The Walimex Fisheye – Review of an excellent lens

Walimex Fisheye Fisheyes are a lot of fun but they belong to the category of lenses that you won’t take out of your camera bag on a daily basis. If overused, the distinct look of the fisheye can easily get on your nerves. It was that paradox that created a bit of an investment problem for me: should I purchase one of the pretty expensive Nikon lenses or is there a cheaper alternative? Research quickly surfaced a solid alternative: the Walimex 8mm F3.5 Fisheye. It had received very decent reviews. It is also sold under the Samyang and Rokinon brands. …

Continue reading

First Nikon D800 HDR – Single RAW file

Nikon D800 HDR The other day I wrote about the Nikon D800 file size. I do have to say that I am pleasantly surprised about who well the huge RAW files handle on my MacAir and the MacMini. Tonight, I decided to do another test: HDR processing on my MacAir. For that purpose, I took a single RAW file that I took a few days ago. I processed that file with five different EV settings (-2, -1, 0, +1, +2) and exported the files to jpeg. Each jpeg is between 5.7MB and 9MB large. The files were processed HDR EFEX …

Continue reading

Nikon D800 impressions – part 2

Nikon D800 impressions. The Nikon D800 is an awesome camera. I am super happy with it so far. It is a major step up from my prior Nikon D300s. Picture quality is unbelievable. Here are some additional impressions after photo number 1500: Photo quality is amazing. Colors look beautiful. When you pull up the photos on a large screen you can immediately tell the difference between the D300s and the D800. Working with the files is totally ok. Even my MacAir 2011 can handle the RAW files ok. Aperture is a bit slower. No big deal. Noise is extremely well …

Continue reading

The Nikon D800 and photo detail

Nikon D800 Detail This is really tough. I have had the D800 for almost a full week but have not yet had time to take it out for a full spin. Hopefully tonight. But I have had time to take a few snapshots here and there. The image quality from the Nikon D800 is unbelievable. Take a look at the two photos in the attached gallery. The first one is the original. The second one is a crop – down from 36MP to 0.6MP. Amazing detail, from my point of view. You can actually see some cigarette buds lying around when …

Continue reading

Nikon D800 file size

D800 File Size There is a big discussion going on about the D800 file size. A 36MP camera does produce HUGE files. Last weekend, I had the opportunity to shoot a few photos and upload them to my two Macs: a 13inch 2011 MacAir (i5, 4GB RAM) and a 2011 iMac (i5, 8GB RAM). I use Aperture as the main tool in my workflow. Here is what I have learned so far. I am comparing my experience with the old D300s: Processing: The D800 file size is heavily influenced by the RAW settings in the camera. The difference between 14bit …

Continue reading
D800

D800 – More tests

The D800 is truly awesome. This morning, I sat down to take a look at some the photos I took last night. Most of these were shot with higher ISOs. Take a look at the crops. The amount of detail in the photos is almost shocking. Click on the images to see the larger version.

Continue reading

Category Archives

Nikon d800