How to feel (the) blue without the need of a tripod: the Nikon 16-35 mm f/4 VR
The long awaited Summer painted the city of Zurich with its finest blue.
Can you feel the whispering of the couples walking in the streets of the old town?
Do you hear the chatting of the restaurant guests from the outdoor tables?
People and buildings and sky blend in these nights of forgotten dreams.
The most beautiful time of the year, the longest blue nights did not come unseen:
suck all the marrow out of these nights with greed.
And in case you are just walking around with your camera but not with your tripod, the Nikon 16-35 mm f/4 VR on my D800 made an excellent job. Pictures all shot hand held with times down to 1/3 sec (!) Click to open them full size in a new tab.
1/3 sec seems like a long time for handheld images of such beautiful clarity with an f4 lens. Is it your nerves of steel that held it so well, or extraordinary image stabilization? OR, a post processing algorithm of which I’m unfamiliar???? None the less, these are beautiful images.M
I was as surprised as you, as the longest timing I could reach with my Canon 24-70 IS was 1/10 sec.
The EXIF info from the last 2 pictures say: ISO 250, 0.77 sec f/4 and ISO 400 1 sec f/4 … but for the latter my elbows were placed on a fence.
So long timings I can use only with landscapes, not with portraits where I have more difficulties in balancing the camera. A coffee more would also make it impossible 🙂 Indeed, an algorithm would help shooting less pictures of the same subject hoping the camera was enough stable. Let’s say that 1 out of 4 of these pictures was sharp enough to be published.
So, I would conclude the VR of this lens is very good: as I read before buying it, the VR of this lens fully compensates the not exciting f/4
Thanks for asking!
These are beautiful shots! Even more impressive that it’s hand held. Lovely!
Indeed, I did not have the tripod with me and I had no time to go home to pick it up. Fences for elbows and walls for the back do their jobs when tripods are missing. But, for sure the VR of this lens made the difference.
Last but not least, the MirroUP option possibly reduced the vibration at the moment of shooting and helped to find a good timing for keeping the breath and freeze.
You have an awesome eye! Zurich looks absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sparking my imagination!
Cheers
Jim
In three sentences you put the two best congratulations a photographer could think of. Thank you very much Jim!
Richly deserved!
Cheers
Jim