mboerger's photostream

Just a crazy guy.



After thousands of shots and years of nagging my father to give me his camera, a Pentax SLR, I got a bit bored of the equipment and its abilities. The camera did support auto shutter time and everything else in all manual.

Several years later digital cameras came out and I helped myself to a Kodak DC 4800 as soon as it was affordable. Digital cameras at that time sucked or were absolutely out of reach, so I decided to buy a digital SLR as soon as one came out at an acceptable price. After the first digicam I got a Fuji FP 610 and a Casio EX-Z750, which I still use today - well, on occasion.

A few years later I decided the D80 would be my start into digital SLR. But I was holding George's Nikon D200 which left no other choice than going to the next shop and getting that one.

The Nikon D200 is simply awesome - though the sensor sucks above ISO 200. Hopefully, Nikon one day comes with a Canon 5D-like sensor that goes up to ISO 1600 or even 3200. Maybe the solution is to buy a Fuji S5 Pro instead as it has the D200 body but a damn good sensor. But then the only extra you get is support for HDR by using 14 bit per color per pixel instead the usual 12 like the D200 or the mentioned 5D. So I bought a Nikkor 50/1.4 which is not really good and thus have to wait for a successor of the D200. I also use the Nikon 18-200/VR as my everyday lens, it feels just as the natural compliment to the D200.

In the meantime I bought a Sigma 30/1.4 as that gives a better portrait lens on the D200 with its crop factor of 1.5. Actually the Sigma is much better than the Nikon 50/1.4D (or the 50/1.8D) when comparing their sharpness and light sensitivity. The conclusion obviously was to buy the Nikon 50/1.4 G AF-S or its Sigma 50/1.4 EX DG HSM counter part. Reading test results (for instance on dpreview) revealed that the Sigma is sold as a FX (or in Sigma terms DG) lens but has an insane sharpness dropp off on those cameras. On the pro some people claim it is sharper thatn the new Nikon at 1.4. Though both are sharper than the D3. After all Sigma went off to get rid of vignetting effects at the cost of having to use a 77mm filter and lots of weight. However it looks like they failed to sand and polish the glass correct and finally, all that glass ends up in higher price. Nikon on the other hand set off to deliver a break through. And at least compared to the old crappy D lenses they did. The new one focuses apparently a bit slower then the 1.4D - according to technical reviews even measurable, in real life not to notice. On the contray, the AF is less noise. And then when takin g the shot and looking at the results, the pictures are bright, clear, have a very nice bokeh, are generally biased all over the picture in both brightness and sharpness. And last but not least, the chromatic abbrevations are gone - again in real life shots that is. And I cannot say I got more distortion, in fact to me it lookslike there is less of that. So over all a tantastic lens. This leaves the warning, that this lens is not to be used shooting into the light.

Now finally Nikon went the 'full frame' way and of course I had to buy a Nikon D3. The D3 is just awesome and as expected the low light performance is just unbelievable. You can set your D3 to ISO 1600 always - unless you want a shallow depth of field. And if you want, well you can set the camera to ISO 3200 or even ISO 6400 and still get damn good pictures. It is a bit strange that the D3 does not come with software which turned out to become an issue. And then there is the D3 strap. I had to replace it immediately. It looks nice and expensive but simply is way too wide and not comfortable at all. On the other hand I like the Nikon 50/1.4 much better now. Still every one says the Nikon 50/1.8 is better. So maybe the Sigma 50/1.4 is the portrait lens to go with or I need to try the Nikon 85/1.4 which many people report to be great. Either way it appears the new FX sensor format requires a lens upgrade as some lenses just behave differently because of the changed crop factor, and some other lenses simply do not work as they were made for the smaller DX sensor format. The nice Nikon 18-200/VR (27-300 on FX) everyday lens falls into this category. I bought the Nikon 24-120/VR and am pretty happy so far (compare the two).

Unfortunately it turns out that the investment in DXO was one of the worst things to do ever. In theory DXO would support some of my lenses with the D3 but unfortunately it does not work at all and shows all images as not processable. Complaining also does not result in anything useful. The only time I tried, I got feedback suggesting that I try the newest version which according to the mail I got has a few of my issues fixed. Those idiots didn't even bother to check the version I was reporting. Also do not expect the software to work under windows 64. There is no way at all. They think that their software is such a holy thing that it must be protected by some non working license service that simply is not available for 64 bit systems. But anyway, buying software that is dedicated to high-end cameras, in fact lists what you own - even recognizes the stuff you used to take the shots and then not working at all - that is just ridiculous. Thanks DXO - you're nuts.

And before you run ahead, do not buy Nikon capture NX. Do not even get the CD out of the box. This software is even worse than DXO. Using the user interface is simply impossible.

More on the D3:

The D3 arrived. Part I: Now I need a new lens
The D3 arrived. Part II: Pros and cons
The D3 arrived. Part III: Software, DXO sucks

Equipment:

Nikon D3
Nikon D200

Nikon 50mm f/1.4 G AF-S Nikkor
Nikon 105mm f/2.8 G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor
Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S
Nikon 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 G IF-ED AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED AF-S VR II
Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-20E III
Lensbaby 3G
Sigma 28mm F1.8 EX DG Aspherical Macro
Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM
Tokina 12-24

Nikon SB-800 AF Speedlight
Nikon SC-29 Off-Camera AF TTL Cord
Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece
Nikon DK-19 Rubber Eyecup
Hoya Pro 1 Digital Filter Series (UV)
B&W Slim Line Filters (UV and Polarizer)
Nikon D3 LCD Hood Cap
SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash 4G + 8G + 16G
SanDisk Extreme IV CompactFlash 8G
Lowepro SlingShot 200 AW
Crumpler Karachi Outpost

Casio EX-Z750
SanDisk Ultra II SD 1G

Sony Ericsson K800i
SanDisk Memory Stick Micro (M2) 2GB

Sony Ericsson P1i aka 'S-Phone'
SanDisk Memory Stick Micro (M2) 4GB

Elinchrom Style RX 600 (x2)
Elinchrom EL-Skyport Transmitter
Elinchrom EL Skyport Transceiver RX (x2)

Former equipment:

Nikon 50mm f/1.4 D AF Nikkor
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D AF Nikkor
Tamron 17-50/2.8