Recently in Bodies Category

The Nikon folks in Swiss have been climbing mountains (literally) to get a D90 video online, and now it's there. Unfortunately it's on YouTube where the compression does little good to anything, but there will most likely be a higher quality version ready soon - if anybody dares host a large file like this.

Canon has had bad experience with Vincent Laforet's D5 MkII video "Reverie", which became so popular that Canon took it down.

The D90 video isn't quite as elaborate in its use of expensive glass, light and models, but still quite convincing. Laforet was scooting about in a helicopter over a big city with a full staff (and most of Canon's expensive lenses). The Nikon D90 was after all carried to the top of the Eiger by mere humans.

A bit frivolous, maybe, but I think I'm entitled to put forward a wish list to Nikon, outlining some of the stuff I'd like to see from them in the coming time. As an enthusiastic Nikonian and a somewhat nerdy gear head, I feel it in my right to represent other photo buffs in wanting even more new stuff.

Nikon has shown extremely good shape in the recent time, raising the bar several times and demonstrating a new and refreshing willingness to go different ways. The D3 and D700's superior "low rez" full frame sensor. The D90's video mode. The rumored MX format in a rangefinder camera.

Based on that I'd like Nikon to give me... eh, us (in no particular order):

OK, I'm at it again. All wound up because of what my favorite rumor smith is currently publishing. As if Nikon hasn't shaken the camera industry enough with the D3/D700 and the (very) video capapble D90 consumer camera.

Nikon has announced that something BIG is on the way and people have been speculating about what that could be. In an ad in the magazine Rangefinder, Nikon let the public know that BIG will happen Monday February the 16th 2009 during the WPPI-conference in Las Vegas. Lots of camera addicts have theorized about a D3x with a 25 megapixels sensor like the one found in Sony's recently announced flagship. This makes good sense, since Sony delivers the sensors for many Nikon DSLR's.

OK, I know the specs and opinions on the new Nikon D90 are spreading like wildfire on the web right now, but the number of people who handled one is still quite limited. I'm one of them. OK, Chase Jarvis had several for a while it seems, but he's Chase. I'm just Martin.

This morning Nikon Denmark presented this new Nikon consumer (maybe more prosumer) DSLR in Copenhagen, and I was invited to join.

I did hear of the Black Rapid strap a while back, but when I searched the web I found no trace of it. That might have been because I searched for Black Rabbit and not Rapid, which is the name of this new camera strap and seems to be exactly what it is: rapid.

I have toyed with many different camera strap systems in my time, and not so few home cooked contraptions - "suspensories" as some of my friends have dubbed them.

But I must admit that the Rapid R-Strap seems pretty neat compared to my own clumsy inventions.

The thing is that I have always used the eyelets on the camera, while this one literally turns things upside down by using either the tripod socket or the D-ring in a quick release plate - on the camera or on the lens tripod foot. It seems to leave the camera very well balanced, and judging from the videos on the inventor Ron Henry's web site, it's quick and easy to use too.

BTW: it's funny how many videos with camera shutter sounds still use the sound of old film cameras, where you can clearly hear the film being wound - click-bzzzzz, click-bzzzz rather than click-click-click. Well I digress...

I went shooting in the rain yesterday- recording an "On Location" podcast about shooting in the rain. And of course it rained... that was the whole idea. Now, rain and cameras probably isn't the best combo, but you can get some really nice pictures when the weather is rough, and there is only one way to get them: get out there!

So I did. Went out in the worst rain we've had all August, and apart from having a fun day shooting, I got some decent pictures - and a wet camera. I shot with my D200 and my 70-200mm f2.8.
Both have "dust and moisture countermeasures" as Nikon puts it, and I'm sure that has saved me lots of times. I usually don't bother much about rain and dirt, and my philosophy is to get that camera out and shoot some images - no matter the weather or the conditions. OK, it has cost me a few point&shoot cameras but (knock on wood) I still haven't sacrificed an SLR to the gods of the elements.

I went shooting again today with the same combination of gear - in great weather by the way - and it all worked like a charm.

As the Olympics roll over the arenas of Beijing and the screens of the world, I have been following a lot of photographer's blogs. I have noticed two things that has made me a happier photographer:

1) An increasing number of professional photographers share their experiences and knowledge through blogs, picture galleries and articles in their respective media. This is a very positive development in the photographic community, where more and more see the value and importance of sharing and the positive effects of telling people what you know.

I have always been envious at the folks carrying around a Canon G9. The G9 is a cool little Point&Shoot camera - almost bordering on a real rangefinger. Nice resolution, great build and a great facility set - including a hot shoe for external flash. And it produces some really nice images.

Nikon buffs can soon get an almost similar camera in the long rumored and just announced P6000. And it seems like a nice camera: GPS, optical VR, hot shoe for accessory flash, manual focus option (but not on the lens), user defined shooting modes, menus like the DSLR's and much more.

"Come on", I hear you say, "There is no such thing as nice noise! Noise is bad and we don't want it!"
And you are right. Noise is bad, and we don't want it. But sometimes noise is inevitable, and something we have to learn to deal with. Sometimes it might even be something you want - to create a special mood. And in that case it really helps if the noise is nice.
I have seen nice noise before - when introduced by myself to obtain a certain effect. Plugins like Alien Skin Exposure and Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro can produce some beautiful and controlled noise to an image, adding an ambiance or feel, which wasn't impossible without noise or grain.

Well, I don't want one so much that I'd go out and pay the dizzying 5,000 US$ it costs - not to mention the current Danish price of some 34,000 DKK, which translates into approximately 7,100 US dollars! Yikes.
My budgets don't stretch that long, and my income from photography don't soar so high - unfortunately. Not to mention the fact that two of the three lenses I use most are DX lenses, and I'd just have to add a 14-24 and 24-70 to the list. Ouch, ouch and triple ouch!