Everything Old Is New Again 2

Last month, I wrote about my purchase of a Nikkor 35mm f/2 (henceforth the 35/2) here.  Given that it’s a pretty spartan lens by today’s standards I wondered how well it would perform.  I gave it a whirl over the holidays and here is my users report (not a review mind you).

Size and Construction

Compared to its Nikkor brethren, the 35/2 is positively diminutive.  Not a pancake, but as close as you’re going to get. It is only 1.7 inches long and 2.5 inches in diameter.  On my D700 it looks tiny.  Add to that the fact that it only weighs 7.2 ounces and I was mighty pleased.  The 35/2 feels solid and well made.  Although the filter thread is plastic, the mount and barrel are metal.  In addition, I like the “old school” look.

Autofocus

The thing I really missed with the Zeiss 35mm was the ability to use the D700’s sophisticated autofocus system. The Zeiss is manual focus only and does not entirely couple with D700’s contact points.  That means no AF and you are limited to A or M mode.  No such problems exist with the Nikkor; despite its age it is fully functional.  Since the Nikkor 35mm f/2 does not have a silent wave motor, I wondered how fast it would be.  The autofocus is driven by the in-camera motor and it's blindingly fast.  Just one full turn of the AF screw focuses the lens from infinity to 3'.  It very rarely hunts, even in low light.  Frankly, its AF is much better than my other two Nikkor's that do feature a silent wave motor.  Note that I do not use the AF assist light.  No worries here.

Image Quality

In the days of digital only a portion of a camera’s image quality is dictated by the lens.  Most of the results you get are a result of the sensor and the onboard processor.  That said, today’s cameras are coming very close to out resolving lenses, so that is a real concern.  I did not look for chromatic aberration or barrel distortion since Lightroom and ACR has a profile for this lens which will correct those problems.  I was concerned about bokeh since I had heard that it was bad.  In my shooting to date I have not noticed any problems, but I want to delve into this a bit more.

I was concerned about sharpness and over all look.  The Zeiss is very sharp, especially if used on a tripod and the files have a “cool quality” that I like.  The new Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 is much warmer than the Zeiss.  Insofar as “look” is concerned, the 35/2 is not nearly as warm as the 50.  Of course, if you are shooting RAW you can get any look you want.

To my eye the 35/2 is razor sharp so I would agree with other reviewers.  Below are a few examples.  These are straight out of the camera, unprocessed in any way.

Un-boxing.  Pardon the mess. 

 

Wow, I can read the fine print! 

 

Christmas Eve outing to our favorite Italian place. 

 

Note the texture of the stucco.

 

Elegant dining.  It was.  Note the old brick wall test. 

 

 

Tack sharp, right down to the paint chips.

Our Christmas tree.

You will see some noise due to the higher ISO.  Note the photographer in the gold ornament.

Conclusion

To my mind the 35/2 is a real winner and has been living on the D700 since it was purchased.  A perfect example of the classic focal length and a steal at under $400.  Highly recommended.

Autofocus In The Dark. What’s Up With That?

Warning: The following post contains an ugly picture which may include some dog poop. The image is not being used to demonstrate the author’s prowess as a photographer; it is merely used to prove a point. 
 
The other night my dog asked to be let out for the umpteenth time. As I went to the glass sliding door to do her bidding, I passed by my D700 sitting on the dining room table. I was seized by a sudden urge to press the shutter a few times. Once I let her out, I grabbed the camera, engaged the onboard flash and stepped out into the night to grab a couple of shots of her making her rounds.

To put what follows in context, the only illumination was a dim table lamp in the next room. The autofocus assist illuminator is always turned off per Tom Hogan's recommendation. Once I stepped outside it was nearly pitch black. To my utter amazement, the 35mm f/2 lens locked focus on every shot and quickly I might note. It only hunted when I tried to fool it. I was dumbfounded, but here is the proof.

