No time!

I got invited from Zaki Silverman to show 30 images in his gallery in London. Sounds all very good to me. I had no time, have no time to care about all this artistic stuff. The industry keeps me too busy. Usually when I had a shooting, the images are at least online a week later. Now I need two month or so. Much too long. No time to care about my friends too, no time for myself. I have to change it. Now!


Desiree

Working with a Nikon D3X

The decision to get a camera with a higher resolution came after clients demanded bigger prints delivered in a shorter time. I was looking for a digital MF camera and got a good offer from my disitributor PPL in Karlsruhe. A Hasselblad H3DII-31 with a 80mm lens for a very good price, but the decision came too late and another photographer grabbed it. It was the last one from this special offer. The other Hasselblads were too expencive, so I looked for a high res DSLR.

The D3X came into my mind, but also I had a look at the Canon 1Ds Mark III which is a very fine camera. It was very easy for me to handle the Canon, because I used them for years. On the other hand, I use a lot of Nikon glass, so it was reasonable to have a closer look at the Nikon Flagship. I went to my dealer and rented a D3X for a week to play around and doing a project with it.
I did some product shots in the studio. After looking at the images on the Chilin 47" screen I was blown away. The detail was amazing, also I loved the quieter shutter on the D3X. It was easy to say, that's the new camera for my daily work.


Sharpness comparison





(Image graphs by courtesy of Yuri Arcurs)

I went to my office with the new package, took a full battery out of my D3 and put it into the D3X. After firing the first frames I was surprised by the fact, that this D3X had the same shutter lag as my D3. Not a good surprise! The rented D3X had a different shutter lag, which was lovely to work with. The D3 shutter lag of 41ms is good for action and sports, but on a D3X which is mainly a studio camera, it was a dead wrong decision from the Nikon engineers. The Canon 1Ds Mark III has a silent shutter mode which is much more comfortable to work with and perfect for handheld shots with a shutterspeed below 1/30 second. Big cudos to Canon, thumbs down for the Nikon engineers in this issue. I don't know if this can be solved in a firmware update, but it would be desirable to choose between different shutter delays.

Have a look at this picture I made from Diana. This was made with my old Canon at ISO 1600, handheld at 1/4 second. This image is very sharp, when you look at it in 100 % magnification. This is impossible to do with the short shutter lag of the Nikon D3X with 41ms. The hefty shutter would give me a blurred image in this conditions. The soft shutter release of the Canon gave me also a nice pressure point, which I miss on the Nikon. The D3X just "bangs" it out like the D3, unfortunately. To be honest, as much as I love the Nikon D3X, the Canon Mark IIIs gives you more "keepers" when handheld. From now on, I have to carry a tripod with me.

Noise. Is it an issue? Yes it is. With the D3X we come back to the old Nikon problem having noise at lower ISO. The Canon 1Ds Mark III surprisingly outclasses the Nikon from ISO 400 up. An ISO 1600 image looks like an ISO 800 image made with a D3X. The D3X has more noise, maybe of the use of a thinner low pass filter. On the other hand, this thinner low pass filter gives you sharper images than the Canon from ISO 100 to 400 . The question is if you really use the D3X often at higher ISO. I use it almost only at base ISO in controlled light and not above 800. When I need ISO behind 1600, I will take the D3 out of the bag, but in this case I'm limited to only 12 Megapixels.

Colours. After years of using Canons, I was very pleased with their skintones when using picture styles and converting the files with Canons homemade software DPP.
Using Photoshop I wasn't happy how Adobe rendered caucasian skintones. Lightroom wasn't good for that too. That's why I used for this DPP only. Also when shooting in the nature Canons picture styles gave me a nice green, brown and reds. It is still not Fuji quality, but close.

Image of Desiree made in Florida with my Canon and 2 hotlights, colour rendering in Canon Digital Photo Professional.



After looking at my first images made from the D300 and D3 back in 2008, I was more than dissapointed. The images looked flat, skintones too reddish, greens too yellow. It was hard to find a way in the middle, unless Nikon delivered some D2X colour styles. I find the colours from the D3X a little bit better than from the others. But if you render the colours in ACR or Lightroom, you need time to fiddle around with the files. I get my second best result with Phase One Pro 4 and the best result with Nikons homemade software Capture NX2. I have a very fast processor and 8GB RAM, so NX is not that slow, but still slower than anything else.

Simona made with a D3X and 14-24mm f2.8, natural sunlight, rendered in Capture NX2.




It is worth waiting until Capture NX2 has finished the images, because they have a very pleasing look, but still no match for skintones made by Canons DPP. Caucasian skintone is not that problem anymore and the yellow cast in the greens can be almost eliminated. The problem which is still there, is the reddish skintone on images made with studiolight. You need to spend time on your files. It is still work to do for Nikon in this issue. I think it is time for a firmware update.
(Update: Lightroom 3 Beta finally renders good skintones from my D3X, but still no mach against the skintones from Canon)


Lenses

D3X with 24-70mm f2.8G ED

What lenses do I use with the Nikons? My main lens is the new 24-70 2.8G ED. It serves me very well and I have any range from full body shots to portraits. Is it sharp? Yes, very sharp compared to my old Canon EF 24-70 2.8. I just love this lens and I recommend it to everyone. The D3X and the 24-70 is a perfect combo.

D3 with 85mm 1.4

My second and often used lens is the old but good 85mm 1.4. This lens is on the market since around 13 years. Sharpness is good at f1.4 - 1.8 and exceptional at f2.0 - f9.0. I don't need to talk about the wonderful bokeh, I think everybody who had a chance to work with this lens knows how it performs. It is solid built and not too heavy.

D3x with 14-24mm f2.8

The 14-24 f2.8G ED lens is another fantastic lens. My copy wasn't aharp at all, so I sent it through my dealer PPL to NIKON service in Germany. I got this lens back in almost 10 days and then it was tack sharp from the center to the corner even at 14 mm, that's what my Sigma 12-24mm on my old Canon never performed. The lens is sturdy and delivers perfect wideangle images. It is free of chromatic aberrations, shows a pleasing colour rendition and contrast.

D3x with 70-200mm f2.8 VR

Well, there is not much to say about this lens. It is my most used lens when it comes to low light portraits at low shutterspeeds when VR is needed. Vignetting is visible when used with a D3/D3X but not really an issue. I was lucky to get one of the last white ones. I don't like the black long lenses at all. Should I ever want the new Nikon 70-200 which comes into the market soon, I have to find somebody who can paint the lens in white. I cannot understand why Nikon stopped making white lenses and delivers only black lenses in the future.




Nikkor 105mm f2.8 Macro. A good lens for the little things in life. I do a lot of close up products, or little animals you don't want to have in the house. I like the IS (VR) thingy for handheld shots.

35mm look with a HD-Camera

With the Nikon D3x and D3, I made a decision against HD video on a DSLR. I wouldn't mind having it, cause I have seen very good movies made with DSLRs. But I don't need it really. Last september I purchased a Sony PMW-EX3 HD Video camera and I'm very happy with it.


Viewfinder of the Sony


What is to do if you want to have a typical 35mm look on videos? Get a 35mm adapter. I was looking around and found at Philip Blooms website the LETUS Extreme. I loved the look and the idea using my Nikon lenses on this adapter. You can find very nice films made with a Letus on Philip Blooms website. I got it from Mitcorp in the UK.