The King is Dead long live the King

Yes that's right just 24 hours with the D3s and the D3 seems old hat-LOL well not totally but the D3s takes it up to a new level, The weather in North Carolina is very unseasonable, Very wet,overcast and extremely humid, Days have been dreary to say the least and the afternoons building up to big thunderstorms and heavy rain all the time at 80 degrees plus, Whilst the light was low i decided to give the D3s a little work out, i set up on my back door step, Here i could shoot birds on and near the feeders and also the Squirrels that are very shy due to my dog snapping at their tails at every opportunity he gets, The D3s has a quiet shutter mode which is one big benefit for shy animals, I don't think its as quiet as the Canon version but anything helps over the clack clack clack of its normal sound, As i was some distance from the feeders i put a 1.7x extender on the 600 and set the F stop at 11, This should give reasonable results in good light but would test the D3s more than normal and you should take this into account when viewing the images, Not that i am making excuses as the images are good, So ISO set to 1600 and shutter speeds around 1/200 which is still low for a focal length of 1000mm but with careful use of the shutter button and good long lens technique quite possible to get good results, When shooting at high ISO its critical to get the exposure spot on, By that i mean what you shoot is what you get-no adjusting exposure in photoshop as this will make the grain pop out and become very obvious,

The D3s has a dedicate live view button so with a quick press i can see the live histogram which is the very best friend any photographer can have, So i can see and adjust the histogram quickly without taking an exposure and know that as soon as i take a shot it will be spot on, The D3 had live view with a live histogram but it meant turning a dial and pressing some buttons which was too slow to use in real time, The D3s is instant, Its a technique i used with the Canon 1D MK3 and its good to see that Nikon has listened to their customers and integrated it in the new bodies-its a god send, So here are a few images taken in a hour or two sitting on my door step, The sparrow hawk was a complete surprise and swooped down and tried to grab a bird right in front of me before perching in the tree,
ALL images taken at ISO 1600-NO noise reduction used just basic processing in CS5, No flash used-One of the squirrels is blind in one eye
Click on the images to get a bigger image then just click the back button to bring you back

Now there is always some idiot who gets a new camera which is supposed to be good at high ISO and takes images at ridiculous ISO speeds and it normally involves their pet-So being an idiot here is mine
Firstly the Wife taken late on the first night the D3s arrived in our living room without any lights on-D3s with 70-200 F2.8 VR2 @ F2.8 and ISO 5000
 I left some room above as its normally the background where you see the grain

Without noise reduction

and with a small amount of noise reduction on the background

My dog Alfie at ISO 10000-Yes 10000 without Noise Reduction

and after a small amount of noise reduction on the background

Impressive to say the least-yes of course there is some grain but look at the ISO levels, Even at ISO 10000 with careful processing and a small amount of noise reduction you can have a very usable image, I think the grain at ISO 5000 is about the same as my old 20D at ISO 800, You've gotta love it, Now in the real world of agency acceptance i think ISO 3200 is a reality with this camera  but as always try to keep as close to the base ISO as possible for the very best quality, More to come in the near future on this amazing camera

Dave

Camera Features

Most days i scan through the forums and one thing that stands out is the amount of whinging by photographers, The latest whinging being over camera features, People are still complaining that their cameras have live view and the latest is obviously a movie feature, Now my car has a cigarette lighter but i don't smoke and don't use it but i don't go on forums complaining about it, My camera has the feature to use all the AF points at the same time but i don't use that either, I see one guy (pro) moaning about having live view on his Canon 1D3 and that it makes his camera a point and shoot and that you have to hold the camera at arms length-wrong-if you are going to whinge then at least know what you are on about,The live view on the 1D3 is manual focus so you cant hold it at arms length,Live view has many uses,The main one i have mentioned before being the use of a live histogram where you can set the exposure without having to take a test shot, I don't see any type of photography where this feature isn't a plus, Now having a movie feature on a camera isn't something that i can see myself use but all camera bodies are getting the feature so i guess my next body will have it-i wont whinge about it i just probably wont use it,but i will see how it works as its good to know ALL the features that you have available just incase you need it-remember the image of Concorde in flames-now what if you had movie mode on your body-you can shoot stills at the same time as taking the movie-that could have earned you an awful lot of money

