Paul

Nikon 1 V1 – First observations

Jan 202012

The Dragon Departs
I have intentionally ignored all reviews of the Nikon V1 so that I could give an unbiased opinion of this camera. Of course, I rented it from Lens Rentals. It arrived on Friday, January 20th, 2012. It came with;

1 – Nikon V1 body (crop factor 2.7)
1 – Nikkor 10 – 30 mm zoom (27mm – 81mm 35mm equiv)
1 – Battery
1 – Charger
0 – SD card

All photos, for the next 6 days, will be taken with this camera. I plan to put it through its paces.

The first thing that I noticed about the camera is the size. It fits into my palm easily. The body, by itself weighs in around 294 grams. Pretty lightweight. Add the lens, which adds another 113 g, and you have a total weight equivalent to the Canon G12. By the time you add the battery, it weighs just a tad more.

Fly by wire.
Another thing that I noticed, is that this camera is almost completely, fly-by-wire. That is, there are few mechanical controls on the outside of the camera save for 3 buttons on the top: On/Off, shutter release, and video camera record button.

On the back you’ll find the mode selector, having 4 modes: Movie, Still pictures, Smart still pictures, and …. Also, there are a few other buttons alloying you to change Auto focus mode, lock exposure and focus, show the menu, delete a photos, and change what information shows on the rear display.

Any changes to mode, Aperture, Shutter, Program, or Manual, have to be done through the menus. Fortunately, the menus are only one level deep and everything is easy to find. The first thing that I did was turn off the sound and the AF assist light. The menus are very intuitive and familiar, so it was easy to do.

Shutters:
The camera has a choice of 3 shutter modes: Mechanical, Electronic, and Electronic (hi), offering shutter speeds up to 60 fps. However, switching to the ‘hi’ mode puts the camera automatically into auto mode and it cannot be changed. You have to let the camera make all of the decisions.

Format:
The format is 3:2 in standard camera mode and 16:9 in movie mode. There is no option to change this.

Auto ISO:
The camera can be shot from 100 – 6400 ISO. Auto ISO can be grouped. There are a few ranges to selected from 100-400, 100-800, and 100-1600; however, you may select your own range, giving a bottom and a top number that the camera may operate within.

Viewfinder:
I’m actually starting to get used to looking at the back of cameras, but still like a viewfinder. When I looked through the viewfinder of the VI, I felt right at home. Glass! Nice. Then I noticed something, there was electronic info around the edges and on the screen there was a focus reticle. Huh? Nope. Not glass, and Electronic Viewfinder, or EVF. Wow! It is impressive. Very clear and looks almost like glass.

Nikon borrowed a trick from “The Mind of Minolta”, too. The EVF only comes on when you put your eye to the viewfinder and the LCD on the back of the camera turns off. My Minolta DiMage A1 had this handy feature. I used it a lot. I rarely looked at the monitor on the back of the camera.

After experimenting with white balance, I can see that the viewfinder shows what your exposure will look like, as well. It’s a very nice display. In panning quickly from side to side, I can see that it has a very slight lag if you pan quickly, but it’s nothing that would stop me from using the camera.

Yesterday, I shot 1500+ shots with this camera. I was excited to try out the electronic shutter to see how it worked. In a word, it works very well. It’s amazing to see a camera peel of 30 frames per second; however, it would tend to ‘freeze’ periodically when, I suspect, the buffer filled up. So, as a not-so-serious sports camera, it would work well. It’d be great for doing any kind of well-lit sports; however, with the kit lens, the 10 – 30 mm, f/3.5 – f/5.6, it is a little slow for inside work. I had to adjust my expectations and instead of getting crisp still shots, I had to accept some motion, or in some case, use the motion and low shutter speeds to my advantage by panning and following the action or allowing it to flow, such as the lead photograph: The Dragon Departs.

As mentioned, the sensor is very small and it is crammed with 12 million pixels, so anything above about 200 starts to get noisy; however, for the sake of argument, all of the photos here were taken at ISO 3200. I didn’t try 6400 yet. I’ll save that for night shots and get back to you on it. You can even see the noise in this photo of Matt (upside down) and Mike. It is noticeable, BUT, it beats the heck out of missing the shot.

Certainly, the V1 is no replacement for the D300, and I most certainly missed my D300 during this event, but I’m glad that I had the V1 with me. I wouldn’t have been able to get these shots with the M9, or if I did, they would be few and far between. The S90 would have had much luck either, I don’t think. Again, hit and miss, but with a choice between 10, 30, or 60 fps, I was assured to get some keepers.

