You Don't Have To Be Grim

Or grey, or gritty. You can be good - and you can have a good price, too.

Just saw a small stack of ex-demo Tamron lenses sitting on the back counter on Monday night. They're that good prices and are the now modern style Tamron - very sharp. Wide zoom, long zoom, macro...

Wonder if they'll be there tonight or if all the bargain hunters will have snapped them up. Perhaps you'd better go down and see...

Motorcycle Mike On His Souped Up Bike

Well, not really - but that was the title of a track by Dave "Diddle" Day in 1957 and the chance to use it may never come again...

Wednesday night at Camera Electronic and we saw what happens when a hot rod guy gets a hot rod camera - in this case Stefan Gosatti and the new Nikon D5. It was a perfect combination.
Stefan was given a chance to try out this brand-new top-of-the-line sports and action camera by Nikon - their high-speed flagship - on the road and on the football field. It was a quick trial but he was just the man who could give an accurate report.

Stefan has used Nikon professional cameras for years with fashion, sports, automotive and product illustration. The bran-new Nikon D5 is the latest evocation of their big full frame DSLR and he got a chance to wring a lot of it out. Not all - by his own admission, there were a lot of new features he did not have time to fully explore...but with the items that pertain to his professional specialties, he was able to go to town.

The prints you see in the small snapshots are from that camera - they are mere reportage representations of what are large, excellent images. Sharp, fast, and with very good colour and dynamic range. And at ISO points that are normally accessed only with oxygen and a nose bleed. While he shot his fast lady on the bike at ISO 6400, the device will go to over 3 million ISO! It's nearly impossible to think of a situation that would not be possible with that sort of camera sensor.

Of course it is never only the sensor - it is the new processor as well.

This also accounts for the rapidity with which the AF system works and the sophisticated nature of the tracking that allows the user to select what he wants to follow and then delivers sharp focus on that in spite of movement and visual interruptions.

It is also the reason that the screen on the new camera can be made to be so convenient for the photographer when it comes time to examine a sequence of shots. The high-speed nature of the shutter and associated buffer and writing circuits mean that a lot of images are going to be stored rapidly - and the photographer needs to be able to access these equally rapidly. Stefan demonstrated a scrolling bar on the LCD screen that runs rapidly through the files, allows you to stop as soon as you see a good one and then zooms, widens and searches throughout the image with the same sort of finger gestures that control smart phones.

The cameras are equipped with twin card slots - and these can be ordered with either two CF card slots or two XQD slots. Readers will be aware that the XQD cards are faster than the CF cards by a fair margin, but are more costly. Of course, a lot of people will have lots of CF cards already, so these can be utilised straight away. Camera Electronic can supply CF-ready D5 cameras right now - either in sales or rental form. XQD can be ordered but may take a little while to arrive. People who get one type and change their mind about it can have the camera converted here in Australia to the other sort for a fee.

Speaking of two different items - apparently the D5 will also produce 2 different forms of JPEG files as well as the NEF file type.

Well, they are not cheap. You can see the price on our on-line store or ring up the staff and discuss it. Think in terms of about $ 8900. If you are in the business of doing the sort of photography that these cameras do, that money is a business investment. If you are dabbling but have that sort of figure available to play with you can be assured that you will have an instrument that cannot be bettered for high-speed action photography. You'll need to put good Nikon lenses out the front and they will also cost money.

PS; No motorcyclists were injured and no laws were broken in the making of the pictures, but apparently half the dress blew off. Makes your afternoon photographing Canal Rocks sorta slow, doesn't it?

For all orders on the Nikon D5 please call in or follow the links on-line.

Unashamedly Grabbing At The Big Screen For the New Pentax

Locked away as I am in my medieval tower, with nothing to do but weave tapestries and comb my long golden locks, I am somewhat at a loss as to how I am to get information and images to tell you about the new Pentax full-frame camera - the K1. Fortunately I have the internet and no sense of shame and have recently discovered how the screen-grab mechanism works. I am confident that the medieval tower will defeat any copyright lawyers that come after me and as the whole idea is to sell more pentax K-1 cameras, I don't suppose the wholesalers will mind.

