On Deciding . . . Better 3.0

The combination of the D300 and Capture NX is certainly an inspiration to take more photographs. This image was captured with the 24mm prime which performs very well on the D300. I also added a Domke strap to the camera, the same type that I have on the D80.

So far, I’m not tempted to carry the D80 for it’s lighter weight, but it may be my excitement about the D300 that has relegated the D80 to backup. The images I’m getting from the D300 are way better than anything I’ve seen from the Olympus E-3, which was the alternative choice, so I’m very happy about my Nikon commitment.

The FL-50 Olympus flash is sold on eBay and by Sunday the E-1 and the 14-54mm lens will be gone as well.

Today I turned on Active D-Lighting for the first time and am adjusting to it’s effects. It alters the actual exposure value chosen by the camera, so when you turn it on and off in Capture NX, it’s just the same as turning on and off D-Lighting. So I think that for Aperture use, it will be more just an exposure shift to preserve highlights.

While the D300 images are remarkable, my workflow is completely broken. While a codec for the Nikon RAW format of the D300 has been released for Windows, Apple has not yet released their system level support for these files.

At this point, I import into Aperture as usual, but then I copy the RAW files into a folder on the hard drive where I can browse them with Capture NX. I registered my trial version with the code that came with the D300, so I have a copy of Capture NX to use.

The control point interface of Capture NX works well with my style of post processing. For example in this image, I darkened the foreground dirt area to bring out the white of the grass in the lower 1/3 of the image. I boosted the saturation of the grass at the top right to help define the upper edge of the picture plane. The control point will work on changing the tonality of all of the green leaves. In Photoshop, I’d be doing a wider dodge and burn type maneuver and altering the tone of all of the area less selectively.

Driving again this morning in New Jersey. I took an exit off the Turnpike and let the GPS tell me when I had used up the slack before my meeting. I stopped at an orchard looking desolate in the early light, but a bit later, noticed this odd scoured landscape in front of a housing development. I pulled the car into a side street, ran up a little embankment and grabbed this one shot.

The rendition of the D300 with Capture NX is just extraordinary in a painterly way. Exposure and focusing with everything on auto was probably better than I would ever have done manually.

Technology is finally in the service of art.

OK, it’s not much, but it’s one of the first images from my new Nikon D300. I missed delivery on Friday when I was out with family, so had to stop by FedEx on my way out of town for some business travel. It was too hectic to stop for some real image capture, so I grabbed this just to have something to look at and process.

My impressions so far:

I’m not bothered by the increased weight compared to the D80. It seems a bit longer and more solidly built, but not an impediment to working.

The shutter seems to be better damped so that hand holding at 1/4 sec is more like shooting with the Leica. With a wide lens, camera shake doesn’t seem to be bad at 1/4 to 1/2 second.

The layout is familiar enough that I could start shooting right away. I’ve made a few adjustments to the defaults that were easy matches to the way I have the D80 setup, but there’s more to do on this.

Exposure in matrix mode is absolutely phenomenal. Similar to the D80, it knows what you’re focusing on, so there’s weight given to the “subject”, but there’s more of a compromise in holding the rest of the image. It’s good in camera, but clearly ready for post processing. It’s what I’d expect from a less consumer oriented camera. Still, if the subject is in shadow or dark in tone, the camera will blow out the highlights. This protects the subject’s exposure. Having gotten used to working with the D80’s matrix system I forsee no issues here.

I’m thrilled to have the command wheels working to change exposure even when previewing an image on the LCD. It was my biggest ergonomic issue with the D80.

And that LCD on the back is very nice. I’m used to looking at images on the iPhone and the D300 LCD matches it.

I’ve placed an order for the new D300. I’ve started selling the Olympus E-1 outfit on eBay with the FL-50 flash unit going first.

My reasoning? I just am not that excited about the images I’ve been seeing from the E-1. Over the past year I’ve adapted my vision to the D80, shooting much more with it than I ever did with the E-1.

