Nikon has launched the successor of the original AF-S DX NIKKOR
18-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR. This lens is for all the photographers who wanted a compact and lightweight solution with a better range of focal length.

The Nikon 18-300mm VR (16.7x zoom lens) was announced on 10th April 2014 and will be available in the market from May 2014. This lens is available for pre-order at Adorama and Amazon.

As compared to older Nikon 18-300mm, the newer version has got better specs while being daintier and smaller. The newer version is also light on your pocket; it comes $100 cheaper than the previous version — not really a good excuse to buy this lens (more on that later). With that said, let’s take a look at the specs of this lens.

1. Price Range

   The good thing about this lens is that as the lens has become lighter, the price of the lens has also come down. The previous lens was available for $999.95, the new version is priced at $899.95. The price of the new lens includes a LC-67 Snap-on Front Lens Cap 67mm and a LF-4 Rear Lens Cap. And this lens comes with a 5-year warranty (in USA).

2. Compatibility

   Being a DX lens, Nikkor 18-300mm is compatible with Nikon DX cameras. If you are planning to buy this lens for your FX model, there are chances that the images may suffer from the darkened edges and will definitely be in the DX crop mode.

3. Specifications

   Before we discuss all the specifications, let’s demystify the jargon. It is an all in one telephoto zoom, which is called AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3G ED VR where,

   • AF-S refers to Auto Focus- Silent Wave and helps in avoid lag time while switching from auto focus to manual focus.
   • DX refers to the compatibility of the lens with DX cameras.
   • 18-300mm denotes the minimum and maximum focal length (as you already know).
   • f/3.5-6.3 refers to the maximum aperture of the lens.
   • G states that there are no aperture ring. It is automatic.
   • ED means you have an extra low dispersion glass.
   • VR stands for Vibration Reduction. This lens has got VR that provides 4 stops of stabilization.
     

4. Sharpness

   The VR helps you get razor sharp images by compensating for the mildest shake. The old Nikon 18-300mm VR provided great sharpness in the pictures, but this one is expected to be better.

   

5. Diaphragm

   It has a round 7-blade diaphragm for normal background blur.

6. Optics

   It has got 16 optical elements in 12 groups. There are three extra low dispersion and three aspherical glass elements.

7. Focal Range

   It provides the same focal range as a 27mm to 450mm equivalent in the FX/35mm format; just that it is available for DX cameras.

   

8. Auto Focus

   Auto Focus uses Silent Wave Motor, which uses ultrasonic vibrations, not a gear system. It gives you silent, accurate focus.

9. Filter Thread

   It has a 67mm filter thread and has the same functionality as the old Nikon 18-300mm DX lens.

10. Aperture Range

    The aperture range is from f/3.5-6.3 as compared to f/3.5-5.6 for the older version.

11. Angle of View

    The angle of view ranges from 76° to 5° 20′.

12. Size & Weight

    This lens weighs about 19.4 ounces/550 grams and the size is 99mm x 78.5mm. This is one of the key features of the new lens as it is around 9.8 ounces lighter than the previous model of Nikon 18-300mm VR lens (29.2ounces/828 grams) but with better specs.

This lens is for all the hobbyists and professional photographers who always opted for Nikon 18-200mm owing to its versatility and light-weight.

My old Nikkor 18-200mm serves me perfectly and when it is time to upgrade, I am upgrading to FX — one key reason why you shouldn’t really invest in DX lenses any more (unless you really see a good return of investment). Are you buying one?

I‘ve shot around 60,000 photographs with my Nikon D80 and it is pending a shutter-unit replacement. I’ve shot almost everything with it. That’s the camera with which I grew as a photographer and that’s why APN happened. It was the only camera I had so far and the only lens I used it with is 18-200mm F3.5-5.6 VR Nikkor. I enjoyed my share of reading great camera reviews. And after all this while I settled for Sony RX1. This review got delayed by over a month. Finally I realized that a “delayed review” equals “no review”. And just when I sat down to share my experiences, they released the newer RX1R — the one with the anti-aliasing filter removed.

There were several reasons I wanted to go with Sony RX1. I just hated to be so visible with a hammer of a camera in my hand and a big-gun zoom lens protruding out of the body. I hate flash and I’m a totally an ambient-light-photographer. I hate to have my face stuck to the viewfinder and need more flexibility to re-compose the shot without it. But above all the primary reason for investing in Sony RX1 was my desire to grow myself as an artist — to refine my skills as a photographer.

At a price of $2800, RX1 is only for the one who knows his stuff. It’s a bold camera and takes an equally bold decision to buy one. I’ll issue a bold statement too: In addition to being a secondary camera for a professional, the RX1 is an ideal camera to shape up your photography skills. It forces you to visualize, focus on composition, allows you the flexibility of all controls and marries the body to a beautiful 35mm f/2 lens. This forces you to focus inside the frame and forget about the lens considerations or the lazy zooms.

Note: I’m not a camera reviewer. And I do stay away from the tempting equipment and stay focused on the “skill”. Comparing Nikon D80 with Sony RX1 is unfair. But I did upgrade from the D80 to RX1. It’s my experience and I thought I’d share.

One of my favorite shots — 1/80 sec., f/2, ISO 640

Here’s everything I purchased alongside the RX1:

Items: Sony RX1, 64 GB card (Class 10 rated at 94MBPS) & external charger. I also bought a Carl Zeiss MC protecting filter (VF-49MPAM) and LCD protector (PCK-LM15) from Adorama. Along with it Sony offered me a leather carry case (LCJ-RXB/B) free-of-charge. The leather case is a delight and I can already see some RX1 owners going green.

All this has come to me as a real gift for taking my photography to the next level. I have spent a good time with my little tank now and here are some of the notable experiences I’ve had with this lovely camera of mine :)

The Camera Handling & Grip

It is pretty compact for my hands. I’m still getting used to the grip. The Nikon D80 was hand-in-glove. But then I love to carry RX1 and not the D80. Also the micro-USB feels rock solid and the male connectors just snap in at once making a clear distinct and reassuring sound. But having worked with these delicate machines I know there will be a day when things will be loose. Metal is malleable. And it’s a little overhead to unscrew the leather case to connect the camera but I do it anyways. I have to take the camera out of the leather case to take out the card, battery or even charge/connect it to the PC. I’d definitely want to carry it only with the lower-half part and get rid of the top/front half. I bought a charger separately which I use to charge the battery while I pull the card out and copy over the data.

Sony RX1 with the leather jacket on

Brilliant Highlight Recovery

It was a busy day when I purchased the RX1. As such I was eagerly waiting for the next day to try it out. It was a bright sunny day when I took the first few outdoor shots and quickly realized that I’m limited to 1/2000 sec. at f/2. Of course I could go a little narrow on the aperture but having used an f/2 for the first time I realized 1/2000 sec. is not the best combination for a sunny day. The shutter does go up to 1/4000 but you have to set an aperture narrower than f/2 for that.

In case you find yourself limited by the shutter speed on a bright day and you really need f/2, the RAW files of the RX1 allow you some great highlight recovery that (almost) makes up for the overexposure. Check out the sample of highlight recovery for yourself.

SOOC: 1/2000 sec., f/2, ISO 100

Same Shot After Highlight Recovery (and some extra touches)

Revisiting The World Of Macro & DOF With RX1

In the first few days of shooting with the RX1, I was left scratching my head and missed my 18-200mm. It takes some great composition skills and a creative eye to look for the photographs. It was then that I realized that no-zoom forces you to work the shots and accentuates the artist in you.

Initially, I cheated by using the macro mode on the RX1. When you shoot macro, you really are trying to draw viewer reaction by showing something unusual, not necessarily a better composition etc. but by something that is unseen or shot from a creative perspective.

Though after a day or two I got the hang of it and took some normal shots. I was especially impressed by the quality of DOF the camera offered me. And one rainy evening I thought of using the superb DOF to my advantage by making bokeh the subject of my photograph. I set the camera to macro mode and focused the closest for a distant light to get the maximum defocus and here is the result:

SOOC: The Bokeh Shot — 1/80 sec., f/2, ISO 1250

Straight From The Camera Vs RAW Editing

All these years of shooting with D80 I’ve become a fan of Capture NX2. I’ve never opened NEF files in anything else (I tried but the exposure/color curves were way wrong. I always got the true colors with Capture NX2 and no way would I waste time with anything else when NX2 did it right straight out).

Sony’s Image Data Converting on the other hand is an abhorring piece of RAW software. With the majority of in-camera settings missing, it completely defies the purpose of shooting RAW. I don’t trust third-party RAW editors for proprietary RAW formats. So for RX1 I use Sony’s IDC and export as 16-bit TIFF for further processing. I have to re-start the conversion every time it crashes. I hope Sony fixes the crashes and makes it more feature-rich else I’m not going to be using Sony again.

While I’m upon the subject of processing, the image quality from the captures of the RX1 is so great that I really have to struggle to find ways to polish the images any further. The RX1 has given me some shots that are truly insane and I never expected a camera to be able to do this.

Amazing low light performance — 1/80sec., f/2, ISO 1000. That part of the sky wasn’t visible to the naked eye. That’s what I wanted and I got it and there isn’t a shot of this monument that even comes close.

Other Remarkable Features Of RX1

I’ve always had to be careful with the alignment with D80. With the RX1, I just set it to show the virtual horizon and the rule-of-thirds grid and shoot to glory.

Another great thing about RX1 is the ability to simulate the final image as soon as you press the shutter half-way down. This gives me a good preview of what kind of a result will I land.

With this camera in my hand, I’m falling in love with shooting black-and-white. And I love to reach the exposure compensation which I confess I never used too much earlier.

SOOC: B&W Shot — 1/125sec., f/2, ISO 100 and -1EV Exposure Bias

Even with all the praise and compactness, I find that I really behave differently with a $2800 camera. So far I’ve never allowed it to hit any surface and I hope things stay that way. But it’s only a matter of time. I tend to be extra careful with this little tank and never want to hand it to anyone else. Somehow I feel that this factor gets in the way of me being comfortable and creative with this camera.

The RX1 does some quick movies too. Though there’s a lot of fretting over the video quality, this comes in real handy as I can now just leave back my camcorder. I did hit the movie record button once by mistake. This camera needs hands that make love to this camera without pressing the wrong buttons.

I’m not sure if it’s just me but I find the AF points a little disappointing. Not that I’m complaining of the AF speed (I’ve gotten used to the AF speed of the D80 which again uses contrast based AF). I’m not confident if it work this way, but the point is that I found the Nikon to give priority to people’s faces or pick up the sharpest.

Low Light Portrait — 1/10sec., f/2, ISO 25600. Shot at 10pm. The face is lit by the cellphone screen and the red lamp is the street light in the background.

The Pros, Cons and More

Before spending the money on the RX1 I did extensive research on it and read a lot of reviews. I knew I’d need spare batteries, especially more than one since my little tank would only deliver a 100+ shots on a single charge. The spare batteries are not available in the market yet and therefore, I had to cut down on the sleep-timing for the LCD display.

With the battery rated to shoot about 100 shots per charge, there’s no way I can play/toy around with the settings and get familiar with this stuff. I’m not even confident if this is going to last me a few hours of an outing.

As such, I don’t really plan to use this camera on continuous shooting mode. This camera is more about thoughtfully composing each shot than about candid real-time child portraits or marriage photography etc. Also each RAW file is about 24MB and I don’t have the budget to buy a RAID-enabled hard drive anytime in the near future. I also forbid shooting in continuous mode because the camera gets warm after an hour or so of frequent shooting (a shot every 2 seconds). And like I said earlier, RX1 is only for the one who knows his stuff, you have to be decisive about the utility of this shot-gun.

Indoor Shot — 1/80 sec., f/2, ISO 400

The lens filter that I ordered was branded Carl Zeiss. It though felt like cheap material and I could see some fine artifacts on the surface diffusing and reflecting colorful light in all the directions.

The experience of shooting without a viewfinder is funny. Something feels missing when I don’t have the viewfinder to stick my eye against and compose. But in this case I really needed something that would allow me a wider angle of view, real-time so that I can hold the camera high or low and just shoot. I can’t do that with my D80 (another point where this is an unfair comparison). But RX1 helps you to experiment with different angles and perspectives by losing the viewfinder.

Is the camera — Sony RX1 really worth it?

Nobody can answer that question for you. The RX1 is a specialty package and it’s features all mean different things to different photographers.

I bought it for it’s compactness and it’s ability to replace my DSLR. I was willing to compromise with the zoom / lens flexibility but the 35mm f/2 more than makes up for it.

The RX1 gives me absolutely best quality for images (that’s the area where I can’t accept any compromises). I see the fixed lens more as an opportunity to grow my composition skills and the ability to imagining and “finding” a photograph happening somewhere. That can only happen if I can get out of my comfort zone, carry the camera at all times and shoot good compositions without any compromise on image quality.

I paid for it and I’m absolutely in love with the RX1. For now it’s difficult for me to go back to D80. But that’s my primary camera when I need the reach of 18-200mm. As for the rest it’s RX1 (or until I have enough money to land something that can take the Nikkor AF DC-NIKKOR 135mm f/2D). And here comes another superb shot straight out of the camera.

SOOC: 1/80 sec., f/2, ISO 1250.

Should You Buy Sony RX1 Or Wait?

