Nikon P-510

All posts tagged Nikon P-510

Sensor size and printing – A retraction of sorts

Posted by Paul on December 23, 2012
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , , .

PDL_20121208_0135-2
The cool thing about the Internet and blogging in general is that there are always voices out there that will challenge you. Here, thankfully, is no different. In my post yesterday about the P510 and printing above a certain size, I made an assertion that one would get crappy output above 8 x 10, perhaps; however, that was a faulty assertion, I have found out.

After reading comments I thought: Certainly, this could be pilot error; after all, I would say that as far as printing is concerned, I’m a neophyte, or newbie to be sure! So, off to experiment some more I went. I went back into the archives to gather some different photos, some that have less challenging dynamic ranges, details, etc. Some normal, everyday shots. The ones included in this gallery are those that I chose. I decided to dedicate this batch of paper and ink to learning. I’m sure that I’ll get some good prints out of it, but that’s not even the point now. The point is to learn how to deal with difficult prints.

Admittedly, I was very surprised. They printed in 12 x 18, flawlessly, without hitch, save for another small head clog which was easily remedied. I just printed them, as is with little adjustment save for a tiny bit of saturation as well as some contrast. I was pleased.

Following a playbook from Earl, I downloaded the software that he said that used to print some photos from the S90, Perfect Resize 7.5. I have a 30 free trial. However, after only using it on a few images, I must say that I will purchase a copy – here’s why.

After running the photo of the Grand Canyon that I struggled with so much and having PR increase it to 16 x 24 @ 300 dpi, I printed it again and there it was, in all of its glory, the “missing” detail. Now, I have a print suitable for framing, and I will. Very impressive. I’m glad that Earl mentioned it, but I’m not surprised, he has lots technical knowledge to be sure! I’m glad that I met him! :)

Craig Tanner once said in one of his workshops: When people call me talented, I tell them that I just survived being untalented. I like that. I’m taking my baby steps and my lumps on learning about printing … just like I had to do in the darkroom!

Thanks to all of you who commented for giving me something to think about and question my findings.

I survived without a full-frame camera!

Posted by Paul on December 13, 2012
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , , .

PDL_20121209_0042
Tombstone, AZ
As I review my photos, I get a laugh sometimes. Before I went to Arizona, I got into the same ‘conversation’ in my head about which camera to take. Finally, I squashed all of that chatter and decided to take the Nikon P-510 and my Olympus 35 LC, a circa 1967 film rangefinder and that’s what I did. The main reason was because of portability and the low hassle factor. At no point did I regret the decision. For the most part, we were out in the broad daylight – no need for a tripod and we did a lot of walking around and looking – you know, being tourist, so this camera was the perfect tool for that.
PDL_20121209_0022-3

I did have a slight bit of equipment lust and “what if” when I saw the owner of the bed and breakfast, Bob, who was also a amateur photographer, wielding an OM-D with a 28-300 mm lens on it. He said it was one of his favorites. However, that soon melted away as I found many uses for the 24 – 1000 mm lens on the 510. :)

All in all, I didn’t take many film shots, about 32 of the 36 on the roll. I’ll get around to developing them, but I sure did take quite a few with the 510 and even a few with the iPhone and the Hipstamatic app.

It was fun and I made the right choice of camera. I survived without a full frame camera. Sure, I’m not at Cedric’s level and willing to forgo a “real” camera for a camera phone, though! ;) Now, had I gone on my own, just to shoot, I would have taken the D700 and D300 for sure.

Great day for flying a kite!

Posted by Paul on November 12, 2012
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , .


This weekend, I took a quick trip down to Charleston with my friend James. Sometimes, I miss Charleston, especially the beach. Though I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not a beach fan, I do miss the beach in the winter and late fall when the population has fallen drastically and the breeze is cool, rather than warm and humid.

James and I spent most of the day Saturday in downtown, walking, looking around, and finally stopping for dinner at Hyman’s, a well known eating establishment with some fantastic food. The restaurant’s walls are adorned with the photos and autographs of the numerous stars who have graced the establishment. Each table has a label or two, what famous person sat there. James and I sat at the table where Aretha Franklin, as well as Steve Guttenburg sat. This was James’ first time, but my second. I had the famous Crispy Flounder, again. I love it!

On Sunday, before departing, we spent a little time at the Isle Of Palms beach. It was my favorite place to go after work, while waiting for traffic to subside. As soon as we walked onto the beach, we saw a guy flying a kite with 12 seconds. He would make it do some serious climbs, have it swoop back down towards the ground, perform several loops, as well as various other tricks. Also, he would make it hover above some parents and children, much to the children’s delight. Though we only stayed at the beach for about 30 minutes, I spent most of my time watching him. Certainly, I could have stayed much longer, but we were meeting my friend, Dennis for lunch and had to keep it short.