Nighttime Rounds, 2012 
 
My conclusion? We all know that the D800 is coming and we all know that we will want one, especially if it’s a bit smaller. We all know that Nikon will market the hell out of the D800 in the wake of the success of the D700. But, before you take the plunge, think about this. If the rumors are true that the D800 will feature a 36 megapixel sensor, get ready to upgrade your system. Lightroom will slow to a crawl and your hard drive is going to fill up fast. I’d suggest one or two terabytes. And, do you really need video? So, get yourself a D700 while you can at a nice price and don‘t look back.

A Very Sad Day

As you have probably heard by now, Eastman Kodak has filed for bankruptcy.  I just felt the need to share this.  Very sad indeed.  Read more here if you can bear it.

Coming Soon, But My Lips Are Sealed

There is an exciting new camera rumored to be coming in March, but since I don’t publish rumors I can’t tell you about it.  Hint:  If you google “Olympus OM D” you might be able to read all about it.  But, you didn’t hear that from me.

This Blog Is Dark

 

Please contact your Representative or Senator by going to this link.

Mirror(less), Mirror(less) On The Wall, Who’s The Fairest Of Them All?

I have been in love with the mirrorless concept since a friend pointed out the announcement of micro 4/3 a few years ago.  I liked the Olympus EP-1 a great deal, but the lack of a viewfinder nixed that one.  The Panasonic GF-1 had the same problem. I tried out a Panasonic GH1 for a weekend, but I returned it.  I didn’t like the DSLR design and feel.  I was looking for something like the EP-1.

And so I kept looking and waiting.  So far I have no regrets.  Both Panasonic and Olympus came out with nice EVFs and others got into the game. With the introduction the other day of the Fujifilm X-Pro1, I think I may have found my camera.  Here’s a brief summary of my take on the mirrorless alternatives we have today.

CX

This 2.7 crop factor sensor is used in the new Nikon 1 series of mirrorless cameras.  It’s somewhere between a compact and micro 4/3.

Nikon V1 

There is really a lot to like about this camera.  Really, I researched.  However, it didn’t generate much excitement at its launch.  I have been hearing more buzz of late. 

Pros: Fast, faster and fastest.  Good built-in EVF and top of the line display.  European gestalt.

Cons:  No built-in flash.  No hot shoe.  Crop factor will eliminate use of most legacy lenses.  Dumbed down operation.

My Decision:  Keep looking. 

Micro 4/3

Micro 4/3 cameras are very attractive due to the number of fine lenses available for them.  Not to mention a plethora of adapters.  Nevertheless, I have always been bothered by the x2 crop factor.  A Leica 35mm wide becomes a 70mm tele.

Olympus EP-3

When this was announced I was pretty excited. 

Pros:  Beautiful to look at and nearly perfect feature set.

Cons:  Aging sensor and plug in EVF.  And then Olympus got themselves in a real mess.

My Decision:  Keep looking.

Panasonic GX-1

A real return to form for Panasonic and also an exciting camera. 

Pros:  Lens availability.  New sensor and stylish good looks.  Feature set.

Cons:  Plug-in EVF. 

My Decision:  Keep looking.

APS-C

To my mind the best compromise for mirrorless is an APS-C size sensor.  Unfortunately, there are not many to choose from.  I dismissed Ricoh’s modular design and the Samsung has no EVF.

Sony NEX-7

The most interesting mirrorless announcement of 2011. 

Pros:  Great resolution and low noise.  Built-in high resolution EVF.  Fast.  Leica M adapters available.  Cons:  Small body, big lenses.  What’s up with that?  Lack of high quality E mount lenses and extremely limited availability.

My Decision:  A possible purchase, but highly unlikely.

Fujifilm X-100

Photographers fell in love with this camera. 

Pros:  Retro design sensibility to the gorgeous hybrid viewfinder. 

Cons: Fixed focal length 35mm lens is just too limiting.

My Decision:  Keep looking.