Well that’s a tricky question. The days of full frames are finally in. The developing trend that I see is that the newer cameras are getting rid of the optical low-pass filter. The RX1R was launched on the same lines even before this review was complete. As the pixel count goes higher, so does the pixel density, image detail and the desire to get rid of the anti-aliasing filter.

I have my own doubts on the claims that full-frame sensors hold the light better because of the larger photosites (where is that larger photo site when you are shoving in 36 MP into the sensor). Most of the image quality is not because the sensor is full-frame but is purely based on the technological advancements in the newer sensors.

Today’s full-frame/FX sensors are only as capable of holding the light as their APS-C/DX counterparts of the same generation. And that’s because the pixel density is essentially the same. The full-frames have a larger sensor area to allow larger photo-sites. Instead of keeping the pixel count low and allowing bigger photo-sites the manufacturers instead use up this area to push in extra pixels and push up the megapixel race even further.

But every time you invest in a camera you have to realize that technology grows old the moment you get it in your hands and you have to take this bit with a pinch of salt (think RX1R). So it’s completely your take to invest in it or not. I am very happy with mine. You can check out the pricing, features and camera specs here. Do send in your thoughts on the RX1.

This article lists some of the finest new cameras launched in 2012. Though the selection is obviously colored by our own preferences and predilections, it will be hard to deny that each one is a top performer in its respective category. However, you have all the say in the matter. Feel free to mention your favorite cameras in the comments.

Canon EOS 1DX [Best Professional DSLR]

The Nikon D4 almost made it here, but was beaten by a worthier opponent. This is definitely the very best camera for professionals, no two ways about it. If you’re one of those wealthy amateurs who simply must have the best, you will also hopefully have the back, legs, stamina and motivation to lug this huge camera around; it weighs over 1,500 gms with battery and card. Add a few more kilos for a couple of long, super-fast Canon L lenses like the 300mm and 600mm, and it’s a brave man who will do battle all day armed with this humongous weapon.

To give you a fair picture, Nikon D4 and 1DX are briefly compared below, based on specs furnished by manufacturers.

You want speed, do you? The Canon can hit 12 fps. That’s 700 shots a minute, leaving the legendary sten machine-carbine, with its 500 ~ 550 shots a minute, trailing way behind.

For 12 fps, you have to set everything manually, use shutter speeds over 1,500th sec., and even then you have to shoot wide open with a fast lens. If you want 14 fps, you’ll have to do all this plus lock up the mirror!

You want super-fast, super-accurate auto-focus? The 1DX’s 61 variously configurable AF points include over 41 cross-type sensors, roundly beating the Nikon D4’s paltry 15 cross-type sensors. The 1DX’s AF system is so complex that there are 5 pages in the menu devoted solely to it. Pros can master this complexity, which is why they get shots that you and I can only dream about.

You shoot in bad weather? Then this is the cannon for you. Rain, snow, hail, mud, sleet… nothing daunts this MBT (Main Battle Tank).

You want resolution? You get 18.1 megapixels on a classic 24mm x 36mm frame size. 18.1 megs is more than enough for anything.

Two card slots? You got it; 2 variously configurable Compact Flash slots.

Its super-tough fully magnesium alloy body makes its competitors feel like plastic toys.

Battery life? 1,500 shots or more – admittedly, a bit low, but see the huge power drain of dual DIGIC+5 processors for everything except AF, which has its own DIGIC+4 chip! Three powerful chips in one awesome camera!

Viewfinder is 100% and super-bright! A recent firmware update makes focus points light up in red at half press of the shutter button.

Balance? It’s great hand-holding the 300mm f. 2.8 L, even a teenager can manage that and get a shot. Whole day? Maybe you need to get in shape first, in a gym.

The metering is so advanced and so accurate that it’s likely to please all action photographers, especially those who cover adventure, sporting events, motor racing, birds in flight, distant wildlife in a sun-dappled landscape, even portraits. This is the ONLY camera that’s perfect for paparazzi, who have got to get their shot, and only milliseconds in which to get it.

The 1DX’s amazing low-light capability (native ISO is 100 to 51200) and unbelievable noise-free performance even at ISO 16,000 is hard to grasp for most of us, who hesitate to shoot even at ISO 1600.

The shutter, with its carbon fibre blades, is rated at 400,000 cycles, more than any other in existence. Now you can shoot 1,111 frames daily for 360 days (even pros need five days off a year!), just as you always wanted to!

This is not a machine for the faint-hearted. Neither is a Lamborghini Gallardo or a Ferrari Enzo. All three have lots in common, including the ability to sort out the men from the boys… besides the ability to quell the yen for more toys! If only the ultimate satisfies you, the 1 DX is it!

It was almost by accident, as it were, that I returned to photography after a gap of almost a quarter of a century. I’d bought a Samsung notebook online, and had been intrigued to discover a little stowaway in the parcel — a freebie in the form of a Samsung pocket digital camera!

I wasn’t too impressed by its appearance. I had last used some pretty solid Nikon SLRs and some of the sharpest lenses in 35mm photography, including the legendary 105mm f2.5 tele-Nikkor and the laser sharp 55mm f3.5 micro-Nikkor.

So after a quick scan of the user’s manual it didn’t need much guessing. I loaded the battery and card (they share the same compartment at the base, next to the USB / tripod socket), set the ISO to its base setting and I was in business. Out there, in the brilliant sunshine, began a journey that was to whisk me off to hitherto unexplored dimensions of imagery, digital being far more responsive a medium than film — a journey that was to transform the way I looked at photography as a creative medium of expression.

Undeterred, I loaded the jpegs onto my hard disk and had a closer look at them. Given the amount of post-shooting ‘darkroom’ manipulation possible, digital imagery relegates film firmly to the background, a statement that may raise howls of protest from its aficionados (and yes, they are still very much around).

I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry: the little Samsung’s jpegs seemed to jump off the monitor. Little did I realize that as I cut my digital teeth on this miniscule marvel I was putting myself in harm’s way, given the fact that the photography bug had never quite exited my system.

It was fascinating, the way images appeared to glow on my PC’s monitor! A touch of tweaking here and there, and voila! I found myself gazing at some of the sharpest, most well exposed images I had ever seen. I was hooked on digital and decided to trade up.

After getting a decent bargain for the Samsung, I headed for the nearest Sony outlet. I’d heard that the Cybershot range of compact cameras were vastly competent.

Front View Of Sony H70

1st May 2011: Ten bucks short of fourteen thousand units of legal tender changed hands and I became the proud owner of a Sony Cybershot DSC-H70, all 16.1 megapixels of it.

Key Specs Of Sony Cybershot DSC H70

It is customary, in equipment reviews, to cover the specifications first, in order to lay the basis for further exploration. I don’t think readers will have too many problems with that, so here we go —with the specs first.

It’s obvious that this is a pretty small camera; what’s NOT so obvious is that it punches far above its weight. The multi-coated 25mm to 250mm (full frame equivalent) zoom is branded as a Sony G lens, which means that Sony is quite proud of its performance — something you can judge for yourself a bit later in this review. While it may not be all that sharp beyond 200mm or so, it otherwise produces killer results, in good light. Incidentally, the 2X digital zoom should be avoided like the plague. It murders quality.

I add the rider in good light because almost all small sensor (1/2.3″ size) compacts today are notorious for two things:

1. Unless one is careful, the highlights can clip, and
2. Chroma noise rears its ugly head in deeply shadowed areas.

The remedy for (1) is to set the exposure compensation at about -1/3 or more, and for (2) is to use flash.

You can’t use an external flash since it doesn’t have a hot shoe (well, you can, if you have an external flash slaved to the Sony’s built-in one), but that built in flash, though a bit short in range, is perfect for those close-up shots (razor sharp, by the way, with stunning contrast thrown in for good measure) or portraits. If you want to use the red eye reduction setting, go ahead, though I’ve never seen red eye in any of my portraits.

It’s got lots of other good things going for it. Apart from P for Program mode, where the camera will give you a (non-flexible) combination of aperture and shutter speed, you can also use M for Manual or i-mode. The former often poses to be a real life-saver in certain situations. While there are only two aperture settings (generated by a built-in neutral density filter) available — f /3.5 and f/ 8, you can use shutter speeds from 30 seconds all the way to 1,600th of a second. There’s also an easy mode for rank beginners.

The best part of it is that the shutter is near-silent (only a very faint click is audible), adding to the Sony’s non-intimidating nature and making it a great tool for candid shooting.

Candid Shot Of A Baby With Sony Cybershot H70

Besides, no one takes the little camera seriously; there are enough people going around clicking their cellphone cameras, which means that the public has become more or less desensitized to having things with lenses pointing their way.

As a result, a tiny point-and-shoot rarely merits even a passing glance, making for some good candid or street shots.

Since most cellphone cameras have a flash, the occasional weak blip of the flash often goes unremarked unless, of course, you’ve turned it off. Surprisingly, the Sony’s flash has several settings, including slow sync, which is great for night shots. If you want to add some detail to the near foreground while allowing the camera to record the background on its own merits this mode is strongly recommended.

A Decent Night Shot With H70

It has a full complement of scene modes, which I never use, unless I wish to get smart and interpret a scene mode to match a particular scene, e.g., ‘Food’ for a close-up shot (there’s no separate macro mode; it goes automatically into macro in P and iAuto). Alternatively, you can always relinquish complete control to the camera by setting Auto and just squeeze the large, round, deliciously soft shutter release button with its distinct half-way point that signifies AE/AF lock, to record the shot.

Believe it or not, it even has tracking focus!

There’s also exposure bracketing, which even the Nikon D3100 and the new D3200 don’t have! You can go into the menu and dial in 3 shots at ±1/3, all the way up to 1 stop exposure variation each.

Note that you have to go into the menu for all the settings via the menu button, barring the settings on the Mode dial on the top deck (and the four way controller on the back). In fact, for a P&S camera, even a rudimentary Mode dial is a luxury.

Deck View (Mode Dial and Other Settings)

I have an ulterior motive for repeatedly using the term ‘P&S’ with reference to this Sony; to set you up for it’s Sunday punch. When you see the low ISO (80 and 100, no more) results, you’ll hit the canvas. The pictures are often so sharp and contrasty, so colorful and vivid, that you won’t believe they were taken with such a small, easily pocketable camera.

Even when I go out shooting with my Nikon DSLRs, the Sony stays on my belt as a back up, for two reasons:

• Firstly, its negligible weight and compact dimensions enable it to hang easily on my belt, looking for all the world like a slightly bulky mobile phone; and
• Secondly, in bright sunlight, at ISO 80, it’s picture quality can give a DSLR a run for its money!

A bold statement indeed and one that I make reluctantly, but I am left with no alternative because, pound for pound and ounce for ounce, in good light, this tiny Sony is a match for even the highly regarded D5100 (which, by the way, is also a 16 MP camera, but its APS-C sized sensor has a lower pixel pitch / physically larger pixels, which makes it far, far superior when it comes to low light shooting, or for enlargements larger than 12″x16″).

Fascinating Features Of Sony H70

If you’ll allow me, I can add one more distinctive feature of the Sony H70.

• Image Stabilization: It has superb image stabilization. I have taken sharp night shots with it at ISO 80, handheld at one full second.
• Panorama Feature: Then there’s the 180° Panorama (a Sony innovation) mode, which works well in both horizontal and portrait orientations. It takes a little practice to get the hang of it, since one has to complete the 180° sweep in perfect sync with the time allocated by the camera, or it’ll be rejected by the camera. Panos can be a very useful feature for vacationers who wish to capture, let’s say, a range of snow-capped peaks.
  

  180° Panorama Shot With H70

• Recording A Movie: It even takes movies, and they don’t look too bad on the LCD either, even in the typical P&S specifications of 1,280 x 720 at 30fps in the popular MPEG-4 format. There are no stereo mikes or sound track, just a monoaural speaker on the top deck and a speaker on the bottom plate. Sony offers us the option of listening to one of four (very faint) music clips (user replaceable through the USB port / your PC’s music store) during replay. Fun…but, hey, I’m a still shooter, so I didn’t go into this feature much further. I may be tagged as conservative, but I firmly believe that movies should be shot with a movie camera.

Drawbacks Of Cybershot H70

Lest I give readers the impression that the H70 is perfect, I hasten to assert that it has its share of drawbacks but then, even the Sony Alpha A99 DSLR has a quite a few!! The perfect camera has yet to see the light of day. I list some of its drawbacks below:

• It is a slow shooter. Shot to shot times are about a second apart.
• It can take consecutive shots at 1.5 frames a second, but the screen blacks out during the sequence, so you have to be content with shooting blind.
• The battery is good for only about 200 shots per charge, which may not suit everyone; a spare battery makes eminent sense.

But given its surprisingly large range of features, including a 2/10 second self timer, histogram, two levels of DRO (dynamic range optimizer) settings besides off, 3 metering modes, 3 focus modes (these are handy, and they work well), i-auto and a wide choice of WB (white balance) including a custom setting, face detection (can be programmed to give priority to either child or adult faces; can be turned off), near-infallible 9-point autofocus system, ‘intelligent’ scene modes, the H70 is definitely worth a close look, especially now that it’s available at well below Rs 10,000, typical of the digital age where equipment depreciates prematurely.

The trick is to locate the item you want — one that you feel will last you a long time and wait till prices are driven down by the gravity of time. It might take 6 months to a year (hence, some patience is indicated), but it will be well worth the wait.

All said and done, I intend clinging to my Sony H70 as long as it continues to churn out one delectable image after another.

