Posts tagged ‘Nikon’
Love is … on a cold Autumn eve on Lake Zurich
Love is a dark silhouette … invisible without a colourful background.
Pictures shot hand-held in the darkness of a November eve thanks to Nikon D800 plus Nikon f/1.4 50 mm (f/1.6 ISO 800 1/100 sec)
After a long ride, time to wrap up some stats …
It has been a long ride, dear readers, and it is time to wrap up some numbers. From January to October 2013 artborghi published more than one post every two days, which means:
– 173 posts and 1,509 pictures uploaded
On your side, you gave artborghi a warm feedback:
– 492 comments, 371 followers, 43,387 contacts, 299 links (and much more)
… and especially a huge motivation to go on publishing. From now on the scheduling of new posts will change a bit: work pressure and shorter days will not stop artborghi, just slow it down a tiny bit, like when a bear sniffs the next winter approaching …
For the moment, I thank you so much … and stay tuned for the “not to far away” next post!
PS This colorful and slippery painted street is located in Neuchatel, Switzerland.
When you start your journey towards the Mythen … a leap into Schwyzer Alps, Switzerland
When you start your journey towards the Mythen and clouds blind your sight
don’t give up your effort and follow the direction you chose.
If you do not bring the clouds within you, they will not fill the sky for long.
When from still far away you will get a first glimpse of your destination
keep your foot steady and your heart strong, as your journey is still long.
And when you finally reach the Mythen, do not be disappointed that still 1h and 20 minutes separate you from the top
The Mythen gave you this journey, and tired and short of breath you will have learned by then what does it mean.
Click on the pictures (D800, Nikon 16-35 mm f/4, circular polarizer) to magnify and may Constantine Cavafy pardon me for this irreverent citation of his masterpiece.
The Perseids above the Gotthard Pass, Switzerland, 2013.
I reached the tears of Saint Lawrence
Up there on Gotthard pass.
They guided me white and shiny above the road
I drove, a black ribbon between stones and sky.
Up there, in the darkness of the Alps
the tears of Saint Lawrence became mine.
To become yours too, click on the pictures and find them in the original and magnified picture, respectively 1, 2 and 3 falling stars are waiting for you. On the bottom left of the Milky way is Perseus, above is Cassiopeia, in the middle of each picture is the Galaxy of Andromeda (click here for a small map) ! Pictures shot with Nikon D800 mounting a Nikon 16-35 mm f/4.
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.
The artistic side of infrared photography with a 850 nm filter and the Nikon 50 mm f/1.4 G
Enjoy some views of the Botanical Garden of Zurich through the 850 nm infrared filter I recently got.
These pictures were shot without focusing through the IR filter but removing it, focusing and remounting it.
They are quite soft because of the AF system calibrated not for IR light but for visible light…
… nevertheless, these pictures are still giving some thrills, don’t you think?
Click pictures to magnify. Btw, plants reflect IR light, that’s why they are so white…
How good are the several D800 continuous autofocus modes with bird (swallow) shooting?
Click the panel for 100% size or here for more swallow pictures (small insets, full picture)
Shooting swallows is quite a challenge as these birds are fast, small and unpredictable. I tested 3D tracking, single AF point and dynamic area 9 points, just because I wanted to have a couple of pictures enough in focus to crop them 100%.
On my D800 I mounted the 70-200 mm VR-II on a quite cloudy day. Times between 1/1600 and 1/4000 at f/2.8 to /4 trying to avoid high ISO.
So, which continuous autofocus system scored best?
– 3D tracking, which should follow moving shapes and colours?
– Single AF point, the middle AF in this case?
– Dynamic area 9 points, which should keep in focus what’s inside the inner 9 AF points?
Read more…
Nikon D800 left AF issue as May 2013: good news?
The pictures of this post have been sent to Nikon service. They reply me to send my D800 back for service: it would last max 5 working days. I already went through one service. I read online horror stories about 3 or more consecutive services ending tragically, with not a single AF bank at last calibrated.
As I could find a compromise with my D800 and the lenses I own, I do not want to risk. Unless you know of novel (after April 2013) Nikon guidelines for technical services on this D800 AF issue. Any news?
Click on each picture to magnify
Legend
L: left AF; M: middle AF; R: right AF; Lv: Live View; nAF: fine AF tuning value
red star: chosen setup
green point: as good as live view
orange point: acceptable but worse than live view
All picture open at maximum aperture, where the issue is mostly visible.
Pictures shot in different lights but also with (16-35mm) / without (50mm, 70-200mm) the last D800 firmware update (A 1.01, B 1.02): some yellow tint removed from jpeg format?
Barrel distortion of the Nikon 16-35mm f/4G ED VR on D800: picture comparison
When I bought the Nikon 16-35mm f/4 VR I read about the huge barrel distortion coming with it at 16 mm but I was not aware it was so … unnoticeable. Click on the animated gif above (1.1 MB, give it time to load) if the slide show is not running. You will see the original NEF files and the result from the automatic software correction for this lens (click here for more corrected pictures from Rome). Of course it is better after correction, but the distortion is not as disturbing as I thought. Maybe it goes worse with modern glass-and-steel buildings … not my usual subject anyway.
Shoot the Alpine Chough! With a Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF VR II
A Alpine Chough (the bird of these pictures) can fly on average 50 km per hour.
When it flies by a few meters away from your objective with wind on the tail (!), be sure to use > 1/3000 timings.
These are 3 (almost) not blurred pictures out of 20 I shot. Nevertheless, please appreciate (click on pictures to zoom) the visible black on black plumage on the flying bird. To avoid the “full black” crow body I used spot metering instead of the usual average metering.
