Everglades Chapter of PSA Presentation

January 11, 2013 in Announcements, Presentation

Sigma Corporation of America has made is possible for give image presentations at an event in South Florida this weekend.

Saturday January 12, 2013

Everglades Chapter Photographic Society of America

10-12 am

This show will take place at the Deerfield Country Club, in Deerfield Beach Florida.

For more information see the Everglades PSA site: http://www.evergladespsa.org/

Special thanks to Sigma Corporation of America to make it possible for me to be part of these events.

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/

New York and New Jersey Events

December 12, 2012 in Announcements, Presentation

NY and NJ Events this weekend

Sigma Corporation of America has made is possible for give image presentations at two events in the NY/NJ area this weekend.

Saturday December 15th, 2012

On Saturday from 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. I will be giving a presentation on A Passion for Nature Photography for the Ridgewood Camera Club. Art Morris, Robert O'Toole & Denise Ippolito will each present their unique programs at this event. If you live in the area I hope I will see you there!

Ridgewood Camera Club

Show hours: 10:00 AM To 5:00 PM

Location: Palisades Center Mall. 1000 Palisades Center Dr, West Nyack, NY

The event is in the Adler Room on the 4th floor at the Macy's end of the mall.

For more details: http://www.meetup.com/Ridgewood-Camera-Club-Meetup-Group/

Sunday December 16th, 2012

On Sunday I will be giving 2 presentations at NJ's Largest Camera Show. The first at 10 am and one at 3 pm. This looks like it will be a good sized show with 50+ vendor reps there. If you are able to make it come down and check it out and see my shows.

New Jersey Camera Show

Location: Unique Photo Superstore 123 US Hwy 46 (West) Fairfield, NJ 07004

(973) 377-2007

Show hours:

Friday, DEC 14th 10:00AM - 6:00PM

Saturday, DEC 15th 10:00AM - 6:00PM

Sunday, DEC 16th 10:00AM - 5:00PM

For more info: http://www.uniquephoto.com/njcamerashow

Special thanks to Sigma Corporation of America to make it possible for me to be part of these events.

News Update

March 23, 2012 in Announcements, Bald Eagle, Bald Eagle Workshop, Travel report, Workshops

Bald Eagle calling, Kachemak Bay Alaska. Nikon D700 and Nikon AF-S Nikkor 500mm f/4G ED VR, 1/1250 sec, f/4.0 ISO 320 in Manual mode with Auto ISO at + 2/3 compensation, Jobu Design Jr.3 Gimbal head.

Nikon D4 images and field report coming this week

Fedex should be dropping off my new D4 here in Alaska tomorrow so I should be able to post a few images and a quick field report ASAP. After drooling over Alan Murphy's camera for a short time earlier this week, thanks again Alan, I can't wait to get out in the field and start burning through flash memory with some serious eagle photography. To give you an idea of the opportunities up in Alaska right now I tried counting eagles earlier this evening out with my tour group and decided to give up at 50!

Canon EOS-1DX

Earlier this week Brutus Östling went out with my group for a few days here in Alaska with a Canon EOS-1D X along the new EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II and EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II lenses. The 1DX / 400mm II combo was amazingly light and well balanced in my hands and the new AF array and speed was very impressive. Brutus has nothing but good things to report about the AF and high ISO noise levels of the 1DX. You can read more about Brutus here: http://www.brutusostling.se/english/main.html

New Nikon and Canon Adobe ACR Update

Anyone receiving one of the new Canon or Nikon bodies and using Photoshop should download the new ACR update which covers all the new camera releases including Canon EOS 1D X, 5D Mk III, G1 X, Nikon D4, D800, D800E.

ACR 6.7 download page:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/cameraraw6-7/

It looks like ACR 6.7 has the 2012 process engine, available in the process menu in the camera calibration tab. The 2012 process engine will be standard in CS6/ACR7.

Nikon D4

January 13, 2012 in Announcements, Articles, Gear, Technical

A Wildlife Photographers View of the Nikon D4

Finally after 5 solid years Nikon has announced a successor to the D3. From a wildlife photographer's perspective the the D4 looks impressive, and most importantly it looks like Nikon seems to have made an extensive series of small improvements and not a lot of big changes for still photographers. In other words it looks like they did not make any huge mistakes as Canon has done over the last few years with their pro cameras. Thankfully Nikon has aimed for it's professional user-base and tried to improve the D3S which was probably one of the best, if not the best DSLR ever made.

