The Nikon D800e and ISO
In various reviews, one of the “jaw dropping” features of the Nikon D800e that has been identified is its amazing image quality, not just at ISO200 and 400, but all the way up to ISO 3200. I thought I would put it to the test under conditions that are, for a nature and landscape photographer, somewhat “normal” to ideal. Yesterday morning was one of those perfect early summer mornings with soft lighting and no wind. It would have been nice to have a little more dew, but hey, when it comes to nature, you take what you can get and say “Thank you!”
The photographs were made using a Nikkor 20mm ƒ2.8 AF-D lens mounted on sturdy Manfrotto 055 legs with a heavy duty head. They were exposed using mirror lock-up and an electronic release. They were shot at ƒ22 – typical for landscape work where I want everything from the immediate foreground to the “far hills” in focus. ƒ22 does introduce diffraction issues, but more on that in my next post.
The 100% crops were all taken from the centre of each frame as I am trying to show how the camera performs, not the lens. The 20mm is a great all-around wideangle – a focal length I love for landscapes – but it does have chromatic aberration issues in the corners that need a bit of TLC to correct.
Shown below is a series for each of the ISO200, 800 and 3200 shots. The images have been processed in Lightroom 4.1, all in the same way at default sharpening. The values are shown for each photo in theLR panel at the right of each screen capture. You will see Full image views of each photo plus a view at 100% for the pixel peepers and a view at 50% for the realists. I then applied what I would call “appropriate” sharpening to each image to bring out its best qualities and there is a 100% view of each. Yes, the sharpening is different for each, but that’s what one would expect when working to achieve highest image quality at each ISO.
So, now you can be the judge. How well does the D800e hold up at different ISOs? While you can click on an image and scroll through the gallery one at a time, once you are in the gallery, you can also right-click on an image and select “Open Image in New Window” or “Open Image in New Tab”. That way you can do direct comparisons right in your browser. Alternatively, from within the gallery, you can right-click and choose “Save Image As…” (or whatever the equivalent is in Windows).
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- ISO200 @ 100% – Default Sharpening
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- ISO200 @ 100% – Sharpened
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- ISO200 @ 50%
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- ISO200 – Full view
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- ISO3200 @ 100% – Default Sharpening
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- ISO3200 @ 100% – Sharpened
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- ISO3200 @ 50%
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- ISO3200 – Full View
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- ISO800 @ 100% – Default Sharpening
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- ISO800 @ 100% – Sharpened
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- ISO800 @ 50%
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- ISO800 – Full View
If you’re like me, you just might be somewhat astounded at what the D800e can do at ISO3200. Under ideal conditions (“normal contrast”, properly exposed images with no excessive recovery of lost detail in shadows which generates noise) and with appropriate sharpening, it is possible to achieve truly printable images at high ISO. In this case, “truly printable” includes large format prints as ISO3200 at 50% and even 100% is pretty amazing.
Nikon D800e – OMG!
Between household chores today, I’ve managed to spend some time working with the D800e photographs I made early this morning. “The sound of jaws hitting the floor” is an understatement. The results are fabulous – more fabulous than my Nikkor 20mm lens and more fabulous than the now apparent diffraction at small apertures with the Micro Nikkor 105mm. Oooops! What they’ve said all along is absolutely correct: the D800e will show all the flaws like you’ve never seen them before.
My shooting technique involves sturdy Manfrotto 055 tripod legs with a head heavy-duty enough for my 4×5 wood field camera. I religiously use mirror lock-up and an electronic release. I also expose to the right to drive exposure up into the most valued area of the histogram (so that signal is significantly greater than noise resulting in cleaner images once processed).
This morning was designed for nature photography – beautiful soft light before sunrise and after, with not a breath of wind. I could take my time to look and compose and look again then set up for the exposure. I didn’t use LiveView for focussing this time, but instead made use of the hyperfocal distance markings on the 20mm – the markings limited (up to ƒ11), but still helpful. I should have used LiveView for focussing the milkweed flowers with the 105mm as I notice I am few millimetres out of perfect focus.
