 inches) is D3x 14 bit NEF ---> Capture 1 (let C1 handle the capture sharpening - I stick pretty close to the defaults, because I'll sharpen again before printing) output in ProPhotoRGB 16bit-----> Photoshop for final adjustments ----->Genuine Fractals 6 to final print size at 600 dpi ------> Pixel Genius output sharpening (Inkjet Glossy fine 480) ----->iPF6100 output plugin straight to the printer at 16bit and 600 dpi. The advantage to working this way is that the print driver never gets to modify the image. It wants 600 dpi at final print size (which may be unique to the Canon plugin - Canon's OS driver is only 300 dpi), and it gets 600 dpi at final print size - all the plugin is doing is piping unmodified data to the printer (except for the profile conversion from ProPhoto to the Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Baryta profile I made). All the parts seem to work well together, and I split the editing between C1 (for most general corrections) and Photoshop (for any local corrections).
-Dan
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I mentioned before that the D3x had to be exposed like slide film, but with a tremendous ability to recover shadows.
I have come up with a quick example to illustrate this. The following scene was capture in Tokyo and features a very high contrast range between the brightly lit white structures on top, and the deep shadow of the left platform.
The first image is a straight conversion from C1 with no modification whatsoever. It appears to be a wasted image...
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3430/3258167562_ae8d234012_o.jpg)
The second image is the result of a Photomatix tone mapping between two C1 conversions, one for the highlights, the second one for the shadows after a very heavy shadow recovery done in C1. Some post-processing was also done in CS4 to try to get a reasonnably natural result. The whole thing took less than 10 minutes and it would of course be possible to do better.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3405/3257337613_003dc09915_o.jpg)
Cheers,
Bernard
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Can something similar be done in-camera with D-lighting ?
I'm spending time in public transportation playing around with the in-camera image editing functions.
Edmund
The second image is the result of a Photomatix tone mapping between two C1 conversions, one for the highlights, the second one for the shadows after a very heavy shadow recovery done in C1. Some post-processing was also done in CS4 to try to get a reasonnably natural result. The whole thing took less than 10 minutes and it would of course be possible to do better.
Cheers,
Bernard
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Can something similar be done in-camera with D-lighting ?
I'm spending time in public transportation playing around with the in-camera image editing functions.
Edmund
Best converter for the D3x? So far I have tried C1 and Raw Developer. C1 is much, much better, which surprised me as RD is usally excellent.
Edmund
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Best converter for the D3x? So far I have tried C1 and Raw Developer. C1 is much, much better, which surprised me as RD is usally excellent.
Intresting, I also like C1 a bit better but I am not seeing such a huge gap. What makes you say that C1 is better?
Cheers,
Bernard
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Can something similar be done in-camera with D-lighting ?
I'm spending time in public transportation playing around with the in-camera image editing functions.
You can get recover shadows pretty well, but then it is hard to get a natural looking image, it looks flat.
Cheers,
Bernard
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It may just be prejudice from before in camera editing tools were so good, but I never use anything like d-lighting, figuring that I can do that better on the computer (which, with four processors and no need to run on batteries, has much more power to devote to the task and can use better algorithms).
-Dan
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It may just be prejudice from before in camera editing tools were so good, but I never use anything like d-lighting, figuring that I can do that better on the computer (which, with four processors and no need to run on batteries, has much more power to devote to the task and can use better algorithms).
-Dan
Not only that, but even on the computer I never rely on a fully automated solution to these types of problems. I'm almost always going to use layer masks, blend modes, varying opacities, etc to get the best results I can. One size doesn't fit all.
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Forget NX2, it takes seconds to redraw on my MacBook Pro. C1 rocks. But the best Raw converter may just be shooting Raw+Jpeg. the camera can convert faster than any computer.
Edmund
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Question deleted as I've found the answers elsewhere on this site and there is no
need to clutter this thread
Mark
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Mark,
You need the DNG 5.3 to convert D3x files.