Upgrades

Note: I have not had a chance to use the camera yet so all of this info is based on Nikon supplied info. If you would like to find out more of see Nikon's brochure see the bottom of this post for links.

Some of the more important D4 photo shooting specs are a new higher-resolution 16.2MP full-frame CMOS sensor and the ability to shoot at 10 frames per second with AF. Most importantly the continuous shooting ability has been increased from 43 shots with the D3S to 97 NEF on a CF card and 105 NEF files with the new XQD card. Limited RAW file continuous shooting capability has always been a problem for action photographers since the first DSLR.

Nikon reports that the new Advanced Multi-CAM 3500FX AF system in the D4 has improved low light ability. A new 1005 pixel AE metering sensor has been replaced a new design with 91,000 pixels. The 3D tracking performance of this new color matrix metering has reportedly been dramatically improved. This is huge since I feel that the current Nikon AF system is the best AF system I have ever used. It is comforting to see that Nikon has confirmed autofocus at f8 so super-telephoto NIKKOR users can use 1.7X and 2.0X teleconverters. Nikon has always had this capability on pro and pro-sumer cameras but new cameras like the Canon EOS-1DX have dropped this capability. This is a very important issue for a lot of people including me.

The D4 a lot of new interesting capabilities with the new WT-5 Wireless Transmitter. This will allow the user to log into your camera with a laptop, tablet or smartphone and will have access to a camera control panel and live view feed with a standard web browser.

The Real Challenge

Image quality is really most important and I think it is the D4's biggest challenge. I feel that the Nikon D3S is the closest thing to the perfect camera on the market right now. Nikon promises that the D4 will offer even better image quality and even better low light performance. The D3S low light high ISO performance was almost unbelievable. For an example of what kind of file the D3S can produce, look at the image below.

This is the kind of image quality the D4 has to beat. The image made at an astounding 25,600 ISO is almost completely noise free. For the record no noise reduction or blurring has been applied, yes the D3S is that good!

I would be surprised if the D4 will be able to surpass the IQ of the D3S at high ISO but if it can at least match it the D4 will be worth the 3 year wait.

Things Missing From the D4

Enough resolution to make the D4 the first true dual mode camera. Rumors have been circulation for years that the D4 would offer high full frame resolution and a 12-14 MP 1.5x crop mode with a higher frame rate. This would be the ultimate camera for action and outdoor photographers. Full frame and a faster 1.5x mode when you need extra speed and reach. The D4 offers more resolution but it looks like it will only provide about 6-7 MP in crop mode. Maybe next time? D800 maybe?

No removable viewfinder, I still miss this feature from the film SLR pro camera era.

No built in incident meter.

No removable upgradable sensor.

No removable low pass filter.

No built in RAID SSD hard drive with thunderbolt connector for downloading.

What I Do Not Like About the D4

Nikon made a mistake dropping the AF-Mode selector on the back of the camera and replacing it with the the same AF mode / AF manual mode combination switch from the D7000. All of the online reviews I have read claim that this change is an improvement, for me its a bad move for photographers. Nikon went from a brilliant AF-Mode switch that only took a single finger to operate without even looking. The D4 / D7000 design uses an outer collar that rotates to select auto or manual focus, and selects the AF mode when the center of the selector is pressed while the command dial is rotated. Honestly almost all D7000 owners I have met dont even know how to use the combo switch. I don't even have my D4 ordered yet but I already miss old style AF-Mode switch.

At least they didn't touch the AF-On button!

D4 Links

Nikon D4 brochure link:

http://www.nikonusa.com/en_US/o/QD8q_b3vH8Re-n_CPUtpjBl-qbE/PDF/D4_brochure.pdf

More Nikon D4 info:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/nikon-d4/nikon-d4A.HTM

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-11673-12259

Welcome

March 06, 2010 in Announcements

Hello and welcome to the new site.

This is where you will now be able to find the latest up to date information and news on my workshops, shows, product releases and presentations. Also I will post new images, tips, techniques, stories, and interviews with friends and participants. I’ll try to make this blog a little more interesting than reading your camera’s user manual!

Please bookmark this blog, email to a friend/colleague, or subscribe to the RSS feed. You can subscribe by using the button in the menu at the top of each page, it is the one on the right labeled subscribe. Once you hover over the button you will see your options including the option to subscribe with email updates.

So, there you have it, the introduction to my new site. If you have questions or comments, please ask. I’m listening, feedback is appreciated and encouraged. Please let me know what you think and be sure to share any ideas or constructive criticism. Also let me know what you want to see posted in the future. You can send me an email or leave a comment below. Thanks.