Presented below are four photographs from today I’ve spent some time working on. They were processed through Lightroom 4.1 using any and all of the tools necessary to recreate the scenes as I experienced them and wish to portray them. They are not “finished” by any means; no doubt when I re-vist these photographs a week or a month from now, I will look at them differently and make the necessary improvements, but here they are as they exist now. While I’m not the expert in LR as are others like Michael Reichman, Jeff Schewe, et. al., as an LR Instructor at Mohawk College In Hamilton, I think I have a fair command of it. I have made various and best use of adjustments in the Basic Panel (including Gard Filters, Adjustment Brushes and Spot Removal as needed), as well as sharpening in the Detail panel and Lens Corrections built in for the Nikkor 20mm AF-D lens.
Paired with each photograph is a 100% crop of the centre of the frame. This will be useful for those interested in seeing what the D800e is capable of under near ideal conditions. I’ve provided the centre crop only as this is a review of the camera, not the lenses. That being said, the flaws with the 20mm including chromatic aberration towards the corners, become readily apparent. As well, the effects of diffraction begin to appear (as you will see in the milkweed flowers at 100%), but that’s for another post. In the meantime, have a look. If you want to see the photos at maximum size, when in “gallery mode” (dark screen), right-click and choose “Open Image in New Window” or “Open Image in New Tab”.
My Nikon D800e has arrived and…
…I’ve started putting it through its paces. [Many thanks to Lan at Vistek Mississauga for finally getting one of these into my hands!] I don’t think I’m overstating things when I say that, at least for me, this is the dawn of a new era in photography. Sorry for the melodrama, but I’ve been using 4:3s DSLRs since I switched from 35mm and while I can state unequivocally that I made some absolutely wonderful images with them, I always felt just a little hampered with the lack of fine detail I had become used to when shooting 6×7 and 4×5 (and 35mm Velvia). It would appear the D800e might just bridge that IQ gap I have been missing.
This morning I was out before dawn putting the camera through its first paces and am just now sitting on the deck waiting for the images to upload to my computer. As background, I am using a MacBook Pro (mid-2011) 2 GH Intel Core i7 with 8 GB of ram. As the D800e has two card slots, I have put into the CF slot a Lexar Professional 32 GB 400X UDMA card (dedicated for video and overspill) and into the SD slot a Lexar Professional 32 GB 400X SD UHS1 card. I am dedicating my raw images to the SD card since I can easily remove it from the camera and plug it directly into the MacBook Pro (I would prefer to be doing that with the CF card, but I guess that would be asking too much of Apple).
So the images have uploaded and didn’t take as long as I expected given that they are all raw files between 40 and 50 MB in size. The 78 images were uploaded in just a few minutes into Lightroom 4.1. This is partly because I have only Medium size jpeg previews made and 1440 pixel previews and a Standard Preview size of 1440 pixels at Medium quality. While this speeds uploads, it does mean that I wait for full-sized previews to be generated upon zooming for the first time in Lightroom.
Equipment
I set out this morning, as usual, with my complete kit of tripod + electronic remote, polarizing and ND3 filters plus lenses: 20/2.8 AF-D, 28/2.8 AF-D, 50/1.8 AF-D, 105/2.8 Micro AF-D and 300/4 AF-S. They are mostly D lenses because I was able to pick them up used for a great price and just couldn’t justify the extra expense for the AF-S versions when the optics are virtually identical (particularly with the 20mm and 105mm Micro-Nikkor). I hardly ever use a 28 or 50, so my key focal lengths are well-covered with near excellent glass and the 105 AF-D is a much more manageable size compared to the AF-S version. AF might be a bit slower, but for most of my work with that lens I am using MF anyway.
Field Experience – so far, anyway…
I have enjoyed the switch from Olympus to Nikon over the past two months, although I greatly miss having both shadow clipping and highlight clipping show in LCD previews. Olympus would show Shadow clipping as blue and Highlight clipping as red just as Lightroom does – I can never figure out why Nikon does’t do the same except that Highlight clipping is much more important to be aware of than Shadow clipping. Also, I miss being able to program the delay between mirror lock-up and shutter activation. Olympus would allow 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 & 10 seconds; the D800e only allows up to 3sec. so I just set the dial to “Mup” and count my own 4 or 5 seconds – no real problem there as it is identical to how I use my Pentax 67.
Everything seems to be in its place for other settings and I haven’t found the camera to be cramped. One thing I did notice right out of the box was how light the camera felt. I am glad of it not being the “professional” size of a D4 or D3 as I much prefer something that is more “backpack-able” and “portage-able”.