Well, it was a long time coming, but is apparently reality rather than promise - a full 24 x 36 mm frame Pentax DSLR camera. It has the general shape of the smaller Pentax cameras and the same lens mount, so users of the current lenses  - and legacy lenses as well - can experiment and see if they have the pleasant surprise of a lens that covers the whole sensor area. Apparently some of the Limited Edition Pentax lenses do.

It runs a 36.4 megapixel CMOS sensor and no AA filter for maximum sharpness. ISO up to 204800. There's a 5-axis shake reduction system and 36 AF points.

I'm particularly taken by two ergonomic features; the swinging and skewing LCD screen at the back with stabiliser rods, and the Operation Assist Lights that let you see where the latches and controls are in the dark so you can change lenses in a theatre at night. Very good idea!

Dual card slots, WiFi, GPS, 1080 video,and the ability to automatically sense if you are using crop-frame lenses and to narrow the usable area of the sensor accordingly.

Note that the press release mentions 12 new full-frame lenses but the only details are a 15-30 f:2.8 and a 28-105 f:3.5-5.6.

The shape in the press pictures is pure Pentax and as this has always been pretty good to hold in the past, there is no reason to think it different for the larger sensor.

We await developments gleefully.

Looking Out On The New Nikon - Behind The Name

We've been poring over the press releases of the new Nikon gear here and noting some of the good points. You can't read everything on this blog because frankly I don't know everything, but you can think along as I hit what I think are the high points:

a. The new Nikon FX flagship camera - the D5

Well, they've boosted the ISO again and cleaned it up further in the heady reaches - you can now apparently range from ISO 50 to 3,280,000. It frankly beggars description and we'll just have to wait until we get a body in hand to go out and shoot nighttime stuff with it. Theatre, club, and sporting shooters will be delighted.

There is an new processor to do this - EXPEED 5. It will control the 20.8 MP sensor and will pedal the thing along at from 12 to 14 FPS if needed.

You'll get a far faster and more accurate AF with 153 points of observation. It should track things like a bloodhound.
It will shoot 4K video and most other things under that spec. You'll have to ask Michael Phillips or Rick De Santos about the video.

And finally it will control new controllers and new radio-frequency flash controllers for the new SB 5000 speedlights.

b. The new Nikon flagship DX camera - the D500

This is the long-awaited replacement for the D300s. Pretty darn near all the good bits of the D5 in a smaller and lighter package for the DX format.

20.9 MP, EXPEED 5. 50-1,640,000 ISO

Same AF system as the D5 - takes the 4K video too.

Has a tilting LCD screen and an in-built flash as well as the electronics to work with the new SB 5000 flash.

Has additional wireless connectivity with Nikon Snapbridge for continous WiFi connections and transfer.

c. New Nikon SB-5000 speedlight.

Looks to be about the size and power of the SB-700 but with an on-board radio receiver to do wireless connection. Simplified menu and the addition of cooling to allow it to fire a long burst of flash without overheating. MOST WELCOME for us flash shooters.

I have not been told when they will arrive but I have a sneaking suspicion it won't be until March. I'm hoping for the D500/SB5000 combo in time for the Foundation Day dance show...

v1.02 becomes v1.10 - And The Crowd Goes Wild!

If you own a Nikon D750 camera and some Nikon lenses you will have spent the last year taking superb digital images. Now Nikon have released new firmware improvements that will permit you to take superb images. The download from Nikon is at:

http://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/download/fw/157.html

Allow me to make a comment on that at the end of this column, but for now here is the Nikon press release information about the update. The main improvements are:

An external recording option has been added to the HDMI in the set-up menu of the camera.
Some help text has been changed.
Optimal vibration reduction now available with VR lenses.

In addition there have been some issues fixed:

Brightness of LV display previously not changing when a command dial was rotated to adjust exposure compensation with On(Auto reset) selected for b Metering/exposure>b3Easy exposure compensation>Easy exposure compensation in the CUSTOM SETTING MENU.

Maximum aperture indicator previously not appearing in the monitor although the preview button was stoping the lens down to maximum aperture when assigned to the Preview role.

Shutter previously not being released when the user attempted to take photographs in movie live view.

About 4 seconds of static previously heard on audio recorded with external HDMI recorders during movie live view.

