Top of the World

I knew I was not in the most categorical perfect shape.  Hell, even Buddha looks quite the athletic champion compared to me.  But I didn’t realize how horrible of a shape I was in until last Friday.  That’s when I hiked to the top of Mt Washington with my son, Nikon D700 and my Carl Zeiss 35mm.  The view was spectacular, the air was fresh, and the hike was quite daunting and vigorous; to say the least.

I wish I purchased a backpack for my camera.

Trail to the Summit

Having the camera swing around my neck while navigating the steep inclines on the headwall put a serious amount of strain on my back, shoulders and neck.  Note for next time, pack the damn camera in a bag!

But it was so well worth the pain and torture to be out in the beauty with my boy, sharing time together and bonding on the side of a mountain, albeit on the edge of insanity.  We took our time getting up there to breathe in nature and photograph her beauty.  About 6 hours to reach the summit from the base in Pinkham Notch.  It was really breathtaking.

Post Trip – Get My Ass in Shape

Even though this was my 15 ascent of the mountain, I realized that I was not in the same shape I was in my 20′s and early 30′s.  I was winded, tired, exhausted and half thinking about Nick leaving me on the mountain to let the eagles eat me for dinner.  Yeah, I was hurting.

I needed to do something about it.

So, I decided I am whipping my ass into shape so I can get to the top of Mt Washington with greater ease in the spring, hauling all my camera gear and having the motivation to take a lot more shots.  How am I going to do this?  With that annoying Tony the Trainer – or is that terror – on the P90X videos.  I bought the video system and started the diet.  I plan to drop from my hefty 215 lbs to a more healthy 165 lbs before winter.  You can follow my progress on a different blog, as this should be all about photos.

Back to the 85mm

As an aside, I plan to get back on my Zeiss 85mm this week.  I have only done a few shots with it and need to give it a fair evaluation.  It’s a tough lens to shoot with and I want it to become my bitch.  But, like the workout and diet, it won’t come without effort.  You should see some more shots coming soon.

Zeiss @ 35mm

I’ve been shooting sunsets and landscapes for the last couple years and it’s really a comfort zone.  It was a pretty easy mode to wander down to the lake and point it at the warm golden skies and get a perfect sunset.  But one of my good friends, Mikeal, told me, Ray, sunsets are a dime a dozen.  Use your eye and shoot something unique. I am paraphrasing, but you get the point.  I looked at my stream and it did seem to be one sunset shot after another, broken up by still water lake shots.  I was in a rut.

Sunflower - Never Surrender

So, since he said that, I have been looking for a new angle; new things to shoot that are not overdone or cliche.  Through a series of inspirations from various shooters on the web, I’ve began to look at the world right in front of me, rather than the vast expanding landscapes that can be found on every photostream on the net.

And that world was found in the ordinary.  Things I walked past everyday.  A rock on the ground.  A root sticking up from the dirt.  A drooping sunflower.  By using depth of field and focus to draw your attention to the story this tiny world suddenly became quite vast.  And I knew this new style would take quite a bit of work to make it emerge.

To change my style, one of the first things I wanted to change was the way I shoot.  I bought myself a Carl Zeiss 35mm lens and went to full manual.  Manual focus, manual settings.  With that, landscapes became boring and I started to look at unique ways to focus in on objects, such as the off-center sunflower shot.

Depth of Field

And I fell in love with Zeiss.

This was no fling, this was true love too.  Everything about my shooting was changing – and it wasn’t just because of the D700.  It was that this lens was like nothing I have ever held before.

After about a month, I sold all my gear and picked up the Zeiss 18mm and began to open up the world around me.  Now, I am picking up the Zeiss 85mm today, and will open up that world even more.  Sure, I’ve laid down over $3,000 in lenses in the past 2 months, but it is helping me to expand my passion.  So glad I never waited for the fabled D700s or D700x!

No, better lenses do not make you a better photographer, but they make enjoying the road to better photography so much better.

Nikon D700 ISO 200 through 6400

Several have asked me to do a quick compare of the various ISO speeds in low light situations.  So, I took the camera out to the lake last night, poped it onto a tripod and shot 3 exposures at about 7:30pm – about 30 minutes after sunset.  As you can see from the spliced images, I first shot at ISO 200 (left), ISO 3200 (center) and then ISO 6400 (right).