It was great to return to Charleston and catch up and have a chance to visit IOP again. It was difficult to believe that it had been more than a year since I had been down there! In the end, I got to do my little photo walk. It was a great time. And once again, the Nikon P-510 proved to be an excellent walking around camera. The reach of that zoom is just unparalleled!

My own personal Photo Walk/Sit

Posted by Paul on October 14, 2012
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , , .

Yesterday was the World Wide Photo Walk. I had planned to go to Charleston, but decided to give the knee a rest, which by the way, it is doing quite excellent now! :) I’d say we are back to 90% and I will attend a Tai Chi class this week, but will still take it easy. As a matter of fact, Hobbs and I went for a very short walk on Friday, and I went for another one yesterday! Almost back in business!

I went to the lake, again, and walked just a small portion of one of the easily accessible trails, in other words, very close to the car. This trail meanders about and goes up and down hills. I decided to just stay on the flat part. After it started to head downhill, I decided turn back towards the lake and have a look around there. All in all, I spent about an 75 minutes walking and sitting and enjoying the view of the rapidly changing leaves. I say rapidly because I’ve been to the lake almost every day and they seem to be getting more and more vibrant every day.

I’m still working exclusively with the Nikon P-510 because it is lightweight and has an extensive zoom. Sure, I want to get out there with the D700 and get some full-frame sensor love going, but I don’t want to carry the camera and the tripod just yet. I’m thinking that maybe I’ll take a day off this week, board Hobbs for the day, and make a day of it on The Blue Ridge Parkway. I imagine, though, that it better be soon given how fast things are changing down here … maybe I’m already too late, but we’ll see.

Actually, this whole knee thing is working out. I had said that I wanted to photograph McDowell Nature Preserve in all of its seasons and, by default, I’m getting to do exactly that! :D

Last Light

Posted by Paul on October 11, 2012
Posted in: Personal. Tagged: , .


Not a lot to say today, just thought that I’d share a photo that I took last night. Spent about 30 minutes, perhaps less, down at the park. When I looked outside yesterday evening, I noticed some interesting clouds in the west, so thought that I might hobble my way down to the lake and shoot a few. :) A good sunrise or sunset always does wonders for the mood!

The leaves are holding steady in their color and the knee continues to improve! Yippee! I keep thinking that maybe I could make the Photo Walk in Charleston, but I’m not going to chance it. LOL

Does size matter?

Posted by Paul on October 10, 2012
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , .

First of all, congratulations to Ken on the new member to his family, the Nikon D600 :D . I’ve been thinking about this post in various incarnations for the past few days, but nothing seemed to gel. When I saw Ken’s post, I thought that was pretty cool. I guess that I could say that had I not just gotten a D700 that the D600 might have been on my list … just because.

At any rate, I’ve just finished hanging my 8th picture on the wall. 2 of them are 12 x 18, both shot by the D700. The remaining 6 are 6 x 9, shot with the Nikon P-510, Leica M6, and D700. Truthfully, all of them look really good, even upon very close inspection. Never mind that the sensor size of the P-510 is about 25 mm^2 and the size of the D700 is about 864 mm^2.

Naturally, it goes to how low of an ISO the photo was shot with, how well framed it was, how much cropping was required, and how well exposed it was – the less amount of shadow, the lower the digital noise. Coming in last, I think, was the size of the sensor, given that I needed only do minimal cropping on a couple of them. This is not to say that sensor size does not have an advantage, such as controlling depth of field, lower digital noise, etc; however, it depends, solidly on how you are using the final image. If it’s on the web, then most anything will do. In print, then it will depend on how much tolerance you have for ‘noise’.

I’ve only sold a few prints and gifted a few others and have never enlarged one of my digital prints past 12 x 18, but I plan to do that soon. Long ago, I enlarged some film prints to 24 x 36 and was completely blown away with the results. I was shooting FujiFilm at the time. I may have one such print in my house, eventually, but I will choose carefully because while they are expensive, relatively, to print, the frame is the killer. :)

I suppose, in conclusion, after seeing various sizes printed and hanging on the wall, the last thought that I have when looking at them is what camera did I use to do it with.

Guess the backyard will have to do.

Posted by Paul on October 9, 2012
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , .

Friday morning while waiting for Mr. Hobbs to finish his ‘business’, I was basking in the sun. It felt good. I watched a butterfly float effortlessly with the breeze. He decided to land in a tree. I went and got my P-510, zoomed all the way out to 1000 mm, and caught quite a few photos of him resting on a branch. I also noticed some flowers along the neighbor’s fence as well as a few other interesting things.

I started thinking about how nice it would be to be on the photo walk on the following Saturday; however, with today being Tuesday and my knee still having issues, I doubt, sincerely, that I will be heading to Charleston, or anywhere else for that matter. Man it sucks to be getting older. Healing takes a long time! :)

Oh well, at least I have lots of interesting things in my backyard, including a small rose bush. I hope to put lots more interesting plants and flowers in next spring, that way I wan’t have to drive so far to take photos of a nice garden.