Topic: D3x tips and tricks thread (Read 13605 times)

eronald · « **on:** February 03, 2009, 04:30:24 am »

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 ?

BernardLanguillier · « **Reply #1 on:** February 03, 2009, 04:36:03 am »

Quote from: eronald

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

NikosR · « **Reply #2 on:** February 03, 2009, 04:40:29 am »

Quote from: BernardLanguillier

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)

BernardLanguillier · « **Reply #3 on:** February 03, 2009, 05:05:44 am »

Quote from: NikosR

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

eronald · « **Reply #4 on:** February 03, 2009, 05:39:26 pm »

Best method to fine-adjust focus ? I find my 85/1.4 is backfocusing slightly at 20-30 meters.

Edmund

BernardLanguillier · « **Reply #5 on:** February 03, 2009, 10:32:57 pm »

Quote from: eronald

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

Haven't ordered one yet, but my 180mm f2.8 is front focusing a bit and I am considering investing in one.

Cheers,
Bernard

eronald · « **Reply #6 on:** February 04, 2009, 05:24:46 am »

Have you tried the Moiré method ?
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article...adjustment.html

Edmund

Quote from: BernardLanguillier

Are you familiar with this?

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/...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

BernardLanguillier · « **Reply #7 on:** February 04, 2009, 07:20:44 am »

Quote from: eronald

Have you tried the Moiré method ?
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article...adjustment.html

Edmund

Interesting, thanks for the link.

Cheers,
Bernard

Panorama · « **Reply #8 on:** February 04, 2009, 10:13:16 am »

Quote from: eronald

Have you tried the Moiré method ?
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article...adjustment.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?

Kuryan Thomas · « **Reply #9 on:** February 04, 2009, 12:17:03 pm »

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.

douglasf13 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 04, 2009, 01:29:52 pm »

This is a great idea, Edmund. I hope you don't mind if I copy it for Sony fullframe??

eronald · « **Reply #11 on:** February 04, 2009, 01:38:57 pm »

Quote from: douglasf13

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

Dan Wells · « **Reply #12 on:** February 04, 2009, 11:27:54 pm »

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

BernardLanguillier · « **Reply #13 on:** February 06, 2009, 08:24:17 am »

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...

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

eronald · « **Reply #14 on:** February 06, 2009, 12:15:13 pm »

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

Quote from: BernardLanguillier

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

eronald · « **Reply #15 on:** February 06, 2009, 02:36:41 pm »

Quote from: eronald

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

BernardLanguillier · « **Reply #16 on:** February 06, 2009, 04:35:50 pm »

Quote from: eronald

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

BernardLanguillier · « **Reply #17 on:** February 06, 2009, 04:36:59 pm »

Quote from: eronald

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

Dan Wells · « **Reply #18 on:** February 07, 2009, 11:34:18 am »

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

JeffKohn · « **Reply #19 on:** February 07, 2009, 12:59:19 pm »

Quote from: Dan Wells

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.

Author Topic: D3x tips and tricks thread (Read 13605 times)