I picked up this prime lens today. She’s a little old school (first released in 1989). With no focus drive it is a little slow in auto-focusing as you would expect (you have to keep your fingers away from the front of the lens as the focus ring physically turns). Manual focus is fine obviously.

Note this lens will not auto focus on an entry level camera (Nikon D40 for example) but will work on a D90 or higher etc. I am surprised Nikon hasn’t released an F1.4 full frame version of this lens considering you can now buy an F1.8 DX version.

Size difference beside a 28-70mm lens – a lot lighter and easier to handle.

Photo examples: these are only a few quick hand held examples.

F2 – Extremely soft wide open.

F2.8 – The lens is far far sharper.

F4 – This is generally the widest I would personally be shooting so I am more interested to see how it goes at this range.

F5 – Upon intial testing the lens is probably at it’s sweetest spot from F3.2-6.3.

MAXXIS Tyres BDC Round 2 – Llandow (SEMI PRO CLASS) from Stephen Brooks on Vimeo.

Shot on Canon 7D .. EX used for some shots.

Lenses used : -

Canon 35mm F1.4L
Super Takumar 50mm F1.4
Samyang 85mm F1.4
Super Takumar 135mm F2.5
Canon 70-200mm USM II F2.8L

Although anyone would like to produce every photo correct directly off the camera it’s not always that straight forward. This new and updated content-aware feature in the about to be released Photoshop CS5 is nothing short of amazing. I beleive CS5 will be available for purchased late May 2010.

120 fps High Definition Skateboarding

Red Cameras

A very quick video I shot at the drags. Camera was only set to 640×424 lines and is using the on-board mic with a 12-24mm F4 lens, not really suited for this subject matter. I will have another crack using 1280×720 lines and a hot shoe external mic. The D300s only does one frame rate of 24fps.

Another new camera this week this time of the motion kind. Will get back to you once I’ve worked out how to use it! Rode XLR mic was also pictured. Preferred to get a camera that still uses DV style tapes over the newer style solid state drives.

Picked up a Nikon D300s today. Certainly not Nikon’s flagship camera but very good none the less in the DX market. Although released in July 2009, the image sensor carries over from the D300 which is some two years old now. Frame rate is up to 7fps and 8fps with an external power source. There is hype that Nikon will annouce a replacement at the upcoming PMA event next week but it probably wont be on sale till the third or fourth quarter of this year realistically. For the money this body packs a lot of great features.

Funny how you buy something from Sydney these days and it’s delivered straight from Hong Kong with international power supply. Lucky I already have a few Nikon battery chargers. I didn’t opt for an extended warrantly as I am hoping only to use this for 12 months or so before moving on again. Touch wood I have never had a problem with a Nikon DSLR camera, then again I am not a shutter junkie, wait for the shot you want and take it I say. Cameras depreciate faster than a new car these days, two year old tech is worthless unfortunately.

Silly me ordered a second battery thinking I’d get a geniune Nikon one…well what do you expect hey I should have paid more attention when ordering it. I’ve had no less than three copies like this fry on me so I wouldn’t go out of my way buying one. I also picked up an 8gb 60mb/s flash card, lets hope that’s a geniune Sandisk box lol.

Nikon’s Active D-Lighting is something I am yet to try out and should make my job easier. I am eager to experiment with it. If you shoot in RAW, you can process a JPEG image on the fly. This in theory is a great help if you are shooting in an environment where you have both bright highlights and deep shadows – something which I have to deal with regularly.

This model is also video capable. It’s only 720 lines however and there’s only one frame rate of 24fps which is pretty useless if you aim to shoot anything that is really moving. I didn’t buy the camera for this feature but I will have a play with it. I would think it should work well with a static type environment such as a tripod interview. To use this, the D300s has Live View, you can use this for stills (although I can’t imagine why you ever would as it’s too restricted). There is an external mic jack but nothing for headphones.

I mean don’t expect and go and shoot a video like this promo from Nikon.

Nikon D300s from ABAKU on Vimeo.

Here we see Live View turned on. The 51-point AF system is handy here for precise focus.

And the resulting quick photo.

The dust detail is quite good at 100% crop.

I’ve only taken a couple of shots with this camera so far but will publish some more shortly once I’ve used it properley.

Skywalker Ranch

Skywalker Ranch from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Dubai Sky

Sky from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Stargate Studios’ Virtual Backlot™ is a proprietary technology that gives filmmakers unparalleled access to any location through a variety of techniques. These can range from totally immersive sequences shot entirely on green screen to simple set extensions that marry into principal photography.

Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot Demo from Stargate Studios on Vimeo.

Nocturne

Canon 1D MKIV – 1080p video shot at 6400 ASA (some scenes were shot at 3200 ASA) – with all available light. No outside light sources were used.

Nocturne from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

Finally some possible real news about Nikons product line up for 2010. I have been holding off buying a new body for some time now as I was keen to see how this would pan out. Hopefully at least some of it is true.

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