Available HERE (http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Camera_Raw_5.3)
Rich
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Mark,
You need the DNG 5.3 to convert D3x files.
Available HERE (http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Camera_Raw_5.3)
Rich
Thanks Rick
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any idea if there is a way to update to CR 5.3 in CS3?, this looks like it only works with CS4
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Adrian,
Correct. CS3 will only work with ACR 4.x. So no way.
You need CS4 to use ACR 5.x.
DNG 5.3 will convert the later cameras raw files to work in the earlier versions of ACR(4.x,3.x, etc.).
Rich
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so how would one convert d3x nef files to open if your workflow is bridge-cr-cs3?
could i convert from .nef to .dng through bridge and then open in cr-cs3?
thanks
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so how would one convert d3x nef files to open if your workflow is bridge-cr-cs3?
could i convert from .nef to .dng through bridge and then open in cr-cs3?
thanks
I've been using a Canon Selphy to make on-site polaroids, direct from my fine Nikon camera. Works well, and when the printer grinds to a halt, the camera display even tells you that it's because you need to reload the printer with fresh ink!
Edmund
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I'm adding a link to Ken Rockwell's D3 review DETAILED LINKS AT BOTTOM OF THAT PAGE. (http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d3.htm) Whatever his faults, the guy has clearly used and abused his D3, and the ergonomics of the D3 carry over to the D3x. This may not be of much use to seasoned Nikon shooters, but people who have come over from Canon will get an adaptation boost here. Newbies will find pointers to setting focus (Hint: The big white square actually works), Dlighting, and Auto-ISO.
My D3x is proving more of a challenge to set up than the Canon bodies I used before, because the Canons just needed setting up to single-point focus, with all the Jpeg look stuff irrelevant, while the Nikon looks able to supply some remarkably good in-camera conversions so I'm slowly setting up the Jpeg options. Of course anyone who does sports will want to spend some quality time with the manual and the AF customization controls, but that's a specialty undertaking anyway.
So far, my description of the D3x is still "Just works".
Edmund
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Any of you guys shoot tethered with your D3x into C1?
I have Camera Control Pro 2.
So the best RAW developer is C1,not ACR or NX2?
Don't tell me I have to get C1 again?
Also which version of C1?
Cheers,
Willem.
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Any of you guys shoot tethered with your D3x into C1?
I have Camera Control Pro 2.
So the best RAW developer is C1,not ACR or NX2?
Don't tell me I have to get C1 again?
Also which version of C1?
Cheers,
Willem.
The latest C1 is very nice with the D3x files. Download the trial and see for yourself. It's also *very* fast on my MBP. Although, of course, I'm used to the P45, so 25 MP files are nice and small
Edmund
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Thanks Edmund,
I'll give it a try.
Regards,
Willem.
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Thanks Edmund,
I'll give it a try.
Regards,
Willem.
For those people on a budget, or who like me have reloaded their software on too many computers, and fallen foul of activation, here is link to the Gimp. (http://www.gimp.org/) This can open the D3x files, and has the benefit of being a complete free image processing kit. The problem with the Gimp is that it is still an 8 bit program, so one shouldn't make too big edit excursions. But the Raw converter looks ok, and the main software is certainly good enough for resizing and cropping files for web use.
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For those people on a budget, or who like me have reloaded their software on too many computers, and fallen foul of activation, here is link to the Gimp. (http://www.gimp.org/) This can open the D3x files, and has the benefit of being a complete free image processing kit. The problem with the Gimp is that it is still an 8 bit program, so one shouldn't make too big edit excursions. But the Raw converter looks ok, and the main software is certainly good enough for resizing and cropping files for web use.
Here is one benefit of the GIMP: Support for legacy image formats
I wrote this out from a screen capture of a D3x image.
Edmund
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I've just put up a review of Thom Hogan's "Nikon D3 to Go" booklet on my new D3x Blog (http://nikon-d3x.blogspot.com/)
Edmund