At around 3,000 shutter actuations, I think I’ve already got my money’s worth; if it lasts 10,000 shutter actuations or more, you won’t find me complaining. And when it finally develops some age-induced faults that may prove uneconomical to repair, I’ll send it into honorable retirement on my display shelf — a memento of many a happy hours spent in its company.

The Sony H70 is that rare device — pathfinder, progenitor, pace setter, forerunner, call it what you will that sets a trend in motion. Gazing into my crystal ball, I can see a stream of forthcoming Sony cameras that will change the face of photography as we know it. And it is the H70 that undoubtedly helped inspire and herald the birth of the revolutionary Sony Cybershot DSC-RX100, which we hope to review in the near future.

This is part II of Nikon Coolpix P7700’s hands-on-review. Refer part I of the review here.

The Back Plate Of The Camera

A glance at the well-populated back plate will show that the P7700 means business.

We‘ve discussed the vertically sliding control that activates the pop-up flash. We’ve also covered the well-knurled dials on the top deck, so we can now turn our attention to the Disp button. Pressing this changes the amount of exposure-related data on the LCD monitor during replay. Each successive press of this button nudges the amount of data available on-screen, going from no data to minimal to comprehensive (which includes a tone-map with a movable cursor to highlight various areas with the same tone, for accurately exposing a particularly perplexing scene in terms of giving priority to the most important tonal areas). This is not something casual shooters may need or appreciate, but for the experienced shooter, it is manna from heaven.

Beyond lies the heavily knurled main command dial that enables changes to the flexible program when shooting, controls shutter speed in S and M modes, and helps scroll through images in replay.

The comfortable, well ramped rubberised thumb rest offers good purchase to the shooting hand, while the AE/AF lock button does just that, being also configurable through the menu for either of the two actions. Below that is the image replay button, denoted by a right arrow, in blue. Then there is the multi-selector dial-cum-ring.

The Back Plate Of The Camera

The multi-selector control has, at the cardinal points of the compass (moving clockwise) options for the self timer, flash, AF Area and focus mode. The knurled rotary multi-selector ring responds smoothly to thumb rotation, to let you access sub-menus or scroll through images, which the main command dial also does. The OK button is, as always, used to lock in a selection.

In manual focus mode, pressing up or down at north or south points moves the focus point back and forth, while turning the knurled ring helps to fine tune it.

Lastly, we have the menu button and the familiar delete button (configurable through the menu for one of two ways of effecting deletes), with its easily recognizable trashcan motif.

The vari-angle TFT LCD screen is a bright, fully articulated, 3″ affair, folding out 90◦ and rotating 180◦ to even face the subject (great for self portraits or group shots with the help of the ML-L3 remote).

There is not the slightest wobble or jerkiness in its deliciously smooth and positive action. 921K dots is more than enough to give a very high resolution: it’s moot whether a higher-res screen (of this size) can actually be appreciated by the unaided human eye. When the screen is folded flat against the body with its back facing outwards, the camera can’t be switched on, thus preventing accidental activation in a bag or pocket. This position also protects the screen from damage.

The plethora of information available on-screen can be judged by looking at the picture above. If you count carefully, you will see about 20 bits of vital information including WB, ISO, virtual horizon, histogram, VR on, movement warning, picture control, macro, P mode, exposure information, battery condition, shots remaining, flash off, matrix metering set, Active D-lighting, NR (noise reduction on), left dial on top plate set to Picture Quality, RAW, full resolution set and exposure compensation on -1. A nightmare for the unskilled snap-shooter, this camera is the enthusiast / professional’s dream come true.

The Bottom Plate

There is little here for the tourist. Firstly, there’s the camera manufacturer’s label mentioning source, model number and other sundry information.

Near the centre is the standard ¼” tripod socket, while on the extreme left is a cavity, covered by a spring-loaded cover, that accommodates the proprietary EN-EL 14 Nikon battery and memory card. This battery / memory card compartment, in turn, is sited within the hand grip.

And with that, we come to the end of our survey of the camera’s beautiful, marbled black, mottled-finish exterior and its external features. It’s now time to peer under the bonnet.

The Bottom Plate

Menu, Options & Settings

Depending on the shooting mode, pressing the menu button throws up a list of options. For instance, in P shooting mode, it offers the following items in the shooting menu:
• Custom picture control.
• Metering.
• Continuous … i.e., drive mode.
• AF Area mode … Subject Tracking and Target Area Mode are unavailable.
• Autofocus mode.
• Flash exp. Compensation.
• Noise reduction filter … i.e., 3 levels of NR as well as off.
• Built-in ND filter.
• Distortion control.
• Active D-Lighting … i.e., Nikon’s proprietary tone management system. Note that when it is enabled, the metering options are greyed out.
• Zoom memory.
• Startup zoom positions… these are configurable in seven focal lengths – 28, 35, 50, 85, 105, 135 and 200 mm, mimicking real-life focal lengths.
• M exposure preview… i.e., the effects of shooting settings are visible on-screen, a very helpful feature indeed.
• Focus coupled metering… not recommended.
• Commander mode… i.e., set it when the pop-up flash is configured to control an off-camera flash such as the Nikon SB-700.

The only other menu option is the setup menu, which displays the following sub-menu options:

• Auto off … i.e., the time the LCD monitor stays on.
• Format card.
• Language.
• TV settings.
o Video mode.
o HDMI.
o HDMI device control.
o HDMI 3D output.
• External mike (level of) sensitivity.
• Customize command dials.
• Command dial rotation.
• Multi selector right press (off or on).
• Delete button options (two options).
• AE/AF lock button (AE lock, AF lock, AE (hold) both AE and AF).
• Fn1 + shutter button (configure).
• Fn1 + command dial (configure).
• Fn1 + selector dial (configure).
• Fn1 guide display.
• Fn2 button.
• Customize My Menu.
• Reset file numbering.
• GPS options.
• Eye-Fi upload.
• MF distance indicator units.
• Reverse indicators -0+… i.e., select which way to turn the dials.
• Flash control.
• Reset all.
• Firmware version.

The Final Verdict

Designing a camera involves a whole set of compromises. A larger sensor means higher quality images and superior low light capability. But it also means that the lens becomes much bulkier and can be slow at the long end. If the lens is shrunk, the zoom range also shrinks. Weight, IQ, size, zoom range, low light capability, operating speed are all parts of this fluid equation.

The P7700 impressed me with its lens based VR, its superb optical quality and its vast array of controls that gives the users maximum control over the shooting experience, enriching it beyond almost every digital camera I have yet owned.

If shot-to-shot times weren’t all that hot, if a buffer full of RAW images took several seconds to clear, if tracking focus at higher speeds meant that the LCD blacked out, if there was a one-second lag between pressing the shutter button (there is no dedicated movie button) and start of recording, all I have to say is that I don’t normally shoot sports, anticipate the action when I do and press the button accordingly, and though life is short, it isn’t that short that I can’t spare a few seconds for this noble instrument to recover from a long burst. I’m not that hard a taskmaster.

A major consideration that weighed with me while selecting the P7700 was that it uses the same EN-EL 14 battery as my D5100 and D3100 DSLRs. Other common accessories are the Nikon speedlights, the GP-1 GPS unit, the ML-L3 and MC-DC2 remote control units. Coupled with the sterling qualities of the P7700 on paper (and confirmed in the field – it is a superb picture taking device, one that puts the F back in Fun), I am very glad I opted for it.

In time, as technology advances (and as Nikon parsimoniously adds features from higher models, e.g., the faster Expeed C3 processor and, perhaps, an EVF ?), the P7700 will evolve further. Indeed, after seeing the reaction of buyers to the trailblazing Sony RX100 and its superior image / low light capability, not only Nikon but other manufacturers must already be planning their next move. I won’t be surprised if there is soon a glut of compact cameras with 2/3” or even 1” type sensors. But till then, I intend making the most of the wonderful P7700.

There is no denying the fact that given its size, it ought to have had at least a 2/3” sensor and a faster, more sophisticated processor. Even if the lens had then shrunk to a 28-140 mm zoom, why, that’s what the Canon PowerShot G15 has right now! Backed by more efficient software, a 2X digital zoom would still give 280 mm at the long end, which is quite enough for most users.

But within the compromises that Nikon had to deal with, I feel the P7700 is an excellent outcome and I have no hesitation in recommending it strongly, especially because of the value it offers at a very modest price.

Canon and Nikon, the two major photo equipment manufacturers from Japan, have long been engaged in a titanic slugfest. Sometimes one gains the upper hand, sometimes the other. But in the cash rich US market, which is a prime target for camera manufacturers, it is Canon that enjoys the lead in terms of overall sales. This is in no small measure due to its vastly popular range of SureShot and PowerShot compact cameras.

Nikon, however, has made heavy weather of it in the same segment. This is hardly surprising given its mindset, which has traditionally been focused on SLR cameras ever since the venerable Nikon F hit the market in 1959. Nikon’s compact camera offerings, while not exactly paragons of excellence, managed to satisfy those who felt the Nikon reputation for excellence rubbed off on them if they were seen flaunting a colorful little camera that happened to bear the legendary Nikon name and which was capable of taking fairly good pictures.

But fairly good is hardly the encomium that describes Nikon’s professional quality equipment. However, try as it might, Nikon simply couldn’t rustle up the enthusiasm, expertise or élan to clash with Canon’s compacts. It was a source of acute embarrassment for the boys at Yurakucho 1-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo that their world famous camera and lens making company couldn’t do a repeat act when it came to pocket cameras…

2011 must have been a good year at Nikon Corporation. The D7000, Nikon’s flagship DX model, had received rave reviews and there was a huge backlog of orders, and not just because of the floods that had crippled the Thailand plant where the D7K was manufactured. The D3100 was outselling everything in sight, and sales of the D5100 had gone through the roof. It was almost as if Nikon had it all pretty much wrapped up.

Thomas Jefferson had said “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”. And Nikon had learned its lesson — corporate complacency was a definite doom. In retrospect, their designers, visualizers, engineers and corporate honchos must have made 60-day weeks a habit. The proof of the pudding was in the eating.

2012 was The Year of The Nikon, if I may so say. No pigs, dragons or other wild life or livestock for me, begging your pardon. The D3200 with its 24 MP sensor was followed by the fabulous D800 and the D800E, both fitted with a new 36 MP sensor and advanced C3 processor. The magnificent Nikon D4 had already sealed the victory when the low-end FX model, the D600 was launched. Compact, lightweight, with a 24.2 MP sensor, the D600 was a big hit. Nikon had covered all its bases well. High pixel counts but no sign of noise. In fact, high ISO performance in low light was mind boggling. The self-styled experts dived for cover as Nikon bent the laws of physics with the aid of newer, better mathematical algorithms that rolled back all the earlier theories pertaining to luminous and chroma noise at high ISOs.

True, Canon’s new 5D Mk III was a great camera, but the low light performance of its 22MP sensor was no match for the D800’s. Check out this news article over at CNET.

Nikon went a step further in the D800E, removing the anti-aliasing filter to give it the image quality hitherto never seen before in a full-frame camera. Canon took such a battering that the referee had to stop the fight, declaring a technical knock-out. Canon, nose bleeding profusely, was carried away on a stretcher.

But, coming back to compacts…

By the looks of things, Nikon seems to lay great store by age-old maxims like “Try, try, try again!”, “Third time lucky!” and “Imitation in the best form of flattery”. Somewhat lost in compact camera territory, Nikon set out to produce a copy of Canon’s then bestselling PowerShot G11. All they succeeded in doing was producing a copy-cat version called the Coolpix P7000 that resembled G11 closely in everything but performance. When they launched the slightly upgraded P7100 in 2012, Canon’s new G12 promptly slew it.

In retrospect, the Nikon designers must have decided to follow Britannia India’s advice to “Eat Healthy, Think Better”. The tasks before them were to reduce the bulk, rationalize the features; add those that would enhance hands-on control, upgrade the sensor / processor, give it a faster lens that retained the class leading zoom range (7.1 X, 28-200mm), add a fully articulated LCD monitor, make it rugged enough to withstand rough use — the list was obviously a long one.

August 2012 saw the new flagship Coolpix P7700 sail out from under Canon’s shadow. It streamlined the camera’s appearance by dropping the viewfinder which, in any case, was almost useless given the impressive 28-200mm zoom range. The 3″ (brightness adjustable in 5 steps) fully articulating 921K LCD more than made up for the loss. Despite the dated (2010) EXPEED C2 processor (we’ll go into this disappointing feature later), the new BSI (Back side illuminated) 1.7″ 12.2MP CMOS sensor was now able to do full justice to the faster new (f/2 to f/4 as opposed to the f/2.8~5.6 of the D7100) fixed zoom lens (filter size 40.5mm). The one-stop jump in speed puts the P7700 more less at par with its rivals.

Canon’s new G15, while also opting for a 1.7″ 12.2 MP sensor, retained the optical viewfinder but opted for a fixed screen while eliminating the articulating LCD screen that had won Canon G series such a large fan following. Moreover, image to image, it fell just a tad behind the new Coolpix P7700. Fans rejected the G15 en masse, going back to the time-tested G12. It was a small triumph for the Coolpix team.