Difference between the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO sensitivity displayed in the monitor during the movie live view and the values in the final movie file.

Part of the focus point disappearing if the framing grid was displayed during zooming in.

Volume not adjusted if movies were played with indicators hidden during full-frame playback.

Failure of the exposure compensation when a negative value was selected when NEF(RAW) images were processed using the NEF(RAW) processing option in the RETOUCH MENU.

Failure of images recorded with HDR( high dynamic range ) selected in the SHOOTING MENU.

Overexposure of every frame after the first taken during interval timer photography when ON was selected for Exposure Smoothing.

Incorrect assignment of file numbers.

Focus point previously not displaying in the correct location in the monitor.

Characters or parts of characters missing from the SETUP MENU in some languages.


A good tally - but if any of the foregoing has startling grammatical or syntax errors, please be away it is copied verbatim. If any of it assuages your deepest hurt, we rejoice for you.

Puzzled note: For years people in Australia have been chiding me on my spelling of the word center - they insist that it be spelled centre. But they refuse to pronounce it as the French do - "Sontra ". They snort at me when I point out that there was an Entertainment Center and not an Entretainment Centre down on Wellington Street. Yet I see that Nikon - ostensibly a Japanese firm -  has the word as center in their web address.

My brain hurts. Or is that Hertz?

The Angle Of View

For the last 7 1/2 years I have been coping with the business of multiplication factors for the focal lengths of lenses in the digital world. Right from the start, we have had equivalents to various things - occasioned by the size of the electronic sensors that were possible in the cameras at the time. Initially quite small, they progressed in size as the silicon chip makers learned to grow ever-larger surfaces.

There were a number of stages that received what are now difficult names - difficult in that every one of them needs some sort of explanation and qualification when a customer enquires about it. We can liken the quandary to an alphabet - we all pretty well agree what a "B" looks like and unless you are Russian and spell it backwards or something, we don't have to refer to it as a full-frame B or an APS-C B or a 3/4" B.

Every manufacturer would have their product better than the rest, if only in the advertising pamphlets. Thus was born the diagonal measurement of sensor size - based upon 1940's cathode-ray tube descriptions - that requires a long winded spiel to tell people that the 1" sensor isn't really that unless you pretend it is...and inches are not used in most camera-making countries.

The whole effect, as we said at the start, is to muck up the measurements and expectations that people have when they look at a camera lens on a particular body. Woe again when the manufacturers make lenses that only suit small-frame APS-C bodies but can still bayonet onto a large-frame body - leaving people to cope with that optical incongruity.

Well, we're stuck with it now, but anyone out there who has a flux capacitor and can go back in time and alter things for themselves would be thanked by the trade if they could just fix the designation of the lens as the angle of view. Every lens has one, or if it is a zoom - several. How much of it you use on your sensor is your own affair, but at least in this case your mind could draw a mental picture before you shot.

In a way, we also needed someone to have a numbering system for the sensors akin to the international paper size rules. Too late now, but then they said that about micro breweries and didn't that turn out well?

Walk Round The New Nikon Lens

Just when you thought there was nothing new on the shelf to write about...the ordering department brings down a new Nikon DX lens.

DX is the smaller-frame Nikon DSLR format - so in the current flurry of FX cameras and lenses it might be thought to be missed out. Not by Nikon - they have a remarkably large range of DX-sized lenses to match their cameras and photographers need to remember their advantages.

It is wrong to compare apples to oranges but everyone does on the internet before they come here so I might as well do it too I have owned apples, I now shoot on oranges. I have shot for many years on pears and still retain an complete watermelon outfit in my studio.

Right now, DSLR cameras are faster at sports shooting than mirrorless. Sad, but true, and if you need to capture peak of action exactly right each time with individual shots you will have a better chance on a DSLR. I know - I have to box clever to do things with my mirror-less system that I formerly gave no thought to. Score one for Nikon DSLR.

In comparison to FX, DX uses less memory. Less processing power, time, and bad language. Score two for Nikon DX.

If you need depth of field, DX delivers more than FX does. Score three for Nikon DX.

If you need light weight, Nikon DX scores over Nikon FX. But it is about the same as mirror-less. Score a draw.