Canon G12 vs S90 impressions

Photography 11 Responses »

Jan 192012

Macro mode
A number of you have Canon G12s and I was curious about the camera, so I rented one. My primary reason for renting one was to let Debra try it out. She has a smaller camera, a few years old, and wanted to see what a more advanced camera might offer her. After she finished with it, I got to play with it for a few days. Today, it goes back to LensRentals.com. This is not a review, merely some impressions that I had while using it.

What’s the same?
The one thing that I noticed about the camera was that, from what I could tell, it was just a bigger S90, with controls in different places. This made it very easy to use as I was familiar with the meaning system and, or the most part, where things were located on the camera. I was able to operate the camera flawlessly … well, almost. The front ring is there. The screen size is about the same.

What’s different?
Ergonomically, the G12 feels better in my hands. Though Canon still doesn’t have the same talents as Nikon, as far as ergonomics go, it felt better. There’s a grip on the front, a thumb rest on the back, and some things are well thought out. As Debra mentioned, I don’t feel like I’m going to drop the camera, which is how I feel most times when I pick up the S90 and why I always use the strap around my wrist.

I did, however, initially have trouble. My thumb and the AE lock button kept getting together. It was rather annoying. Over the few days that I used the camera, I had to always be aware of the position of my thumb so that I didn’t hit that button unless I wanted to.

Another control that I kept hitting was the Function Set button. It is raised above the surface on a small platform. It resided directly at the base of my thumb. If I adjusted my hand a bit, my thumb kept hitting the button and bringing up some mode that I didn’t want. So, I had to be aware of my hand position. This was distracting.

I like the slightly longer zoom range, 28-135 vs 28-105, though I would really love something like 28 – 200, but we can’t have everything.

The viewfinder was interesting, but not useful. It does have a diopter adjustment, but no information inside. It might be somewhat useful for framing, but after looking through it a couple of times, I pretty much abandoned it in favor of the rear LCD.

The rear LCD swivel idea is nice, but I found that, in practice, I didn’t use it except to flip it around and place it flat against the camera, just like the S90 or an other P&S that I’ve seen. I guess that it could be useful, but I’ve gotten use to not having one so, not a selling point.

I did really like the ISO dial on the top as well as the exposure compensation dial, which I did not use. I prefer exposure lock and recomposing. It’s faster than messing with that dial, but it was a good idea to put LEDs there to be able to see in dimly lit conditions.

Of course, being larger, it’s quite a bit heavier than the S90, twice as much actually: 396g vs 197g and you can really feel it. I had it in the pocket of my windbreaker and there was a noticeable drag weight there. Also, it’s big enough that it didn’t fit into my pants pockets so well, unless I was wearing cargo pants. Then, again, the weight on one side is noticeable.

I had no complaints whatsoever on the picture quality. They were pretty the much the same as the S90. Of course, the G12 has better video capabilities than the S90, but my iPhone incredible HD video capabilities and it is rare that I use video.

Overall, I enjoyed using the camera and can see why those of you who have them enjoy it. It is a great camera. However, I didn’t see it, necessarily, as an upgrade to the S90, just a different S90, or perhaps the S90 is just a smaller G12.

Up next, I have a Nikon 1 – V1 on the way. This weekend is Chinese New Year’s festival at The Peaceful Dragon. I’m really curious about the ability to do 60 fps with an electronic shutter as well as 400 fps slow motion video. The camera arrives tomorrow so I’m going to have to immerse myself in it quickly so I can get some good use out of it on Saturday … since my D300 is STILL in NY at Nikon’s repair facility waiting on parts.

The journalist!

Photography 7 Responses »

Jan 182012

Wow! A full 60% of my last few posts, 3/5, have included my photo. Narcissism? Inflated ego? Nah. I just have a few that I liked that Debra took of me. Usually, as you know, I’m on the other side of the camera.

I read an excellent post by Ken the other day, Does Style Change? And, as am I wont to do, I started thinking about my personal photography, such as it is today. Sometimes, when I look at the work of others who are doing fantastic landscape photos (Mark), exceptional equine photos (Anita), or beautiful photography on historic locations (Earl), I think: Wow! They really know what they are doing and know what they like! I’m all over the frickin board!!!

This is not to single out anyone in particular and exclude others. Those were just some names that popped into my head. There are many others, to be sure. To throw one more in the mix, I just love Tom Dills eye for architecture. We shot side by side, and this is always interesting, at the same location and I was impressed by what he got. I didn’t ‘see’ any of the same stuff.