The P7700 is not in the usual sense of the term — a ‘compact’ camera. At 118.5 X 72.5 X 50.4 mm and with a light but nevertheless metal (magnesium alloy) frame, it’s too big and heavy for a shirt pocket. It’s more suited for a jacket pocket or the small Lowepro–type bag that comes free with the camera (in India). Many would say it is compact only in the sense that it’s much smaller than a DSLR. At 393 gms, it isn’t all that light, either. But for someone like me with fairly large hands, and for whom the P510 superzoom, weighing 555gms, seems tiny and light as a feather, the P7700 is small and light indeed.

Nikon Coolpix P7700

Over the past year, I had often considered buying the P7100, but a little voice in my head asked me to wait. Now the voice was silent. Once again, I found myself at a Nikon dealer (it was getting to be a habit, I told myself ruefully). It was the 12th of November 2012. Once again, 22K slid smoothly into the man’s cash drawer. The Coolpix P7700 was my Diwali gift to myself.

This time, I didn’t walk out shooting. I was field-testing another camera in Shahjahanabad, Delhi’s Old Quarter, also known as the ‘Walled City’, so the P7700 had to take a back seat.

The 6th of January 2013 proved to be a very chilly day, but I had an important meeting in Connaught Place. What a great opportunity to put the newcomer through its paces! A cold wave was sweeping across north India and hordes of people in search of inexpensive woolens thronged the open air Palika Bazar market.

The conditions were ideal for shooting — a late afternoon sun cast golden light filtered through trees, over a scene frantic with activity. The fast lens allowed me to use medium-high shutter speeds at base ISO (80). I had switched to silent mode (accessible through the set-up menu) by turning off the synthetic shutter sound and all beeps and stealthily shot a few frames (all jpegs by the way; though the P7700 has a RAW option as well). No one heard me or noticed me.

I shot some colorful shop windows, using the articulating LCD to good effect, shooting over people’s heads or catching the action from ankle height.

It was 4 PM when I reluctantly stowed the P7700 in a jacket pocket and walked into the meeting place …

I was very pleased with the camera’s performance so far. A quick tour of the camera’s features may reveal why…

The Top Deck Of Coolpix P7700

The P7700’s top deck fairly shouts that it is an enthusiast’s camera. It seems to have a dial or button for everything. Apart from the beautifully click-stopped mode dial, there is a knurled dial offering ±3 — yes, you heard right — plus-minus three stops of exposure control. Very few cameras offer more than two stops compensation leeway. Even the much pricier (in India) Fujifilm X10 / X20 offer only ±2 stops compensation!

Nikon Coolpix P7700’s Top Deck

Anxious to preserve highlights, I set the dial at a full -1 stop negative exposure. I could always pull up the shadows later, in post processing, even in jpegs. At base ISO (80), the chances of noise creeping into shadow areas were negligible. An orange LED acts as the null point for the ±control, glowing orange whenever compensation is dialed in — an excellent feature. I tell you, this is a very well thought out instrument, full of clever little touches to sugar the deal.

The mode dial is a good example of the P7700’s eye for detail. There is the usual P mode (flexible program; shutter speed / aperture combinations changed by turning the main command dial near the thumb rest), A for aperture priority (you select the aperture with the sub-command dial in front), S for shutter priority (you set the shutter speed by turning the main command dial and the camera automatically selects the aperture), Full Auto (you just point and shoot), Scene (20 canned presets, including Scene Auto Selector, portrait, landscape, night portrait, pet portrait, etc.), Effects (including creative monochrome, cross process, defocus during exposure, zoom exposure, soft, sepia, painting and high/low key), Movie and Custom Movie (the latter offering optional aperture / shutter speed/WB settings for use in movie mode, with full optical zoom), and three user configurable groups of U-for-User settings covering all the usual shooting parameters. That was awesome! Even the much vaunted D7000 SLR offers only two. This was equivalent to carrying around four cameras in one because, with one twist of the dial, I could access a completely different set of shooting parameters that totally changed the camera’s operating priorities.

Just above the exposure compensation dial is the Fn2 button which offers artificial horizon, histogram and grid lines in the LCD. You can (and I did) select all three at one go! The fourth option is a 3-stop neutral density filter, which I then set at Fn2. I might need it in case I was shooting in such bright light that even with base ISO, I’d need a shutter speed higher than the maximum offered by the camera, which is 1/4000th second, for shooting wide open, i.e., at full aperture – f2, f4, or anything in between. Note that the Sony RX 100 doesn’t have a neutral density filter, though the Fujifilm X10 / X20 both have it.

Moving to the left of the top plate, past the shutter button and zoom toggle, we find the hot shoe (fitted with the plastic BS-1 hot shoe protector) beyond which is the click-stopped ‘Quick Menu’ dial offering swift access to image compression/size, ISO, WB (white balance), auto bracketing (shutter speed, aperture or WB), My Menu (which can be set to offer a selection of frequently used menu items), and ‘picture contro’’, i.e., image quality settings such as Standard, Vivid, Neutral, Monochrome, etc. I love this dial and use it frequently.

Above it, submerged flush with the top plate, is the pop-up flash, which rises when a small tab (demarcated by lightning bolt and Pac-Man symbols) just below it, on the back of the camera, is pushed up.

A note on the flash capability of the P7700: The pop up flash can be programmed within the menu to act as a flash commander for a single off-camera Nikon Speedlight, synching at up to 1/2000th sec due to the then active electronic shutter! Awesome! Only the top-of-the-DX-line Nikon D7000 DSLR can do this! Flash output can be compensated within the shooting menu (Nikon SB-400 flash only). Nikon obviously feels the P7700 can be used for more than just recording baby’s first step!! Judging by the great results I could get up to ISO 1600, I would agree wholeheartedly.

The Front Of Nikon Coolpix P7700

The P7700 sure is one handsome specimen! Only available in all-black, the P7700 evokes the classic rangefinder look. On the left is the large, stickily rubberized, soft hand-grip which will pamper your shooting hand throughout the day.

Atop it, canted at an ergonomically correct angle, sits the sub-command dial that is used to change the apertures in both manual as well as aperture priority mode. That’s about all it does, though.

Front View Of The Camera

Above the big f2 ~ f4 zoom with its hypnotic green-orange multi-coating is the autofocus illuminator, while above it (just below the hot shoe) are two tiny holes: the stereo microphones. To the right of the lens is a near invisible dot that receives the IR (infrared) pulse from the optional ML-L3 IR remote control.

Low down on the left, below the lens, is the Fn1 button, which can be programmed from within the menu. Acting in concert with the shutter button, main command dial or the multi-control wheel on the back, it offers a whole raft of options.

Now is the ideal time to bring it up — the P7700, in case you weren’t counting, offers six control wheels — the three dials on the top deck, the two command dials and the multi-selector’s ring! Anyone who wants more customizable controls must be nuts!

The right side of the camera (still looking at it from the front) hosts two tough plastic covers which conceal the MIC (optional external microphone ME-1) and GPS (optional GP-1) ports. A small monaural speaker is located between the GPS flap and the hinge of the LCD monitor.

Looking At The Right Side From Front

The left side of the camera has a plastic covering for the AV and HDMI ports. This also accepts the MC-DC2 wired remote control.

Lower down, at the base, is a hinged cover made of tough plastic that hides the receptacle for the optional AC Adapter EH-5b. In my book, any camera offering AC adapter facility is built tough enough to easily withstand the pressure of a day-long shooting session.

Continued in Part II of the review.

This is Part II of the article titled “Is It Worth Buying Nikon D5100 Now That D5200 Is Here?”. Refer Part I of the article here.

Effects: In line with its pre-determined role (as a so-called ‘entry level’ dslr that also has highly advanced features tucked in the menu) of capturing a high percentage of the dslr buying populace on the planet, the D5100 has a typically point-and-shoot fun feature marked ‘Effects’ on the mode dial. These effects are usable both before as well as after shooting (available in Image Review > Retouch feature in the menu).

I have used some of these, including selective color, color sketch, high and low key, silhouette, even fish-eye and miniature effect (the latter imparts a sort of perspective control focus selectivity to an image), but I rarely use them unless I’m in the mood for experimentation. There is even an HDR (High Dynamic Range) feature in the camera that takes two shots and combines them to produce a JPEG with a wide range of tones. It works quite well, actually.

I also liked combining color sketch effects with further in-camera conversion to monochrome line drawing, though. I used both versions for some post processing of portraits and, in conjunction with a little retouching in Photoshop to remove facial excesses caused by the effect and finally ended up with some interesting results.

The D5100 has a lot of serious features that allow you to take complete charge of the camera, as possible in Full Manual mode, or in partial control, as in the ‘P’, ‘S’ and ‘A’ settings. Not being a purist, I don’t believe in posturing and insisting on shooting on Manual all the time. I aim to take good pictures that suit my taste or reflect my vision and if the D5100’s automatic and semi-automatic modes let me do that, why should I complain?

The D5100 rarely lets me down, because I am beginning to understand how to use the various features. In fact, it occasionally surprises me with its immense possibilities. I don’t think that, even after a year with the camera, I know all its features intimately, such is the depth of the features this camera offers.

Metering & Focus In D5100

Metering and focus are two things that are of immense importance as far as IQ (image quality) goes. Why?

You can choose to leave the camera on ‘Auto Area’ or AF-A mode, in which case the camera decides where you want the focus point to be. A comprehensive in-camera database of 30,000 images shot under a variety of conditions means that the camera’s algorithms possess an almost prescient knowledge of your intentions. I use this setting very often, especially when all else fails, and it has yet to let me down.

AF-C goes one better; it enables continuous focus. So if the subject is moving, the camera will track it automatically across the frame. This is particularly great for movies. And for portraits!

An option worth looking at is the ‘Single Point focus’ setting. The D5100 has 11 focus points, visible as red dots that light up when the shutter button is depressed half way. Of these 11, only the central point is a cross-type sensor, i.e., it is able to read depth as well as lateral placement of an image. No issues; in the field, all the red dots work about equally well. If you are in the mood to be choosy, the four arrows on the multi-controller on the back may be used to select the red dot in case you wish to place it at the focus point of your choice.

A word of caution here: Some people focus and then recompose the view in the viewfinder. They forget that if the plane of focus changes while doing so, the focus will shift to another point of the image and your main area (such as the eye in a portrait) will be slightly out of focus. If I feel the point of focus set by me will shift when I recompose, I prefer to use the nearest red dot to use as the focusing aid. A half press of the shutter button will tell me if it’s where I want the focus point to be. It’s quite simple, really.

I repeat, please be vigilant, there are pitfalls involved in focusing with DSLRs. I’ll repeat the whole thing because it’s so crucial to the quality of your images.

Say you are shooting a portrait; you position the central red dot (the one with the lone cross-type sensor) directly on the subject’s nearest eye and squeeze the shutter release. Will you always get a sharp image? Not necessarily! That’s because the red dot you’re relying on as last positioned by you may be miles off course simply because the plane of focus shifted as you recomposed.

Two more minor niggles in the D5100. It is very easy to accidentally nudge the arrows on the multi-controller while taking the camera out of the bag or carrying case. This has the effect of shifting the focusing point to a sensor other than the one you set last. It’s something worth bearing in mind that there is no way to lock a sensor in place. By the way, I usually keep my 18-105mmG f.3.5~5.6 AF-S zoom-Nikkor more or less permanently mounted on my D5100. More about this lens in a later review.

My advice is to set the camera on AF-C, i.e., continuous autofocus. This ensures that, after I’ve focused, even the slightest subject or camera movement does not cause defocus, since any slight focus shift is immediately rectified by the camera! It took me a long time to figure this one out.

Finally, there are the canned exposure modes, which Nikon refers to as ‘Scene’ mode (on the mode dial). Select the Auto Scene mode and the camera will decide (after consulting the database) the settings appropriate for the scene. It works quite well, too!

There are also a whole lot of other scenes, from pet portrait, food, night portrait, night landscape, beach / snow, and sunsets/sunrises. These are perfect for beginners or those who want to take an ‘insurance’ shot with Scene mode, to cover their earlier attempt(s) with the PASM modes. The D5100 tries very hard to ensure that you get your picture!

Functions And Buttons

The D5100 has a very minimalist design for such a powerful instrument. The hinged (beautiful, 921K dot), articulating display takes up a lot of room, which seems to have given the Nikon designers an excuse to avoid too many function-specific buttons.

In fact, to my dismay, there are no buttons for selecting ISO, WB (white balance) or drive mode/release mode (the D3100 and the D5200 both have a lever/button respectively, to adjust the drive mode in a jiffy). No, the lever below the mode dial – unlike the one on the D3100 – does not have anything to do with drive/release mode; it initiates and cancels live view. Talk about confusing! One is required to dive into the menu for making the drive / release (single, continuous, self timer, quiet) settings.

The lone Fn button, sitting below the flash pop-up button on the left of the camera, enables you to select one out of several functions. Most people prefer to set it to enable selection of the ISO – one presses it while turning the command dial with the thumb till the ISO of choice is reached.

By the way, twirling the command dial while pressing the flash button offers various flash setting options and if the +/- exposure button is also pressed (apart from the flash button) one can even adjust the flash compensation. This really neat feature allows one to adjust the output of not only the built-in flash but even a (compatible) external flash like the Nikon SB 700, mounted on the hot shoe.

The few buttons on the back will be familiar to all users of digital cameras. There are two or three buttons, however, that I’d like to single out for comment.