Dave

Camera Features-Liveview

When live view first came out as a feature on a Dslr it was poo pooed by many thinking that it was just there for the point and shoot brigade, It isn't and there is more to it than just being able to see what in front of the lens
Firstly its a great benefit to macro shooters as you can frame the shot then zoom in up to 10 times to focus on the important part of the scene-like a bee's eye then you can finely tune the focusing and take the shot knowing its going to be sharp, Here you can see the focus point and compensation dial


If you want yo use the maximum amount of pixels that your camera has then you don't want to have to start cropping to get straight horizons etc so the Nikon D3 has 2 ways of doing this,Firstly you can show a grid and secondly you can see a virtual horizon like on an airoplane -simple and effective


The main benefit i find with the liveview system is to be able to see a live histogram,Its actually easier to use on the Canon and i have only just found out how to set the D3 up to use it, On the canon once its activated in the menu system just click the 'set' button and live view come on but with the Nikon you have to push a button and turn a dial and then press the 'OK' button and then the 'info' button to scroll through,Sounds time consuming but not too bad once you know how,With the histogram showing you can compensate and see the image either darken or lighten and the histogram will move either left or right in real time and you can then adjust the exposure without actually having to take test shots-great if you have easily spooked animals and birds in front of you, Its a function that i used every time with the Canon 1D3 and something that will be very handy to have on the Nikon, In this image you can see a perfect histogram without clipping at either end and that to get it i have dialled in +1 compensation
Another very handy feature of liveview is for Landscape photographers, If you set the liveview and place a ND Graduated filter in front of the lens you can instantly see the effect that the filter has on the image,If you have the histogram set as well you will see what the effect is on the exposure as well,If you still get blinkies in the sky use a stronger filter-simple,Not all landscape photographers use a filter holder and if you just need to use a ND Grad on its own then this is a good way of seeing the image before you take the shot


As you can see the live view system has evolved into a very effective tool for all kinds of photographers-Dont dismiss it

Dave

From the archives - Fungi

I thought I would share some 'out of season images with you all this week. The Autumn is one of the great seasons for wildlife photographers with fabulous golden light of late afternoons and early mornings, lots of bird migration and for those of us who like some close up work then there are the opportunities for fungi as well.

The 2006 'season' was fantastic with a bumper year that seemed to last for ages, whereas the last two years have been pretty challenging. I am fortunate in that I have a great wood near me with varied coniferous and deciduous habitat.

Fungi compared to other wildlife subjects are actually really easy if you think about it, as they are not going to get up and run away from you, so you as the photographer have the opportunity to control everything. The most difficult part is finding your subjects, but once you have then the results are all down to you.

I took this just over two years ago with my old Canon 1Dmk2N and 100mmf2.8 macro. I have shown a phone pic I took of the set up, using a couple of reflectors and a diffuser to hold back the strong sunlight. Tripod mounted, of course with remote release and manually focussed as all of my fungi shots are.

The latest 'Live View' facilities on the current breed of Canon and Nikon cameras has transformed macro photography for me now. I use the Live View, in conjunction with the histogram information to verify the exposure using M Mode, and then zoom in with the 5X magnification, depress the DOF preview button and then scroll around the main part of the subject to ensure that the subject has exactly the right components sharp. This technique really has taken out a lot of inaccuracies associated with looking through the viewfinder, particularly if the camera is at ground level.

I have only found one drawback using this technique and that is battery life. Using the screen does drain the battery much faster than conventional shooting as you would expect. That said, current battery life on the 1D mk3 is excellent and I am sure it is also on the latest Nikon offerings too.

When setting out to find fungi, early damp mornings have proven to be the most successful although you will have to watch out for the dog walkers, and make sure that you don't scare them if you suddenly get up as they are approaching you, unless you have a warped sense of humour. Another consideration is to make sure that you have permission to access the land you are photographing on.

There are some great resources on the 'net, one of the better ones is Roger's Mushrooms. I have had species confirmed by Roger Phillips - a really helpful guy. I can also thoroughly recommend his great book - see ad below.

This family group of Mycena was takenwith my old Canon 5D and 100mmf2.8 macro.

And finally, this was taken in the October last year, using the 1Dmk3, using the Live View technique. The species is Armilleria Ostoyae or Brown Honey Fungus, and was the species that Roger helped to confirm.

So something a little different from our blogs to date. Many thanks to those who have commented and continue to support the blog. If there are any subjects you want to see covered, then give us a shout on here

Martin