dav.d photography

Posts Tagged ‘nikon’

« Older Entries
6th August 2010

My New Nikon FE Film Camera – Day 337 of 365

written by dav.d

I bought yet another new camera! Well, this one isn’t new – it is ooold. This is the Nikon FE 35mm film camera with a 50mm f/1.8 lens. It is manual focusing and it does have a meter inside so I won’t have to use a lightmeter or another camera to determine aperture and f-stop. It did take me half an hour to figure out how to open the camera so I could put in new film. And I won’t know if the photos and camera work till I develop this 36 exposures of color film. But I am excited!

I found this at Allen’s Camera in Provo. They buy and sell used camera gear. That is where I bought my medium format camera (also a film camera). I wonder if I should buy some old Nikon lenses.

Nikon FE with 50mm f/1.8 lens

Nikon FE with 50mm f/1.8 lens

Related posts:

1 Comment »
Posted in Daily Photograph Project, Film Photography, camera gear | Tags: , ,

31st July 2010

Mmmmm, Macro Lenses

written by dav.d

I am a gadget geek – I love my toys. And macro lenses are just so cool. They can definitely be considered a specialty lens but when you need to get close you need a macro lens. And now that I have a full frame sensor I really needed a macro lens.

This shot was lit with the White Lightning X3200 through an Alien Bee Beauty Dish.

Canon 100mm Macro & Nikon 105mm Macro

Canon 100mm Macro & Nikon 105mm Macro

Related posts:

Leave a Comment »
Posted in camera gear | Tags: , , ,

15th July 2010

What’s inthe Camera Bag – Day 315 of 365

written by dav.d

With the repair of my Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens my gear is complete (for now). Yes, I have some more gear I am saving up for and yes I still am going to be photographing with Canon and Nikon gear. Both have their strengths and both have their weaknesses. So here are my two main camera bags (I like using Think Tank Camera bags).

But, to the gear heads, here you can check out my collection. Although I should have photographed my medium format film camera. Yeah, I’ll admit it, I’m a slacker.

What's in my camera bag? Canon edition

What's in my camera bag? Canon edition

What's in my camera bag? Nikon edition

What's in my camera bag? Nikon edition

Related posts:

Leave a Comment »
Posted in Daily Photograph Project, camera gear | Tags: , , , , ,

14th June 2010

Honda Accord in HDR – Day 284 of 365

written by dav.d

I am just the car photographer lately. I photographed this 2007 Honda Accord for my friend – this is an HDR photograph that I created in Photoshop CS5′s HDRPro. And I used my Nikon D300 with the Nikkor 14-24mm lens. That lens alone is one reason I am keeping my Nikon gear. Canon doesn’t have anything like it.

If you are interested in the 2007 Honda Accord, call my friend Brady at 801.300.8900. He as an advertisement on KSL.com

This has been a great car but I no longer need it. It is the SE model and I have added the outside temperature control to it. Asking $14,900 OBO. Please call with any questions.

Honda Accord in HDR

Honda Accord in HDR

Nikon D300 with Nikkor 14-24mm on a Tripod

Nikon D300 with Nikkor 14-24mm on a Tripod

Related posts:

Leave a Comment »
Posted in Daily Photograph Project | Tags: , , , ,

17th May 2010

Canon vs. Nikon – Day 256 of 365

written by dav.d

I got my Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens back from the shop. I will be testing the lens out to see if Nikon did in fact fix the dang thing. While it has been in the shop I have been renting the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens from borrowlenses.com and I have been loving that lens and loving that lens on the Canon 5D2.

Tomorrow the Canon lens goes back :( and I am saving my dinero so I can purchase my own lens. Renting lenses is cool but sometimes you just need to own it. And the 70-200mm is a workhorse lens for most photographers. Portrait and wedding photographers need that lens (Nikon, Canon, Sony, etc). And hopefully soon I will own the Canon and Nikon versions – always good to have a back up system.

Canon 70-200mm vs Nikon 70-200mm

Canon 70-200mm vs Nikon 70-200mm

The above photograph was heavily edited in Photoshop. I wanted something really contrasty so there are two curves layers, a duplicated layer that suffered a lot of high pass filter to give it an over sharpened look and then I put a black and white adjustment layer on top with the blend mode set to overlay and 5% opacity. The black levels were too dark so I used the Shadow/Highlights adjustment to bring back detail in the shadows. I wonder how this would look on a person.

Related posts:

Leave a Comment »
Posted in Daily Photograph Project, camera gear | Tags: , , , ,

29th April 2010

Selling My Nikon Gear

written by dav.d

I have had a change of heart – I was going through my equipment and realizing that some of the Nikon gear that I own is just amazing and I am stupid to give it up.  And so I am going to continue using both Nikon and Canon gear.  I want to enjoy the best of both camera systems even if that means I have to buy 2 camera bags to hold things.

Related posts:

4 Comments »
Posted in photography | Tags: , , ,

8th April 2010

Full Frame Sensor vs Cropped Sensor – Day 217 of 365

written by dav.d

Ever wonder what people are talking about full frame sensors and digital crop sensors? Wonder why people will constantly say that a 85mm lens is actually a 135mm lens on a cropped sensor? It can be a firestorm of controversy. It boils down to the size of the sensor. And camera people always compare sensors to the size of 35mm film.

To save money and make technology cheaper the first digital sensors used in digital photography were smaller than 35mm film. Physics becomes the name of the game. The only advantage that digital gives the photographer is it appears that a lens is longer than it is. Otherwise you lose wide angle power, there is better low light performance on a larger sensor and more advantages to a full frame sensor.

The next two photos show the way the two kinds of sensor behave at 135mm. The first one is from my full frame camera the Canon 5D Mark II. The second photograph is the digital crop sensor from the Nikon D90. You can see that the full frame sensor almost feels like a bit of a wide angle.

Canon 5D Mark II at 135mm

Canon 5D Mark II at 135mm

Nikon D90 Cropped Sensor at 135mm

Nikon D90 Cropped Sensor at 135mm

I had to zoom out to 82mm on my cropped D90 to achieve the same composition.

Nikon D90 at 82mm

Nikon D90 at 82mm

A side question: do you like the color from the Canon 5D Mark II or the Nikon D90? Or are they too similar?

Related posts:

1 Comment »
Posted in Daily Photograph Project, Digital Photography, camera gear | Tags: , , , ,

28th March 2010

My First Canon HDR

written by dav.d

Ok, I had bad mouthed Canon (on many issues) but one lately has been their inability to bracket automatically up to 9 shots to create HDR. This is hugely important depending on the dynamic range of a scene I want to photograph. If the sun and strong shadows are involved Nikon is the only way to go. However, on more wussy subjects – like these storm clouds the Canon 5D Mark II works just fine.

I would encourage Canon to update the firmware or the software and make it possible to bracket 9 shoots automatically. Yes, I could do it manually but clouds move, people move and I don’t want to miss the shot.

HDR created with my Canon 5D Mark II

HDR created with my Canon 5D Mark II

Related posts:

Leave a Comment »
Posted in High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography, Urban Photography | Tags: , , , ,

« Older Entries