The first one is the Info button on the top plate. Not to be confused with the i button on the back (which offers a short-cut to the select screen menu, for fast re-setting of options) the rather useless INFO button’s sole purpose is to switch the LCD either on or off. Since the i button also does this on first press (on being pressed a second time, it makes the shooting menu go ‘live’, for editing), this button could well have been assigned to setting the ISO. Pity! Did the Nikon designers run out of coffee just then?

The second button I’ll comment on is not one but two! See the green dots next to the Menu and i buttons? Press and hold these two buttons simultaneously for a couple of seconds and voila! — all the settings you’ve so painfully made, menu after sub-menu, are returned to their factory (default) settings! Only for emergency use, viz., if you’ve really gone and messed up your settings irretrievably/ in-comprehensively. I’d advise you to give this two-button arrangement a wide berth.

The AE/AF Lock button can be configured to lock exposure, focus or both via the menu. I rarely bother with it, being quite used to focusing with a half press of the shutter button and relying on the meter to fine tune the exposure with the +/- exposure compensation button and twirling the command dial with the thumb.

The less said about the multi-control dial at the back the better. I’m referring to the one with the four arrows at the cardinal points of the compass. It’s bad enough that it doesn’t enable access to focus settings, ISO or WB; it’s a plain insult that it doesn’t even have a control wheel for fine tuning various options or scrolling through sub-menus (or scrolling through images by rotating the [non-existent] knurled ring, as found on the Coolpix P510 and P7700).

Apart from the OK button at its center (which is used to confirm/lock in settings made in the menu) the only other useful feature is the four arrows, used for scrolling through menu or sub-menu items, or sifting through images in playback mode (initiated by the button with the “->” next to the rubberized thumb pad).

The magnifying and help/negative magnification buttons and the obvious trashcan button (the second press permanently deletes images in the playback mode) round up our review of the buttons; a drought area in this otherwise wonderful imaging instrument.

The Final Verdict

Light (540 gms with battery and card); APS-C (Nikon calls it DX) sensor 23.6mmx 15.6 mm, 16.2 MP resolution (as against the near identical sized but 24.1 MP sensor of the D5100; pixel size 4.79µ as against the D5200’s 3.92µ pixels; a 921K, brightness adjustable, swivelling LCD; GPS compatible (optional GP-1 unit); inexpensive wireless remote (ML-L3); mono built-in mike, but an optional ME-1 stereo microphone is mountable in the hot shoe, plugging into the relevant port under the flap on the left side of the body; accepts all of Nikon’s fabulous speedlights including the SB 400, SB 600, SB 700, SB 900, SB 910 – all giving multi-flash capability using an optional flash controller and thus able to wirelessly sync into Nikon’s amazing Creative Lighting System (CLS) giving infallible iTTL capability; Nikon’s proprietary Active D-Lighting tone management system; ability to use (one way or the other) almost all Nikkor lenses and an unknown number of lenses from independent manufacturers; standard ¼” screw threaded, steel tripod receptacle on the base; Full 1080 autofocus HDMI video @30 fps, video out to HDTV; EN-EL14 battery (shared with the D3100, P7100 and P7700; not weatherproof but adequately rugged body made of tough polycarbonate composite (also a ‘plastic’, but not exactly the stuff your bathroom mugs are made of !); SD, SDHC, SDXC and Wi-Fi card compatible; alas! only one card compartment; insane 102,000 night vision ISO speed in Effects; many special effects possible in movie mode; two-image HDR jpegs done in-camera; multiple exposures possible; in-camera Nikon Electronic Image (.NEF) – raw image processing… the list goes on and on. Yet, the D5100 could have been even more, at little extra cost.

Such a capable machine, so well balanced, responsive and cooperative once you get the hang of it, such amazing image quality… yet so many opportunities missed, thus falling slightly short of true greatness. But hardly surprising, really; it fits the schizophrenic character of the D5100 — a camera with an induced identity crisis.

It’s incomprehensible, this inscrutable willingness of the Nikon design team to let a potentially great camera like the D5100 fall between two stools, to dumb down a powerful camera and hobble it into submission, to force it to accept its role as a mere upper entry level beast and thereby not pose a challenge to the model above it in the pecking order — the D7000 (with which it shares its famous 16.2 MP sensor and EXPEED C2 processor).

It goes without saying that this undeniably attractive, powerful, sweet handling, fast shooting instrument (once suitably configured) is deprived of its rightful place in the sun, in favor of the D7000 which, by default (as the beneficiary of Nikon’s full and not-so-impartial attention) is the top-of-the-line model. I suspect it’s all done on purpose, to achieve what the marketing boys call product differentiation. But this is going a mite too far…even with all the suggested tweaks, there is enough to differentiate the two. They needn’t have hung, drawn and quartered the D5100.

All said and done, image for image, the D5100 is a camera hard to beat. I do not think ‘moving up’ to the D5200 from the D5100 is a wise move: the D5100 is strong medicine indeed and is likely to remain so far into the foreseeable future. Selling at a price point slightly below the D3200 today, the D5100 is the must bargain of the decade. Snap it up while stocks last.

Flashback: It was 2011. I had been away from Nikonland for over twenty-three years! Circumstances had compelled me to part company with my beloved Nikon FE, with its exquisite MD-12 motor drive.

In a fit of masochism not entirely unknown to camera enthusiasts, along with the camera body and drive motor, I also disposed of my lenses — an act of folly I was to bitterly regret later. So off went my trusty 50mm f.1.4, the legendary 105mm f.2.5, the indispensable 80-200 f.4.5 zoom-Nikkor and the razor sharp 55mm f.3.5 micro-Nikkor.

Fast forward to November 2011. I stood outside a Nikon retail outlet with Rs 40,000 in my pocket. It was time to return to Nikonmania, and the wad of currency notes was my visa. I took a deep breath and strode in …

Exhaustive reading had forewarned me that the old regime was gone; a whole new digital world had replaced it. Gone for the most part were the tank-like metal bodies, the near-indestructible lenses, the infallible weather-proofing, the sheer delight of manual shooting (though the FE did have an excellent ‘Auto’ function) and viewfinder focusing aids that made pinpoint focusing a cakewalk. I wasn’t expecting much from the new fangled technology, the plastic bodies, the relatively flimsy plastic-bodied lenses, some of which even had – horror of horrors – plastic mounts!

But a Nikon I’d set out to buy and a Nikon DSLR I had bought out of loyalty to a brand that had served me well in the past was a slightly different experience. Never mind that a small voice at the back of my head kept telling me it wasn’t going to be the same experience as the FE and that I’d better be prepared to cut the D5100 a little slack.

The small voice was right. It was a different experience. The plastic camera body may have been predominant, but it didn’t feel at all flimsy and the images coming up on my screen and, later, on my monitor, blew me out of my socks. I tried to control my mounting excitement as I put the Nikon D5100 through its paces. Harsh sunlight, low light, subdued room lighting (remember, I only had the ‘humble’ 18-55mm f.3.5~5.6 kit lens…but more on that later), mixed lighting — the D5100 took it all in its stride. I was intrigued: it was time for a closer look …

Nikon D5100 — Body & Design

Pick it up and the camera seems to mould itself to your hands. Anyone who’s into handguns knows the feeling of completeness when holding the pistol of one’s choice. Fingers seem to curl around the butt just right, the index finger seems to find the trigger the way an F-16 slides onto the carrier deck in heaving seas.

In short, it fits like a glove. My first “WOW” moment came when I first held a Walther PPK 7.62mm. It didn’t come again till the FE with its solid MD-12 motor drive came into my hands. Would the D5100 be a repeat act?

The short answer is: not quite.

The D5100 is one seriously small camera, not much bigger than its baby brother, Nikon D3100 (which we shall cover in a later article).

True, it fit well enough to suggest that the designers had taken a clay mould of my hand before designing the grip, but it was so small that my pinky found itself curling around under the base. That wasn’t all bad, because it offered some support from underneath.

My index finger came to rest naturally on the shiny shutter button, with enough leeway to access the on-off switch, the (red) movie recording button, the info button or the +/- exposure compensation button without having to stretch. There was a ridge on the grip that gave a snug fit to the fingers, and the thumb came to rest on a rubberized, tilted ramp that increased the feeling of stability. At 4 frames per second, the drive beat my MD-12 motor drive by half a frame a second. And 16.2 megapixels is no laughing matter when it comes from Nikon, I reminded myself. The flip — our 921K LCD screen was a delight.


Before I talk any more about the body and controls, let us first take a visual tour of the camera:

The Top Deck Of D5100: Looking down at the camera, one sees nothing on the left of the LCD, but towards the right there is a mode dial, co-axial to which is a live view lever. The mode dial has markings / detents for Manual (M), Shutter Priority (S), Aperture Priority (A) and Program (P). The last three are all variants of ‘auto’ mode. There are other modes, too, which we’ll discuss later.

Let’s see how all these different modes work, in practice:

Manual (M): In the Manual mode, rotating the knurled command dial changes the shutter speed. Turning it while holding down the +/- exposure control button enables one to change the aperture. A horizontal metering bar appears at the bottom of the LCD screen or viewfinder. The center pip is the null point, with under – or over-exposure represented by more pips to left or right.

An exposure meter is an instrument that reduces all that it sees to the tones / values of an 18% grey card reading. Go solely by it without using your own estimates of the correct light values of a scene as determined by you, and you can find that you metered wrongly. Go by your hunch / estimate of the exposure and adjust the meter suitably, in manual. A little experience, or a few test exposures, will help you get the exposure you want.

One of the BIG advantages of metering manually is that if you are keen to photograph only one scene in lighting of fixed intensity, once you’ve got the exposure right, you don’t need to adjust it again.

But if light levels are fluctuating, it’s usually best to take the automatic route (remembering to dial in the degree of exposure compensation that yields the kind of exposure values you prefer, i.e., bright or slightly darker. The D5100 lets you do all this in less time than it takes to describe.

The matrix meter on the D5100, in true Nikon fashion, generally gives very accurate exposures and is not easily fooled. The other options, to be used when warranted, are the usual suspects of center-weighted and spot metering. I always categorize a scene I’m about to shoot in terms of general, condensed and highly concentrated. That is, whether my main subject is the scene as a whole, a central portion thereof, or just a tiny fraction of it, say about 2 or 3%. This makes it easy for me to set the metering pattern when I want my exposures to be spot-on.

Shutter Priority (S): This setting allows you to fix the shutter speed, leaving it to the camera to adjust the aperture. This setting is usually the best for action shots or low light, where a certain minimum shutter speed is advisable. The camera will perform within the minimum / maximum limits set by you. Check out more about beautiful effects induced by shutter speed here.

Aperture Priority (A): This setting allows you to set the aperture, with the camera adjusting the shutter speed seamlessly. This is best for landscape, interior or portrait photographers, who normally need control over depth-of-field for every shot. Learn more about aperture settings here.

The third parameter of exposure – the ISO speed – is discussed elsewhere. Taken together, shutter speed, aperture and ISO settings determine the overall exposure. Refer this article for the pillars of exposure. If this concept is not clear, a little experimentation with the D5100 using different settings will reveal the best combinations depending on various situations / your personal requirements / preferences.

Which ISO Setting To Use: This is a vital question and beyond the scope of this piece. Future articles will explore all the three settings and their ramifications individually and in greater detail. Suffice it to say that if you have the luxury of sufficient light and a slow or stationary subject, choose the lowest possible ISO, for maximum image quality.

If the light is poor, there is significant subject movement or you have a slow lens, it’s better to bump up the ISO. The D5100 can give amazing results even at ISO 2000 or beyond. Many people even set it to Auto ISO and forget that part of the equation, the 16.2 MP sensor on the D5100 (which it shares with the prosumer model, the D7000) is that good.

Program (P): In this mode, the camera offers a certain combination of shutter speed and aperture. Nikon calls it “flexible program”, meaning that, unlike the Auto mode, you can change this combination depending on your intentions. Increasing the aperture (wider lens opening) will give a narrower depth of field; increasing the shutter speed will let you freeze movement. Turning the command dial in either direction gives you different combinations of settings, all of which result in correct exposure. I’ve italicized ‘correct exposure’ because the aperture or shutter speed may not be appropriate for the depth of field (or lack of it) or control over subject movement which you actually want.

Auto (A): After the ‘P’ setting, we come to the Auto setting. This can bamboozle you into handing over complete control to the camera, especially if Auto ISO has been set in the menu. Not for nothing does Nikon classify the D5100 as an entry level camera. But don’t let that nomenclature upset you: it is just a marketing decision to widen the target audience. The Auto feature can give excellent results for ordinary, everyday subjects that do not need any special attention being paid to either depth of field or shutter speed, or when you have to shoot fast and hope for the best. However, I would always prefer to use the P mode, because I can adjust the shutter speed / aperture combination in the instant it takes to twirl the command dial with my thumb.

To be continued in Part II of this review. [Check out Part II of this review here.] ]]> https://www.apnphotographyschool.com/equipment/is-it-worth-buying-nikon-d5100-now-that-d5200-is-here-part-i/feed/ 0 https://www.apnphotographyschool.com/equipment/which-lens-should-i-buy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=which-lens-should-i-buy https://www.apnphotographyschool.com/equipment/which-lens-should-i-buy/#respond Mon, 03 Dec 2012 12:21:13 +0000 https://www.apnphotographyschool.com/?p=15537

Choosing a lens for the DSLR can be quite overwhelming. Should you go in for a kit lens or invest in a specialized high quality lens? Will a prime lens help you take the shots that you want or it would be better to consider a zoom lens?