The noise increases as expected from shot to shot.  But a lesser camera could not have pulled this off.  This thing is amazing at ISO 6400.  Imagine if I turned on the noise reduction?

Yes, note that I did not use any on camera or off camera ISO noise reduction.  There is zero post work to this shot other than splicing the three shots together and sticking a frame on it.  No sharpening, no curves, no color adjustments.

Hell, not even a white balance.

D700x

FYI – This was posted as an April Fools joke!

It’s what you have been waiting for.  And the cost is right where we expected it to be.  24MP FX, 3 FPS (5 FPS DX): $3,299

Quick Overview

The new Nikon D700x has been the want and desire of every Nikon user out there, amateur to professional.  The rumors have been bounding about for well over a year, with them increasing constantly over the past few months as the D700 began to vanish from inventory around the globe.  Nikon finally announced this beast in all it’s glory.  As suspected, here are some of the juicy details:

Finder

• 95% coverage (of full FX frame, not the tiny DX frame).
• 0.72x with 50mm lens. (D3 is 0.7x and 100% coverage).
• 18mm eyepoint.
• Inferior finder for DX lenses; the D700x doesn’t crop the finder as does the D3.

Auto Focus

• 51 points.
• CAM3500FX sensor array (same as D3X).
• Fine-tuning, if you have slight errors with certain lenses.

Shutter

• 1/8,000 ~ 30 sec, bulb.
• Carbon fiber and Kevlar.
• Tested to 150,000 cycles.

Sensor

• 24MP CMOS, same as D3X.
• 14-bit linear ADC, 16-bit data pipelines, as the D3X.
• 12-channel parallel readout.
• FX (23.9 x 36mm) and cropped DX, just like D3X.
• No professional 5:4 mode.

Resolution

• 24MP in FX, 10MP in DX.
• FX (24 x 36mm): 6,048 x 4,032 (L), 4,544 x 3,024 (M) and 3,024 x 2,016 (S).
• DX (16 x 24mm): 3,968 x 2,640 (L), 2,976 x 1,976 (M), 1,984 x 1,320 (S)

Other Tech

• Two slots: CF card and SD card.
• USB.
• Optional WT-4 wireless and ethernet.

Imagine, all this announced on April 1st…. yes… imagine. (Queue the hate mail…)

Nikon D700

My quest for the Nikon D700 12.1MP is at an end!!

I know Nikon is stopping production of the 2008 model of the D700 in favor of the D700s or D700x.  Knowing Nikon’s pricing game, it will be a good chuck of change more for the upgraded model.  I don’t want the upgraded toys (video) at all.

Rather than wait to see what Nikon is going to do – which will cause people to scramble for the 700 to save a grand, I want to beat the rush.  I knew I was upgrading by summer, but the chances of finding a D700 by then may be slim.  I am not willing to take that chance!

So, I pulled the trigger and ordered my D700.  Got it with 4, SanDisk Extreme III 4 GB CompactFlash Memory Cards, an extra Nikon EN-EL3e Rechargeable Li-Ion Battery4 and theNikon MB-D10 Multi Power Battery Pack.  I am so freaking pumped right now!

Now, a new wait beings – for the UPS guy to get here with the goods!

Nikon D700

Well… rumors are abound today.  In my quest for the D700, it appears that the D700′s are no longer being stocked anywhere – people are selling what they have, making room for… well, for what?  Oh, how the mighty Nikon likes to toy with our emotions.

So, it’s really anyone’s guess right now, but according to Nikon Rumors website, Google has indexed a hit for the D700x (and D800 – though that’s a typo in my book) cameras.

Well crap.  What do I save for now?  These guys are killing me.

Continuing my quest for the D700 – I decided I need to start peddling my photos.  A photo-friend of mine suggested I try a pro account on SmugMug.com, which I am now doing.  As I said before, a camera isn’t going to just fall onto my lap, so I need to be proactive.  It’s not a huge step, but it is a step in the right direction.  Every little dime I can make will really help with this quest.

I have not personalized the domain yet, but will most likely come up with something canned, like Raymond Larose Photography.  I may jump back on my URL of lenscrack – though I don’t know if that is very commercial.

So, time to do your part and check out the new smug mug page I set up and give me any and all feedback that you can!