I plan to shoot at the base ISO of 200, unless there is a compelling reason to change, as ISO200 does provide the greatest dynamic range. Typically, I shoot using Aperture-Priority (A-mode) as it is aperture that I wish to control more often than shutter speed. I work on a tripod, so unless the wind is blowing, shutter speed is not usually significant.
I am greatly enjoying the much larger viewfinder experience offered by a full-frame camera. There is space to look around! I make constant use of the digital level projected in the viewfinder and find Nikon’s implementation quite good except for one thing – the markings are in black. If they were at the top (as they are when I shoot vertically) then it’s not too bad as they are more often projected against the sky (for landscapes). But with black markings at the bottom, I found they were difficult to see at times. Depressing the shutter release 1/2-way does give a split-sceond of the “ambient-red” look so I can see where I’m at, but I must admit to finding the implementation of the digital level in the viewfinder less helpful than my experience with the Olympus E-30, although the Nikon seems to be slightly more precise with finer markings.
Breakfast is calling. More to come…
Cheltenham Badlands
Victoria Day holiday Monday started at 4:30am. A quick bowl of cereal was followed by a knock at the door. Kerry Little had arrived and we were on our way to the Cheltenham Badlands. Our goal was to be there before sunrise – no problem.
The day dawned clear with a slight and unexpected wind; the previous two mornings had been so calm. Oh well -not to worry – the rocks certainly won’t blow around!
Cheltenham Badlands are a small and rather unique feature along the Niagara Escarpment of exposed and eroded “red” and “green” Queenston shales. While you won’t find any hoodoos like there are out west (Alberta Badlands, Yoho National Park hoodoos and US Badlands), the colours, textures and contrasts of the undulations and hummocks are wonderful subjects in themselves. I prefer the subtle lighting of early morning before there is direct sunshine on the site, however, with a keen eye, dramatic photos can be made at any time of day and season.
I am still shooting with the D200 loaned to me by Kerry, and used a selection of lenses from both of our gear bags: 20mm, 50mm, 85mm, 105mm, 80-200mm and 300mm. I briefly used Kerry’s D3 to get a sense of the 20mm on a full-frame body – wonderfully amazing – I am so looking forward to working with the incredible perspective provided by a 20mm.
All shots were made on tripod allowing the use of small apertures for great depth-of-field. Shutter speeds ranged from a few seconds to about 1/40th. Most of the raw images were exposed-to-the-right creating distinctly washed out images that retained full detail without the spectre of noise in the shadows. Here is a “before” and “after” sequence, along with the histogram for each, to give you a sense of how this works. After editing the colour version, I went on to create a black-and-white version that I also added some subtle brown/sepia toning to.
Lightroom 4 is truly a marvel to work with. I can be much more precise with the “processing” of each image, allowing me to recreate more precisely what I “saw” in the field. Besides the before-after shots, I’ve included a few other shots from the day.
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- Original “raw” capture
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- Colour edit
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- B&W edit with toning
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- Cheltenham Badlands
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- Light & Shadow
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- Morning Light
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- Weathered Skin
Lightroom 4 is truly a marvel to work with. I can be much more precise with the “processing” of each image, allowing me to recreate more creatively what a “saw” in the field. Here is a selection of other photos from the day:
Nikkor 300mm f/4 AF-S – Amazing!
Unmanipulated 100% view
Twenty-five years ago I owned a 300/4 manual focus for my Nikon FM and FM2. It was a great lens, but as way leads onto to way, my Nikon gear was replaced with Pentax 67 gear. It’s funny, though, how things come full circle…
I took ownership of this new AF-S version of what has always been an amazing lens in the Nikkor line-up and it is just as good now as ever. Here are a few shots made last night in our backyard of our resident Eastern Cottontail. In fact, I have made two screenshots showing two raw files at 100% with no manipulation – both shot on a Nikon D200 I am currently borrowing 9prior to the arrival of the D800e.
Unmanipulated 100% view
Maybe I’m easy to please, but I was more than pleasantly surprised at how sharp these images were. They were shot in evening light at f/4 with shutter speeds of 1/100 and 1/125 using an ISO of 400. I can tell I’m really going to love this lens. The bonus is that on the D800e, it can used full frame as a 300mm or in DX mode as a 450mm – still with a 15MB file size! Here are two images processed from last night’s shoot. Enjoy!
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