Then there is focal length, aperture and other lens terminology that comes into play. Seriously, choosing a perfect lens can be a tedious job! And there’s no right answer to this question. In fact the best lens depends on what your requirements are. You can win over this complicated puzzle by answering this basic question: What do I love to photograph?

Best Lens For Starting Out

These are lenses which work well for every situation. They are a must have for every photographer no matter what they specialize in. And they are an absolute must-have for the photographers just starting out. These lenses let you photograph everything without letting you down. What kind are these lenses?

Well they are tailored for everything, they allow you a wide range of coverage — from closest to the farthest possible. They also have excellent distortion specs. These come with the largest zoom range possible. Eg. AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR.

It lets you frame from a wide focal length of 18mm to a telephoto range of 300mm. You’d want to carry this everywhere where you don’t know what you might come across. I personally resort to my Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 for all photography.

However you can always go in for a dedicated lens for the type of images you like to shoot. And here is a quick reference guide for the same.

Lens Best Suited For Portrait Photography

Ask a pro “what is your favorite portrait photography lens” and the most likely answer is going to be a 85mm lens. The 85mm lens is by far considered as the “ultimate” portrait lens — 85mm lens on the DX body (the one with the APS-C sensor-size) and 135mm lens on FX body (full-frame sensor) to be more precise. However, 50mm prime lens is also a good lens of choice for portrait photography.

Portrait Shot With 50mm

Wedding Photography Lens — What Should I Look For?

You need to have a well built kit of lenses and camera bodies if you are serious about wedding photography. As a wedding photographer, you will need to be ready with two lenses at any time.

One, you need a wedding portrait lens (50mm or 85mm will suffice) for photographing the wedding couple and second, you need a walk around lens (generally a wide angle zoom to add contextual feel to your wedding shots). If you are a wedding photographer, you’d be carrying at least two camera bodies and 3 or more lenses.

Choosing a fast lens will always be beneficial for wedding shots. First fast lenses will help you in efficiently taking the shots in low light (like church, bride’s room) and secondly, wider apertures will help you in adding some awesome effects like creamy bokeh, overexposure spill and magical lens flare.

Sports & Action Photography Lenses

The challenges with shooting sports & action photographs are low light (in case of indoor games) and distance from the players. And sometimes you have to capture not only the action but emotions and facial expressions as well. Thus picking up a fast lens in the telephoto range will help you freeze the action without under-exposing the shots. You won’t be happy with such a lens alone. You’d need a body with an excellent FPS like a Nikon D4 which would work fine at high ISOs.

Landscape Photographer’s Lens Of Choice

Landscape photography is not restricted to a specific range of focal length like portraits or wildlife. Sometimes you may need to take wide angle shots and other times you may need to get closer to a far-off scene. You can thus try your hands on a fish-eye, wide-angle and a telephoto lens. Using a wide angle prime lens, 24-70mm and 70-200mm or simply a 18-200mm will do a lot for you. What you need to consider for shooting impressive landscape shots is the contrast and sharpness the lens offers.

Lens Consideration For Wildlife Photography

Longer lenses are the choice of wildlife photographers. Wildlife photography requires high quality fast telephoto lens (that’s because some sport happens in the wild too). The zoom allows you a safe distance to shoot from without scaring the subject or being scared for yourself. 70-300mm is a decent choice for wildlife shots, but you can always choose from a variety of telephoto zooms available in the market (not to forget recently launched Nikkor 800mm f/5.6).

Macro Photography Lenses

Typically a macro lens allows you to shoot microscopic details in a subject. This requires excellent distortion characteristics. They have the shortest focus distance. Macro lenses also need to allow you a higher depth of field. Unlike most other lenses which you have to look up on a manufacturer’s site, macro lenses are called (well) macro lenses. So scroll down and take your pick. (Sadly you won’t find lenses tagged as wedding lenses etc. but macro lenses are mentioned as — “Macro Lenses”.)

If you are interested in macro photography, the cheap and smart way is to buy a reversal ring and employ reverse lens technique for achieving 1:1 life reproduction. Check out our step by step guide for the same here. But if you want to seriously get involved in macro photography full-time, you can look after a fixed focal length dedicated macro lens anywhere in the range of 50 to 200mm. You can pick one from the list of top macro lenses here.

What lenses do you carry? Want to suggest some?

Controlling the light and mastering the exposure is the mantra for success as a photographer. Understanding the camera’s metering is akin to mastering the light & exposure. Getting to know how the camera reads the light and translates this information into shutter speed, aperture value and ISO is what determines the exposure; optimal exposure to be precise.

In case of digital cameras, it is an in-built light meter that works as the brain behind the camera’s calculation for determining the shutter speed, ISO and aperture values for a particular scene. The in-built light meter takes the guesswork out of the field and enables you to get optimum exposure in almost all the cases when the camera is operating in auto and semi auto modes.

I have personally experienced this neat camera trick of determining the exposure and would like to encourage you to test it out for yourself if you haven’t yet played around with it.

Turn your camera to one of the semi-auto modes; aperture priority or shutter priority. Let’s take shutter priority for instance. Set the shutter speed to any arbitrary value say 1/30sec. and keep the ISO to ISO 100. Mount the camera on the tripod.

Now rotate the camera and make a note of the aperture values as the camera pans. The camera meters and automatically sets the appropriate aperture value depending upon the amount of light entering the lens. This explains the basic functionality of a light meter — the ability to determine the proper exposure (in terms of aperture f-number, shutter speed and ISO) for a photograph.

While the sophisticated digital beasts nowadays have in-built light meters, professional studio photographers still keep the external light meters handy. These hand-held light meters enable them to proficiently work in the manual mode and yet get the exposures that they want (and the final result as visualized by the client). The hand-held meters help them get the accurate exposures under various lighting conditions. But before looking at the how and why of the light meters, let’s start with what a light meter basically is.

What Is A Light Meter?

A light meter is a device used to measure the amount of light. It measures the light levels in the scene and makes an approximate measure of appropriate exposure based on that. The intensity of light for determining the exposure can be measured in one of the two ways; reflected light metering or incident light metering.

The reflected light metering measures the intensity of light reflected from the subject. The light meters built in the camera work on this principle. It measures the brightness of the scene depending upon the amount of reflected light entering through the lens (thus the name TTL metering). The calculation of exposure however depends on the metering mode (spot metering, matrix metering or center weighted metering) in use. You can see how various metering modes affect the exposure here.

Incident light metering on the other hand determines the exposure depending on the amount of light falling on the subject. The photographer holds the light meter close to the subject to take the reading of the light falling on the subject. The intensity of light measured in this way is often more accurate as the light levels are not tricked by the reflectant properties of the subject. Incident light metering also allows better control over exposure in studio lights. It reads the light falling from multiple sources and gives the photographer accurate readings for maintaining the light ratios (for setting up key light, fill light and kickers).

Most hand-held light meters offer both incident as well as reflected readings. And some far more sophisticate ones also provide flash metering modes especially for metering the flash lights. The light meters with flash metering modes are of great help for studio photography where external flash units and strobe lights are at play.

The traditional film photographers exclusively needed hand-held light meters to get the accurate exposures. And the trend still continues. Professional studio photographers don’t rely on camera’s meter. Instead they prefer using an external or hand-held light meter to master the light & exposure.

This brings us to the most common question asked by the photography enthusiasts, i.e., why use a light meter when we already have one built in the camera? Let’s look at it here.

Why Use An External Light Meter When You Have One In-camera?

The answer to this question is simple. An external light meter is your safety guard against the “tricky” exposure situations like photographing a shiny black car in bright sunlight, shooting the candle light in the dark room, taking the shot of a snowy landscape, etc.

While the camera’s in-built meter is good for determining the optimal exposure for the scenes which are essentially middle-toned, light meters comes in handy for scenarios where you have complex lighting and extremes in tonality (for instance photographing a tiger in snow as below).

The need for hand-held meter arises owing to the limitations of built-in light meter. The built-in light meter is a reflective light meter. It reads the light reflected of the scene or the subject, assumes that the subject is of average 18% reflectance and sets the exposure accordingly. While this provides correct reading for middle toned scenes (with average subjects in average lighting situations), the problem arises if the subject is too light like a white wall or too dark, shiny black car for instance.

The in-built light meter when averages the exposure for the snowy landscape depending on 18% neutral gray standard, it essentially under-exposes the scene to make the snow appear middle gray. Similarly, in-built camera meter over-exposes when shooting the dark scenes or subjects.

The probable solution to the problem is to then use incident light metering, which is possible only through hand-held light meters. But there is one more twist to it. External light meters in reflective mode can also meter the scene accurately.

This is so because hand-held light meters take the reading from a narrow portion of the composition. The camera meter reads around 3% to 5% of the scene and average the readings. The light meter on the other hand reads the light in one degree, i.e, 0.05%  of the scene. This allows you to choose a mid-toned portion of the scene to take the light readings and set the exposure accordingly.

When you set the exposure for the middle-toned scene, all the other tones fall into the place, thus saving you from under-exposing or over-exposing the scene.

The other limitation of the camera’s meter is that it cannot meter the flash light. And thus the other scenario where hand-held meters prove their worth is studio lighting set-up. The complex lighting scenario with artificial lights, strobe units, flashes & the need to maintain the lighting ratios and where flash metering plays an utmost important role, hand-held light meters act as a blessing. The hand-held lighting meters can be synced with on-camera or off-camera flash to provide the accurate exposure settings.

In the studio set-up, the professional photographers shoot in the manual mode with ISO set to ISO 100 (to eliminate the chances of noise and grain in the photograph) and the shutter speed synced with the flash. What the photographer actually need to fill in the exposure equation is the aperture value. The photographer takes the incident light reading and sets the aperture value as determined by the hand-held light meter.

However, you don’t need to worry about light meters unless you are working in studio or are faced by challenging lighting scenarios. But you can consider to invest in one if you want to master the exposure in manual mode or if your camera doesn’t meter light accurately.

And now let’s see how to use a light meter.

How To Use A Light Meter?

The light meter works with respect to the pillars of exposure, i.e, the aperture, the shutter speed and the ISO and thus allows the photographer to determine which shutter speed and f-number should be selected for an optimum exposure, given a certain lighting situation and constant ISO.

The hand-held light meter works pretty much the same way as the camera works in semi-auto mode. You have to set two values from the exposure equation of ISO, aperture and shutter speed and the light meter determines the third value for you.

For the sake of simplicity, the photographers keep the ISO to ISO 100 and set either shutter speed to determine the aperture value for given lighting scenario or aperture value to determine the shutter-speed.

However, you can also play around with various f-stop / shutter speed combinations to get creative with depth of field or motion blur. You can simply rotate the main dial or press the arrow buttons on the meter to see the various combinations for a given lighting situation and choose the one that allows you to freeze the motion or blur the background.

You can use the light meter in either of the two modes — Reflected Light Metering or Incident Light Metering.

When using the reflected light metering mode, you need to hold the light meter with the white dome facing towards the subject to take the reading of the light reflecting from the subject or scene. In this case you will get appropriate reading if you hold the light meter closer to the camera.

In case of incident light metering, you need to assess the amount of light falling on the subject. So hold the light meter closer to the subject so that the meter detects the same level of light that is falling on the subject.

Make sure that the white dome faces the camera lens rather than the light source. This will ensure that the light meter reads the light as is falling on the subject and viewed from the photographer’s position.

Additional References

Mastering the exposure with light meters is quite comprehensive subject. We have tried to cover the basics. You can further refer the following articles to learn more about getting accurate exposure with light meters.

1. Accurate Exposure with Your Meter
2. How To Use A Hand-held Light Meter
3. Using a Lightmeter and Placing the Photographic Exposure

Do you use light meters? Share your experience with us!

Choosing a compact camera can be a challenge. The camera manufacturers play safe on point and shoot cameras by providing all the fancy features and bells & whistles. But what really matters is the image quality. If you are able to get high quality images in the auto modes and get a little bit of control over aperture and shutter speed, you are good to explore the creative possibilities with your point and shoot. Canon Powershot S110’s black and white mode for instance and the ability to shoot RAW makes it a desirable secondary camera even for the professionals. Nikon P7100 on the other hand is a true compact that neatly packs the features of DSLRs like exposure modes (P, S, A, M), exposure bracketing, virtual horizon and support for external speed-lights. However the point and shoots with DSLR like capabilities cost a little higher as compared to the basic ones. The camera recommendations don’t always work the same for everyone. Different people have different needs and demands, one working best for someone, won’t necessarily work best for another. Here are 7 noteworthy compact cameras of 2012; some very basic and others with the powerful features of DSLR in nifty packs.

1. Canon PowerShot SX260 HS

   Canon PowerShot SX260 is a 12.1MP camera powered by DIGIC 5 image processor. It provides a 20x zoom on its 25mm wide angle lens and offers the frame rate of 10 fps at continuous shooting mode. You can view the shot as you compose on a 3 inch display. Its optical image stabilization lets you shoot crisp and sharp images even while moving. It effectively reduces the vibrations and shakes produced by hands. With this camera, you can also shoot 1080 HD video with stereo sound by just pressing a dedicated movie button. The camera also features a GPS tracker which helps you tag the shooting location while shooting the images. You can get this camera here for $265 approx.