As a system, Nikon is more attractive to me at this point. I’ll be getting a free Capture NX license with the D300, a $149 that I was going to spend anyway. At first, I tried NX again to get better RAW conversions for Photoshop work. But I’ve absolutely fallen in love with the NX control point interface. It fits the way I work well and provides a simpler path than PS CS3 layers and history brush. It gets me just about everything I’ve been using in Photoshop.

While I’ve considered just sticking with the D80, I really want the 100% viewfinder of the D300. I had it with the Olympus E-1 and have missed it with the D80. There are several ergonomic issues that I have with the D80 which I understand are not problems with the D200/300. For example, I’m forever trying to change exposure on the D80 and instead scrolling through images on the back LCD. The D80 is modal in it’s control wheel usage, violating the idea of one control, one function that I think a camera should have.

I expect to have the first D300 images by the end of the week. I’m not expecting anything substantially different from the D80 in terms of image tone and quality.

It seems we’re in the midst of one of the best fall color seasons in Baltimore that I can remember. I went out today with the D80 and shot with two lenses- the 12-24mm f4 DX and the 105mm f2.8 VR Micro. This image with the 105mm.

For sharpness edge to edge, these are now my go to lenses. While I like shooting with the 24mm and 50mm primes, these two lenses show better contrast on the D80. The range is wide and the lenses are heavy but compact.

My local dealer tells me that the D300’s will be shipping on Wednesday and arriving Friday. The D80 image quality is certainly good enough, but I would like the 100% view and the more pro oriented metering.

I’ve downloaded the demo for Capture NX from Nikon again. Since I have a new laptop since the last download, I get another 30 days with it. As I’ve seriously been considering either the Nikon D300 or Olympus E-3, the RAW conversion is part of the picture.

Somewhere along the line, roundtripping from Aperture to Photoshop became less attractive because of mosaic artifacts. I think it’s the Aperture TIFF converter. Within Aperture, I see no problem at all, but when exported as a TIFF, there is an increase in artifact that is unacceptable.

Since Thom Hogan recommends Capture NX as the best Nikon RAW converter, I thought I might as well give it another try. After converting a half dozen images, I agree that it provides the best conversions I’ve seen. Followup changes in Photoshop also work well so far.

I’m really very happy with the quality I get from the D80, so all things considered I believe I should stay in the Nikon camp. So far, images from the Olympus E-3 don’t look substantially different from any of the other DSLRs available. It seems that testing methodologies must be pretty similar for all of the sensor makers, so with similar technologies available, there’s not much difference between what the sensor provides the software.

I made another short business trip to London last week and took just the Leica M6ttl, the 35mm f2.0 lens and 4 rolls of film, mostly Ilford XP2, the black and white negative film that is processed like a standard color negative film (C41 Process). Processing and scans by National Photo here in Baltimore.

While I was out shooting, I felt uninspired. I was looking for great images and didn’t see any. What I was forgetting, since I’ve been less consistent about shooting, is the tranformative power of the camera. Ordinary scenes, at just the right moment, can be transformed by the emulsion.

I totaled up the cost this time. It works out to $20 a roll. An M8 is about 250 rolls worth at this point. I’ve shot about 20 rolls this year, so I’m ahead of the game on a cost basis.

More importantly, the film/scanning workflow has a different look to it and requires much less post processing than my color digital work. I think I’ll continue working on this Urban Landscape project using the Leica and C41 black and white film for the time being, while the Nikon 80 brings color to the Suburban Landscape project.

I chose to post this image to remind myself that I’m trying to create a landscape aesthetic in the images, getting away from the flat abstracts as formal composition. I want to portray the space and structure, using people in the urban environment when I can.

Flash experiments continue. For this kind of outdoor fill flash, Nikon’s CLS works really well. I independently adjusted ambient with flash illumination until I got this balance. Indoors I don’t have it down yet, preferring to meter ambient at set a manual exposure, then dialing up the flash on the subjects for balance.

OS X 10.5 Leopard arrived this morning. Clean, fast. Time machine has gone to work on it’s first backup. A nice step forward, nothing earthshaking, but definitely recommended.