So, back to Ken’s post: As I read it, I thought of my style and I’ve come to no conclusion. I’m still not sure what style is, truthfully. Perhaps it is your personal way of shooting/portraying your chosen subject. It seems to defy definition. In cruising back through my blog, looking at my photos, I see some that I think are pretty impressive, others, not so much. It’s the nature of the game, I suppose.

Regarding subjects: At one point, I fancied myself as a landscape/nature photographer and between 2004, the beginning of this blog, and about 2007, perhaps 2008, most of my photos portrayed that thought. Around 2008, my tastes started to drift more towards people, then events, now it seems to encompass everything. LOL

I’ve become The Journalist and I like it. I had fantasies of becoming a newspaper photographer when I first started shooting, among other types, too. Just this week, I’ve been asked a couple of times for photos from last year’s Peaceful Dragon events. In going back through the photos, I realized that I was at nearly every event and no matter what they asked for, I could provide it. It’s a good thing that I read The DAM Book. It gave me some good ideas for keeping things where I could find them.

As a final note, a photo of mine was published the other day in The Lake Wylie Pilot. So, in retrospect, I guess that I am a journalist!

Kickin’ it old school

Humor, Personal 3 Responses »

Jan 182012

I stopped by my one of my coworker’s desk, Avis, on my way to get something to eat. I’ll usually stop by for a brief chat if she’s in. Today, we chatted for a few minutes, then she said:

Aw, man! I forgot that New Edition tickets went on sale at 10:00 this morning. It was about 10:30, or so. She turned around, went to the ticket site, and started to look for her tickets. I told her that I’d catch her later.

Sometime later, she stopped by my cubicle and said: Man! They’ve got it blocked (Bank of America). I can find the tickets, but can’t purchase them. That page is blocked. I guess that I’ll have to wait until I bet home.

I said, don’t they have a toll free number? She got a funny look on her face and said: Ha! I didn’t even think of that. Away she went.

Sometime later I asked if the low-tech solution worked. She said that it had. I told her next she’ll be using stamps and envelopes to send things. She thought that that was pretty funny.

Sometimes, low-tech works!

Wild geese and Red Herrings

Humor, Personal 7 Responses »

Jan 172012

Now, what will they come up with next, I wonder!

Scott Adams has a made a lot of money from his Dilbert cartoon. I love the cartoon because it pokes big fun at corporate America, deservingly so. Periodically, like today, I’ll have a Dilbert moment:

Today was pretty funny. Well, I have to laugh sometimes in order not to cry. There I was at my desk, minding my own business when suddenly a MOC (Microsoft Office Communicator) session starts with 9 people. It was from the project manager of another team. He was wanting to know why this particular defect wasn’t fixed. They tried a number of scenarios and none of them presented an issue on our side. So, I got the bright idea to ask:

Has anyone bothered testing this to see if it works? Seems like everything is order.

No one admitted to testing it, only assuming that it was still broken and absorbing the time of 9 people to verify this. My next question was:

Are we chasing wild geese or fishing for red herrings?

For some reason, no one thought that that was funny. I thought that it was hilarious. I was cracking myself up! LOL

Anyway, someone finally tested it and found that, indeed, it had been fixed. They decided to close the defect. After ending this MOC session, I noticed an email that had been sent some hours before indicating that the defect had been fixed and was no longer an issue. And, whose name should be on the list? The guy who started the whole chat. Nice! Perhaps he should read his e-mail!

Sometimes, ya gotta laugh, and I did!

What lurks within?

Personal, Photography 8 Responses »

Jan 162012

When I was younger, one of my favorite pastimes was hanging out in the woods. I lived in city neighborhood and there were no woods close by, but on occasion, I’d get a chance to go exploring somewhere due to my going to someone else’s house that lived near ‘the woods’. When I got older, I could drive, take my camera, and go explore. I never thought about what might be in the woods, other than the ever present squirrels and chipmunks.

Yesterday, during our walk, Hobbs smelled and I saw a dead deer on the edge of the woods. It’s not unusual to see dead deer on the side of the road. I didn’t think much of it and kept right on walking after allowing Hobbs a distant sniff or two of the deer.

This morning, we followed the same route; however, I noticed that the deer appeared to be gone. I thought that maybe animal control had come by and picked it up. As I got closer, I noticed that the deer had been dragged into the woods a bit, still visible, but several feet away from the original location and that something had been feasting on it.

One of the hind legs was detached and a good portion of the rump had been eaten. Immediately, my mind tried to conceive of what, in this small bit of woods, could have dragged a deer, which by my guess weighed close to 100 pounds, perhaps a little more, down from the slope, into the woods, and have eaten a good portion of its rear section. Hmmmmm.