   

2. Fujifilm FinePix AX300

   Fujifilm FinePix AX300 is a 14 MP camera with 5x optical zoom through a wide angle zoom lens plus 6.7 times the digital. The camera captures the scene onto a 1/2.3 inch CCD sensor. You can see the view on 2.7 inch color TFT LCD monitor. Functionally it has 6 scene auto recognition modes, which offers face and blink detection; smile and shoot mode; auto red-eye removal; image stabilization and i-flash capability. The camera can also capture the motion panorama and auto stitch it. You can also record 720p HD video and take its output in NTSC/PAL. It is powered by AA batteries and supports high speed USB 2.0. It also makes browsing through the photos fairly easy with its searching function. You can get it here for $82.29. Check it out here!

   

3. Nikon COOLPIX S6200

   The camera lets you record 720p HD videos with optical zoom and stereo sound in just one touch. It supports 10x optical zoom. Its vibration reduction produces sharp photos and movies. The photo is exposed on 16 effective megapixel CCD sensor. It has 20 scene modes which makes shooting with point and shoot all the more simple and easy. You can get this basic compact here for around $139.

   

4. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX10V

   Sony Cybershot DSC HX10V is a 18.2 MP with Exmor R CMOS sensor for superior low-light performance. This camera offers a 16x optical zoom. You can defocus the background like a DSLR with this camera. The camera also features high speed AF and a 3 inch LCD which comes in handy for composing the shot. This compact camera by Sony costs you $298 approx. Get it here.

   

5. Sony DSC-RX100

   Launched in Photokina 2012, this 20.2 MP camera is capable of shooting extremely low light shots on its Exmor CMOS sensor. It lets you zoom the scene 3.6 times through its bright F1.8 Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T lens. You can also shoot 1080/60p video with manual control and dual record. You can see the view on 3 inch Xtra fine LCD display with bright whites and true blacks. This ultra-slim 213g, sophisticated aluminum body camera will cost you around $648. Check it out here.

   

6. Nikon Coolpix P7000

   This 10.1 megapixel camera has a 1/1.7 inch CCD sensor and offers 7.1x optical zoom on Nikkor ED wide angle zoom lens. You can see the view on 3 inch ultra high resolution clear color display with 921,000 dots. Recording 720p HD video with stereo sound has been made easy with mic input jack and HDMI output. It has dial controls for key functions such as ISO, white balance, bracketing, exposure compensation and more. The camera uses SD/SDHC memory cards for recording the images. You have to pay $339 approx for this camera. Check out the specs and offers here.

   

7. Canon Powershot S110

   Canon Powershot S110 is a 12MP camera which costs you around $446.95. This compact camera has a 24-120mm lens which is equivalent to 35mm. It can auto focus the subject for you through the lens and the good thing is that it also allows you to focus manually. The camera features a 3 inch TFT LCD screen containing 461,000 dots and 100% coverage. The lens operates in the aperture range of f/2.0 (maximum) at wide angle and f/5.9 (maximum) at telephoto. To freeze the action of moving subjects, the camera allows a fast shutter speed of 1/2000 sec and improves low light performance with ISO ranging between ISO 80 – ISO 12800. In high burst mode, the camera shoots 10 HQ shots/sec. The best feature of this camera is that allows you to shoot RAW.

   

Which one are you planning to pick up for the upcoming festive season?

Are you planning to put up a small home studio or are getting serious about extending your lighting kit? At one point of time or other you will have to go in for it with your hard earned money. It is quite overwhelming to get involved in buying the appropriate lighting equipment; especially when you are just getting started with artificial lighting — so many brands, multiple varieties and a never ending list of studio lighting equipment & accessories can cause you nightmares. One simple thing you can do is to begin with a basic studio set-up and later expand as need arises. And to get you started with a basic set-up, here is a foundational introduction to fundamental photographic lighting equipment — to help you decide what do you essentially need to get started.

The lighting equipment basically falls in three primary categories. First the light source, secondly the light modifiers and last but not the least you’ll need the grips and stands to set-up lights for professional photo-shoots.

Let’s start with the light sources…

Light Sources

Lights, tools and equipments offer such expansive variety that a beginner easily get tangled in the issues like,

• What would be good affordable starting studio lights?
• What should I invest in — flash guns or studio strobes…
• What is a better option; basic home lights like tungsten lamps and florescent lights or dedicated studio flashes?

Well there can be no right or wrong and good or bad lighting decision. It is just that you need to know the pros and cons of various lighting sources. This will help you in choosing the light source that works for you.

The artificial light source thus can be divided into two broad categories:

Continuous Lighting: Continuous lights include the basic lights used at home like tungsten bulbs, fluorescent lights, LEDs and HMI lights. Though they come cheap, they have a high running cost and aren’t as versatile as studio flash lighting. Considering the power consumption, mobility & control over output, flashes are far more handy and useful. And this is why professional photographers favor studio lights over other lights.

Studio Flash: The studio lights are classified as flash guns & strobes and strobe lights are further categorized as monolights and head & power packs. Each light source has its own definite purpose.

Flash guns: Flash guns also known as speed-lights are external flash units employed by the photographers. These battery powered flash units are mounted to the hot shoe or can be used off-camera by attaching them to the slave units. The sole purpose of the external flashes is to boost the flash-range of on-camera flash.

Nikon SB-700 Speedlight Shoe Mount Flash

Flash guns, however have their own pros and cons. They come in handy for outdoor lighting set-up owing to its lightweight, but lags behind studio strobes as far as light power, recycle times, light modification and pre-visualization of lighting effects is concerned. The detailed distinction between the two is however out of the scope of this post.

Studio Strobes: Studio strobes are large, powerful and operate independent of camera. As mentioned earlier, studio lights or strobes are of two kinds: Monolights and Head & Power packs.

The head and power packs consists of a flash and a small power pack that acts as the generator for operating the flash light. You can attach multiple flash heads to a single power pack and all these flash heads are comfortably controlled by the controls & knobs provided on the power pack itself.

Norman D24R Pack, 4- IL2500 Head/Reflector Kit

A monolight on the other hand is a portable photographic flash lighting unit which has its own independent power source. Unlike a head & power pack kit, it does not depend on a centralized power supply. Each monolight has its own power settings and light output.

Elinchrom D-LITE4 IT 400Ws Monolight (90-240VAC)

Using monolights or head & power pack in your lighting set-up depends on a lot of things. First one is of course the budget, because head & power packs come on the costlier side. But if your shooting against the light source, take shooting against the sun for instance where you want to overpower a bright source of light, you will definitely need more power and better recycle times. Or when you have a complex lighting set-up, you will like to control the lights from a single point instead of fidgeting with single monolights. Under such situations, head & power pack is more suitable.

But again there is no right & wrong or good & bad about choosing the lighting equipment. Both have their advantages and disadvantages and we would love to touch upon this topic in a dedicated post.

Light Modifiers

Studio lighting set-up is a controlled lighting environment and just having the light sources at disposal is not enough. You need a number of light modifiers to actually control the spread of light. Some modifiers are best at use for reflecting the light (commonly known as reflectors), some are used for diffusing the light (the diffusers) and there are yet other modifiers which are used to output concentrated and focus light.

The very first reflector at the photographer’s disposal is the one that comes attached to the flash itself. These standard reflectors resemble the lampshade and are fixed to the flash heads. These reflectors help in casting directional light towards the subject. Some of them like Profoto ProHead Flash Head for instance comes with a zoom reflector which allows you to slide and lock the reflector to thus control the spread of light.

Next comes the umbrellas and softboxes.

Umbrellas are the one of the basic lighting equipment you will find in any basic lighting kit. These reflective umbrellas are used by photographers as a diffusion device which softens the light and evenly spreads the light over a larger area. The strobe light is mounted to the umbrella in such a way that the light hits the inside of the umbrella and bounces back to the subject with soft light & even illumination.

The same effect can be achieved in one of the two ways; either by using a shoot through umbrella which illuminates the subject by the pass through light or by using a reflective umbrella which lights the subject through bounced back light.

In both the cases, the soft light spills and wraps around the subject. This spilled light may bounce of the walls & ceiling and end up illuminating a wider area. This may act as a hindrance for getting the desired light effects. In such cases, soft-boxes are a better option.

A softbox is also used for softening and diffusing the light. Softboxes come in varied shapes and sizes but at the most basic it consists of a reflective surface surrounded by a diffuser. The flash head is fitted in such a way that the light falls on the reflective surface, passes through the translucent diffuser and produce a controlled soft light. This is to say that the light coming out of the softbox is more controlled and doesn’t spill elsewhere.

Then there are snoots, barndoors, flags and honeycomb grids to the photographer’s exposure. These equipments allow for a more concentrated light. A snoot is a conical shaped tool which fits over the flash head to produce a narrow beam of light which can be used as accent or kicker light to separate the subject from the background. Barndoors is a set of adjustable flaps attached to the light for directing and obstructing the light from spilling. Photographers also use flags for blocking the light. A flag is usually an opaque object placed in the way of light to cast a shadow, provide negative fill, or protect the lens from a flare.

One more interesting tool for studio photography is the honeycomb grid. This metallic honeycomb shaped grid directs more focused light to the subject.

Vello 1/4″ Honeycomb Grid for Portable Flash

Other than this there are various flash accessories; flash reflectors, flash diffusers and the likes which help you in modifying the light. But as a beginner, having hands-on experience with the umbrellas, softboxes and honeycomb grids can get you rewarding results.

And now let’s put up the last piece of the lighting equipment puzzle in place — the light stands and grips; the lighting equipment fundamental block for building the required lighting set-up.

Grips & Light Stands

Grips refer to anything that supports the lighting set-up. It includes the light stands, boom arms, clips & clamps which are used for holding the backdrops, reflectors and light sources. You can find two varieties of light stands — lightweight stands and heavy duty durable C stands.

The lightweight stands are portable and good for use in indoor photo-shoots. There mobility is an advantage for easily arranging and moving the lights around the studio. The lightweight stands have sandbags attached so as to the weight of lights and reflectors. Some of them also have an air shock feature. The air shock feature makes sure that the lights or reflectors don’t break when the knobs are accidentally loosened.

Westcott 750 Photo Basics 7.0-Foot Light Stand

Then there are C-stands with their own set of benefits. C-stands are more durable, stable and can take up much more weight as compared to lightweight tripod type light stands. These durable stands come in handy to face-off windy weather while shooting outdoors and thus save you a lot of damage.

Conclusion

This is just an overview of various lighting equipments at your disposal when entering the world of photographic lighting equipment. There are a lot of brands and varieties for each of the products. It’s not always wise to invest in new equipment. You can start with a basic lighting kit and spend a few bucks in buying the used gear. Once you know you really need that set of tools or equipment (or the equipment actually works for you), you can buy a new one for yourself.

So what do you have in your lighting kit?

Photokina 2012 had it all to impress the photography enthusiasts. Be it a line-up of full frame cameras or talk about the surprising compacts, Photokina 2012 introduced some of the most interesting cameras of the time. While Nikon (with D600), Canon (with EOS 6D) and Sony (for Alpha SLT A99) had made way for a perfect promotion strategy (by launching their cameras just a few days before the show), the announcement of Panasonic GH3, Hassleblad Lunar and full-frame range-finders by Leica were the real show stoppers. That’s not all. A pair of cameras in the Olympus PEN series, mirrorless lenses by Panasonic and Olympus and Fujifilm’s stylish XF1 also make up for the key highlights of the grand event — Photokina 2012 (Cologne, Germany, 18th – 23rd September 2012). And here we have handpicked some of the remarkable cameras from the event.

1. Nikon D600

   Nikon D600 — an FX camera in the DSLR packet was purposely launched on 13th September to steal the show. This 24.3 MP camera smartly loads in a number of features for serious enthusiasts and amateurs, who aspire to hold a full-frame camera in their hands. So here we have Nikon D600 powered by EXPEED 3 processor with 100% frame coverage, 5.5 fps in burst mode, 39 auto focus points, ISO 100-6400, expandable to 25600 with promises for amazing low light performance and high color depth. The best thing is that D600 is the first ever Nikon FX launched in the consumer range — economic and lightweight. And now let’s dive into the details of the Canon EOS 6D — another promising full-frame camera in the economic range. You can get D600 camera body for $2,096.95.

2. Canon EOS 6D

   Just like Nikon, Canon  is also set to offer lightest and smallest 35mm full frame DSLR. Canon EOS 6D is promptly promoted as a best economic alternative to Canon EOS 5D Mark III. On a 20.2 megapixel full frame CMOS sensor, Canon EOS 6D features 11 point AF array and an ISO in the range of 100-25600. It’s 63 zone dual layer iFCL metering sensor and 14-bit analogue to digital conversion system is all set to give a surreal feel to your images like almost all the Canons. It has built in Wi-Fi 2 and GPS3 module, which easily scores over the optional Wi-Fi support offered by D600. Nevertheless, it can be a good deal for Canon lovers at $ 2,099 for a full-frame professional system.

3. Nikon Coolpix P7700

   From a premiering consumer FX to compacts, Nikon is all set to entice its customers. The other smashing hit from the Nikon’s store is Nikon Coolpix P7700. For great snap shooters, Nikon introduces a 12.76 MP compact camera with 6mm – 42.8mm, 7.1 x optical zoom inbuilt Nikkor VR lens. Nikon is all set to redefine crisp and sharp hand held shooting with the key features like lens-shift vibration reduction system, ISO ranging from 80-1600 with ISO 3200 at full stop and support for semi-auto modes (P/S/A/M) with AE/AF lock. Along with it, P7700 is designed to offer 1/3 EV steps within+/- 3EV and AE bracketing up to 5 shots. It processes images with EXPEED C2 engine and has support for SDHC/SDXC and Hi-speed USB, through which you can transfer enhanced NRW (RAW) files. This compact camera is priced at $499 approx. You can also connect an external remote cord, microphone and GPS (GP-1) to record the location on the move. What else one needs from a handy compact?