And that brings me to the Fujifilm X-Pro1.  I’ve done as much preliminary research as I can.  If the X-Pro1 can live up to its specs, I’m in.  I am concerned about the autofocus since nothing much has been said about that.  If the Fujifilm can match the performance of the new Panasonic and Olympus, it should be worth every penny.          

Fujifilm X-Pro1 Announced And Previewed

Earlier today the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and the 18mm F2, 35mm F1.4 and 60mm F2.4 primes were formally announced.  Read more here and here.  More to come.

Back To School: Pixel Dimensions And Resolution

Ed. Note:  Back To School is an occasional series for doddering old fools like me who have forgotten more than we’ll ever know.  There will be no particular structure, just subjects I want to know more about.  Hope you find it helpful.

Recently I was reading Micheal Reichmann’s review of the Sony NEX-7 over on The Luminous Landscape and he talked about down-rezzing its 24 megapixel files to the same size as those from a Leica M9.  He also discussed the noise difference between the NEX-7 and the NEX-5N which has a 16 megapixel sensor.  Since I am considering an NEX-7 and the D800’s is rumored to have 36 megapixels, I got to thinking about down-rezzing those large images in CS5.  That got me confused so I decided to go back to school on the subject.

To begin with, megapixels do not measure a sensor’s size.  Megapixels are a measure of the sensor’s resolving power; it’s resolution.  The dimensions of a digital photo file are expressed in pixels, not inches.  This expression is called the “pixel dimension” and is always W x H.  In order to determine a sensor’s resolution you simply do the multiplication.  For example, an image from a 12.1 megapixel camera like my D700 has a pixel dimension of 4256 x 2832 (4256 x 2832 = 12052997).  The pixel dimension should not be confused with other measures like dots per inch (DPI) which refers to the resolution of a printer or pixels per inch (PPI) which refers to resolution of the printed output of a digital image.  You can find the pixel dimensions for your camera in the owner’s manual.  Look for a page that looks something like this:

So far so good, but the Image Size module in CS5 requires you to enter the new pixel dimension, not the megapixels.  So, if you are going from a 12.1 megapixel image to an 8 megapixel how do you know the pixel dimension of the 8 megapixel image?  As an aside, those in the know do not recommend up-rezzing an image.  Throwing away pixels is preferable to creating them.

There are a couple of resources that will tell you the pixel dimensions of various resolutions.  A very good downloadable megapixel chart up to 16 megapixels can be found here.

In the chart below, I went up to 24 megapixels.

Pixel Dimension	Resolution (in Mega Pixels)
3872 x 2592	10
4256 x 2832	12.1
4920 x 3264	16
5184 x 3546	18.4
6000 x 4000	24

Now, there are two ways to down-rez an image in the Image Size module in CS5.   Here is my original 12 megapixel image.

I want to down-rez to 10 megapixels.  If the Constrain Proportions box is checked I can simply plug in the pixel dimension of either the width or the height from the chart into the Image Size module as shown below and the other value will change accordingly.

If I un-check the Constrain Proportions box I can dictate the pixel dimension for both the width and the height as shown below.

  
Voila, mission accomplished.

The Ying And The Yang

 Two new cameras were announced/leaked today.

First up was the official announcement of the Nikon D4.  Always interesting as it's Nikon’s flagship DSLR, the major differences are a 16 megapixel sensor and upgraded video.  Read about it here and here.

Of more interest to me personally is the announcement of the AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 G.  It features a brand new optical design and at $499 will probably be in my bag this year.  Read more here.

Meanwhile, Fujifilm leaked the X-Pro 1, its mirrorless interchangeable lens camera.  There are some forum posts here. 

Of course this has been picked up by a lot of websites here and here. According to what I could find out the official release is schedule for next Tuesday.

My first impressions?  Regarding the D4, “enthusiasts” (who should not care) will be disappointed.  More cries of:  “I’m switching.”  Pros will be excited.  The X-Pro 1 will sell like hot cakes, assuming it tests well.