I did a little research when I got home and found that there have been coyote sightings in Charlotte. This rather surprised me. That was the only thing that I could think of that would be large enough, other than perhaps some wild dogs, perhaps.

I’m not a woodsman, to be sure. Heck! I’ve never even gone camping, so I’m not an authority, but it was interesting to wonder what lurks within. After seeing that, I was not so interested in ‘exploring’ the woods.

Hobbs Update: Fully on the mend

Personal 10 Responses »

Jan 152012

In the ‘studio’ with Hobbs
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2012:
I took Hobbs to the vet. His doctor said that his cataracts had advanced quite a bit and she wanted to do surgery as soon as possible. I had to take him to have blood work at his regular vet and they would forward the results to CVS (Carolina Vet Specialists) by that evening. I got a call later on saying that CVS would like to start Hobbs on some antibiotics because they didn’t like certain numbers in his liver values and, ideally, they’d like to have his teeth cleaned before getting doing surgery to lessen the risk of infection.

They started him on several eyedrops and pills. I had to give them to him after each meal. I did this for a week.

Monday, January 9th, 2012:
Back to the doctor we go for a pre-surgery check. They took is blood again, did a glucose check, an ultrasound of his liver, and prescribed a few more medicines. The Ophthalmologist came in and talked me about his current condition. She said that although she’d like to wait to do the surgery until his teeth are clean, she felt that his odds of seeing again would drop dramatically, so they would determine if she would do the surgery the next morning, depending on how his numbers were. I was given some more antibiotics to give him overnight, as well as the eyedrops that I had received in the mail the previous week. As a note, none of these medicines or visits were free. So far, the total spend in a week, prior to surgery is about $1,000 on ‘prep’. At this time, Dr. Paite, the lady who would be doing surgery said that the pressure and inflammation in his eyes has increased since last week, even with the medicines, so his chances of having a successful surgery is about 50/50. I told her that we were going to go for it anyway because Hobbs is quite the trooper and I believed that everything would work out.

Tuesday: January 10th, 2012:
We arrive at CVS at 7:15 AM, they see him around 8:00, take him back for a test to check his retina’s. The vet tech, Shirley, came back and told me that his numbers were excellent, much better than expected, and he should fair well, but that there was a slight rupture in the lens of the right eye and that they might not be able to place a lens in that eye, but that they would remove the cataract.

I left him in their care. paid my $2,700 deposit (75% of estimated costs), and went about my day. I had much to do that day. Sometime around 6:00 PM, I went to pick him up. They said that he had come through with a stellar performance and should heal well. They weren’t able to put the artificial lens in his right eye because of the rupture, but they were able to remove the cataract. The side effect would be that he’d see upside down out of that eye for a week or two until his brain flipped the image back the correct way and he’d be farsighted out that eye.

I left with another load of medicines and instructions on when to administer them and how much, pills and eyedrops.

Wednesday, Jan 11 – Sunday – Jan 15.
Fortunately I work for a company that allows me to work from home and my manager is way cool and understanding. When I first brought him home, he slept a lot. When he was awake, he was bumping into things like he couldn’t see. As you can see from the photo, he has on a radar dish to prevent him from scratching his eyes. When I took him back for his checkup the next day, I told Dr. Paite of my concern, and she tested his eyes and said the he certainly could see and that it would get better and better within a week or two.

Over this week, I have watched, quite frankly with amazement, how significantly he has improved since Tuesday. His depth perception is still not all that good. He still bumps into walls from time to time, but I suspect mainly it’s because he has to be close to the wall to see it and that cone sticks out in front of his head.

He can now find his way to the kitchen, his bed, to the door to be asked to let out, and generally make his way around the apartment with ease. This morning, we resumed our walking and what started out to be a 15 minute walk ending up being a 90 minute exploration. He’d not been on a walk for a few weeks, since he went blind.

Those things that annoyed me before, such as his stopping to look at every shiny object, investigating everything, pulling ahead, etc, suddenly seemed to be appreciated. His sight restored along with his confidence, or should I say bravado: “I’m back! I will now assume the lead position!!!” – Damn stubborn dog! LOL

I must admit to having a bit of trepidation about spending $5,000+ on his surgery, and having spent nearly $7,000 since October, when he was diagnosed with diabetes, but this morning, during that walk with my friend, all of that trepidation melted away and became a bucketful of appreciation.

It’s great to have my friend on the mend.

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Paul

Nikon 1 V1 – First observations

Canon G12 vs S90 impressions

The journalist!

Kickin’ it old school

Wild geese and Red Herrings

What lurks within?

Hobbs Update: Fully on the mend

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