   

4. Sony Alpha SLT-A99

   In the full-frame flurry at Photokina 2012, Sony also revealed its Alpha SLT A99. Sony’s latest 35mm full frame camera features 24.3 megapixel CMOS sensor. It is the same sensor that fits in Nikon D600 body. Other than the full frame advantage, Sony SLT A99 comes packed with dual AF system with 102 AF points, ISO (100 – 25,600) expandable from 50 to 102, 400, superior processing — 14 frames per second in burst mode and 1080p video shooting capability. The camera also features dual memory card slot for SD and SD/MS along with individual slots for headphone and microphone input. Unlike Nikon D600 and Canon EOS 6D it is a bit on the pricier side. You will have to spend $2,798 to experiment with Sony’s excellence at making the pictures which speak for themselves.

5. Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX1

   Sony makes up for the second round of applause with its full-frame compact camera — Cybershot DSC-RX1. Sony Cybershot DSC-RX1 is a 24 megapixel 35 mm full-frame sensor camera with Carl Zeiss Sonnar T 35mm F2 prime lens. The key features of this camera includes a processing speed of 5fps in burst mode, retention of RAW information with 14 bit analogue to digital conversion, efficient video capabilities with 1080p videos in AVCHD format recordable at 25p/50p/60p, better low light performance with ISO sensitivity of 100 to 25,600. This compact camera is all set to make capturing images all the more easy. The camera offers the feasibility of customizing the functions of five buttons on the camera. It also features a dedicated aperture ring to control exposure under various situation. The shutter button also supports bulb mode and has threaded cable release socket. This small yet effective compact camera is priced on the higher end though. You will have to spend something like $2,798 to hold Cybershot RX1 in your hands. Get it here.

   

6. Leica M

   Talking about the full-frame cameras how can we miss out on Leica’s latest M. Leica introduces the first ever full frame range-finder with Leica M. Leica M is an exclusive range-finder which features 24 megapixel full frame sensor. Priced at $6,950, the camera is one out of the bunch to assure high quality images. This range finder goes to the end of providing features like focus peaking (so that you can see the entire area of the scene in focus on real time basis), 10x magnification and an exclusive port for connecting external EVF (Electronic Viewfinder). And the camera’s ability to record HD videos is like the cherry on the top. Get it here.

7. Leica M-E

   Leica has made a smart move by announcing a host of cameras at Photokina 2012. The other remarkable camera from Leica is Leica M-E. Leica M-E is a perfect camera for people starting range finder photography. It has 18 megapixel CCD sensor in full 35mm format. It allows you to set the focus manually and the shutter speed is usually set as per the manual focus, though it can also be set manually. It has a mechanical shutter action, yet it is not audible and hence makes it a quiet capturing device. It doesn’t have low pass filter like Nikon D800E, so the final images are supposed to have a natural visual impact. You can get this one for $5,450, again on the pricier end just like Leica M.

8. Leica M9

   Leica released M9 for photographers who sweat for finest details. Leica M9 is the smallest full frame camera with 18 megapixel CCD image sensor which is equivalent to 35 mm film format. It gives you four-way switch and dial controls to work in conjunction with few functions. You can view the image in 2.5 inch monitor. It also has quick control “Set” button to set White Balance, Exposure Correction, Exposure Bracketing, Resolution, Image Compression and other customizable user profiles. The solid make of the camera gives it a truly professional look. The 139 x 37 x 80 mm camera’s full metal housing has been made up of high-tensile magnesium allow and solid brass has been used in top deck and bottom plate. Leica frequently releases firmware updates for M9. You can buy it for $6,995 or view this link for special discount offers.
   

9. Canon S110 Compact

   Canon has a good deal for compact camera market as well. Canon S110 is launched to give stiff competition to Nikon P7700. Canon S110 is a 12.1 megapixel CMOS sensor. It has 24mm lens (just like previous Canon compacts) with f/2.0 and 5x zoom. To reduce the chances of getting the blurry images, Canon implements a 4 stop intelligent image stabilization mechanism in its latest consumer compact. Canon S110 offer you the ability to capture full HD movie, shoot in RAW and share images wirelessly. With all these features, S110 comes for a price tag of $449.99.

10. Fujifilm X-E1

    Fujifilm X-E1 had been a star at Photokina 2012. This 16 megapixel compact camera offers a smart deal for photography enthusiasts at $1,399 . It is a compact camera with a hub of features like film simulation, multiple exposure,  panoramic shooting, auto-bracketing and HD video recording.

11. Fujifilm XF1

    The stylish looks of Fujifilm XF1 makes it a rock star for the show. This 12 megapixel compact camera has 2/3 type sensor. It has a 25-100mm lens with f1.8 – f4.9. The camera also makes provision for mitigating the shakes with its’ optical image stabilization technology. For the first time we had noticed a camera with various ISO modes such as SN (where camera would keep the ISO high and noise as low as it can), DR (where the camera keeps the ISO prioritized to dynamic-range of the scene) and HR (where resolution will have the top-most priority). It features a high speed EXR processing engine which reads the CMOS in quick time, starts it up in as fast as 0.55 secs, acquires focus within 0.16 secs and gets ready for the next shot just within 0.8 secs. And you can get this one for $499.95 approx. Check out here.

These are just the highlights. There are a lot many cameras that made to Photokina 2012. Which one is your pick?

Ever since my Nikon D80 went kaput, I’ve been pondering over the thought of going for an upgrade. While Nikon D600 sounds good, I’ve been eying the Nikon D800E (not the megapixel story but the absence of the moire filter) and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. So far I’ve just lived my photography passion shooting pics, getting to grips with composition, learning and experimenting consciously trying to avoid getting lured by better bodies or camera specs. So all I have is a single body and a Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX. Thus I’m not married to Nikon… not yet. Also I’ve avoided yet-another “Nikon vs Canon” blog post: you can spend endless hours researching on this and still come to no conclusion. But I’ll share my thoughts and invite yours.

Recently while researching on an upgrade I stumbled upon a lot of factors which make or break your photography.

Cosy Compacts Vs Startling DSLRs

After photographing for last 8 years with a compact film and a Nikon D80 I realized that a DSLR somehow intimidates (read “threatens”) human subjects. You are unduly noticed and made to feel conscious about your equipment (no pun). A compact on the other hand is a casual thing which no one bothers about. People feel at ease facing such a camera; they can make funny faces and do just about anything including ignoring the camera altogether — think of photography with cellphone, Instagram, instant uploads, Wi-fi printing. Pull up a DSLR with a gun-barrel and people are conscious about their looks, the intent of the photographer and everything else. It changes their mood. In-fact it kills the mood of the photograph. So unless you are photographing in a commercial field, street photography (specifically) can benefit from a compact. It remains to be seen how much you want to shell out for a so-called compact. A compact is not necessarily a Coolpix or a Powershot. It could be many things including a Leica rangefinder.

The “Feel” In The Photograph

There’s also a difference between the photography output of different brands. You’ll often find photographers referring to the silky soft feel of a Leica image. Hit me for saying this but I also noticed that Canon images have a distinct subtle difference in the tones (which I personally like). I hope it’s not my personal imagination but I found the Nikons (and Sony) a little bit harsh on tones but more true to life. My Nikon pushes me harder to use my creativity in making a surreal photograph.

Lens Focal Length and Field Of View

And finally the perspective (metaphorically). With my 18-200mm, I’ve shot at the longer end of the lens almost all the time. I tend to like tight shot vs shove-in-it-all shots. However at the APS-C (or the Nikon DX) format 35mm represents a image size that’s the closest to what you see from the eye (feel free to correct me). But field-of-view is a different story. Eyes see wider. In fact our eyes are very much like fish-eye-lenses but it’s our brain which is able to correct our skewed perspective so we “see” things right. In all this banter I realized that cut-short the focal length a little and your photographs start telling a story. A wider lens (35mm on a full-frame/22mm or 24mm on a APS-C/DX ) adds a narrative to the photograph thereby allowing the viewer’s eyes to explore the scene beyond the subject. The viewer understands the setup, the scene and gets a context to the photograph thereby relating to it differently.

Finally Which One?

So far my research has raised more questions for me than answers. I think it’s a essential phase that every photographer goes through eventually while trying to explore, discover, reinvent or evolve the photographer inside. It’s a matter of taste, style and essentially your idea of the art of recomposing the world. I’m somehow drawn back to film, black and white and also rangefinders and reminisce my father developing black and white film. But my ideal camera would be the Leica M-Monochrom fitted with a 35mm lens. I dare not tell my wife that it sets me back by $8000. I guess I’ll go find my old Nikon compact, load it up with some black and white film and develop film myself till I’m fed-up and return to my Nikon D80. Which one would you go with?

PS: BTW, my Nikon seems to have taken a hit because of the moisture. It’s rear LCD would go off and not work unless the camera is put in sunlight for an hour. Ever happened to your camera?

Nikon D600 rumors have finally turned into a reality. Nikon D600 premiers as the first ever Nikon FX line up which happens to be in prosumer range. If you have been waiting for a professional camera like Nikon D800 and the budget was a constraint, Nikon D600 is surely one to look up at.

This 24.3 MP FX camera is packed with enticing features of its big brother — the megapixel monster Nikon D800. On the similar lines of D800, Nikon D600 is also powered by EXPEED 3 processor, has same LCD size and an ISO range of 100-6400, expandable to 25600.

D800 does overshadow D600 with the maximum shutter speed of 1/8000sec., 51 AF points and shutter life cycle of 200,000 shots. But it still manages to hit a sweet-spot between high-end DX cameras and professional FX cameras like D800. It is more like a DX camera (in terms of size and some of its features; scene modes) packed with the power of an FX camera — the full frame sensor for better image quality and high color depth.

Key Highlights: Why You Should Plan To Invest In Nikon D600 Too!

When D800 was out a few months back, I was quite impressed by its specs and professional image quality. But its high cost kept it away from me. Now that a budget FX camera is out, I am making up my mind to buy Nikon D600. Here are some of the reasons why I am looking forward to invest in D600.

1. Economic Price

   Nikon D600 camera body comes $900 cheaper than D800. Nikon D600 costs around $2099.95 approx. The deal is clubbed up with a 24-85mm VR lens kit for $2699.95. And the major dealers like Amazon and B&H are offering exclusive discounts. You can check out the discounts here.

2. Pixel Density [Low]

   Other than price the second most important factor for investing in Nikon D600 is it’s image quality. Theoretically, lower pixel density means better image quality given all other factors are equal. Now comparing it with Nikon D800’s megapixel count; i.e. 36.3 million effective pixels crammed on 35.9mm x 24mm sensor size, it is obvious that Nikon D600’s 24.3 million pixels etched on a full frame sensor result in a better image quality.

3. A Higher FPS

   Nikon D600 features 5.5 fps in continuous shooting mode at full resolution as compared to 4 fps burst rate of Nikon D800. And as far as videos are concerned, Nikon D600 has basically the same fps as D800 — 1920 x 1080 resolution video at 30, 25, 24 frames-per-second and 1280 x 720 video at 50 and 60 fps.

4. ISO Equivalent To D800’s ISO Sensitivity

   Both the cameras rank equally for low light performance, both of them have an ISO range of ISO 100 – 6400 expandable to ISO 25600. Take a look at one of the official sample images of D600 below.

5. Wi-Fi Functionality

   Nikon D600 provides a sophisticate Wi-Fi functionality as compared to traditional WT-4A support for D800. You get an optional WU-1b Wireless Adapter with the camera which enables you to wirelessly fire the shots and transfer the photos to Wi-Fi enables devices like your laptop, printer and smartphone.

6. Lightweight Full Frame Camera

   Nikon sheds 140gms of camera body weight while moving from D800 to D600 to make D600 Nikon’s most compact full-frame HD-SLR ever (as Nikon promotes it). It’s lightweight build makes it easier to move about with the camera for shooting through the day.

Quick Overview Of Nikon D600 Specs

• Sensor: 24.3 MP FX (full frame sensor – 35.9mm x 24.0mm)
• Max Image Size: 6,016 x 4,016
• Viewfinder: Eye-level pentaprism with 100% frame coverage and 0.70x magnification
• Lens Compatibility: AF-S or AF lenses fully compatible, metering with AI lenses
• Fastest Shutter Speed: 1/4000 sec.
• FPS: 5.5 frames per second
• ISO Sensitivity: ISO 100-6400, expandable to 25600
• Auto Focus Points: 39 AFpoints
• Movie: HD 1,920×1,080 at 30,25, 24 fps and 1,280×720 at 60, 50, 30 and 25 fps
• Screen Size: 3.2 in. diagonally, 921k dots
• Wi-Fi: WU-1b Wireless Mobile Adapter
• GPS: GP-1 GPS unit, GP-1A GPS unit
• Battery: EN-EL15 Lithium-ion Battery (Battery Life: 900 shots per charge)
• Approx Weight: 26.8 oz. (760g) – camera body only

So, why should you not want Nikon D600?