Okay - now the pitch. Nikon have a new medium-range DX lens - 16mm to 80mm. Now it has a max aperture of 2.8-4 so you get double the amount of light. It is solidly-built and functions very smoothly with any of the DX cameras. I should think it a perfect match to the D7200.

In stock right now. Here's a look.

New Lenses Announced By Nikon

Nikon Australia has sent news to the shop of three new lenses - one for their DX cameras and two aimed primarily at the FX users.

The DX lens is a zoom model that goes from 16mm to 80mm with an f:2.8-4 aperture range. It is equipped with the VR mechanism to assist with slower shutter speeds.

The lens is physically light - an important point for travellers. It weighs 480g. There are the usual nano coatings to reduce flare and an electromagnetic aperture mechanism that lets you shoot continuously at high speed.

More Info.

The FX lenses are not zooms - they are long telephotos with f:4 apertures. There are two - a 500mm focal length version and a 600mm focal length version.

The weights are dramatically under what you would expect for such long lenses; 500mm is 3Kg and the 600mm is 3,8Kg. They both feature the VR mechanism that is adjustable from 'normal' to  'sport' for different types of motion. And the front glass has a fluorine coating to repel water and dirt.

More Info.

Nikon Australia predict that we will get to see them sometime in the middle of this month.

Another Month, Another Cash Back Bonanza From Nikon

If you didn't buy a barrow-load of Nikon lenses before Christmas, now is the time to wheel on in. The money part is good.

Nikon is extending the idea of cash back until the end of this month on the following cameras and lenses:

1. Nikon D3300........................................Cashback of $ 50
2. Nikon D5200.......................................Cashback of $ 100
3. Nikon D610..........................................Cashback of $ 100
4. Nikon 1 AW1.......................................Cashback of $ 100
5. Nikon AF-S 14-24 lens.......................Cashback of $ 150
6. Nikon AF-S 24-70 lens......................Cashback of $ 150
7. Nikon AF-S 70-200 2.8 lens..............Cashback of $ 150
8. Nikon AF-S 80-400 lens...................Cashback of $ 200
9. Nikon AF-S 200-400 lens.................Cashback of $ 500
10. Nikon AF-S 35 1.4G lens..................Cashback of $ 100
11. Nikon AF-S 58 1.4G lens..................Cashback of $ 150
12. Nikon AF-S 85 1,4G lens..................Cashback of $ 100

That's a pretty good clean dozen products to offer, and as always these are pure Nikon Australia stock - you get all the benefits of dealing with the correct official importer.

The Nikon notice for this offer said that it goes from now until the 28th of February. You buy from us and claim through their on-line facility and it all goes swimmingly.

Yay! It's Here! Nikon D750 In-Store Right Now

Big news for the morning is:

The new Nikon D750 - the newest FX camera from Nikon - has just arrived in the shop.

Looks good, feels good, solid build, compact dimensions with a steady grip. Tilting screen. Highly specified and highly desirable.

If you have a lonely Nikon FX lens that is pining for some body...we're open until 5:30 every afternoon this week.

New Nikon Announcement

Time to get the piggy bank down off the top of the refrigerator and search for the hammer. Nikon have announced a new camera, a new lens, and a new flash.

The D750 is a new full-frame FX camera that features 24.3 megapixel sensor, Expeed 4 processor, and a great many bells and whistles. You can expect:

6.5 fps burst rate for continuous shooting

100-12800 ISO expandable to 50-51200 ISO

full 1080 HD video

full sized deep hand grip

twin SD card slots

Wifi capability with WiFi mobile app

We will have more details shortly on this and may be able to predict when they will be seen.

If you need a wide angle lens for the FX system cameras you can rejoice that the 20mm has been re-invented with nano coatings and a new maximum aperture of f:1.8. This is a very usable aperture at this focal length as there is still a great depth of field. It alos lets the lens focus to a surprisingly close distance.

last too of the Nikon trumpet is the new SB 500 flash. It is one of the new generation of speed lights that feature an LED illumination light on the front - you can see what you are doing in the dark for still photos and even use it for illumination during video work. As it is iTTL and has easy controls at the back it will feature for a lot of the newer cameras and newer users.

As usual, when Nikon Australia - the real deal when it comes to Nikon - tell us, we'll tell you.

The Big T - My Oh Yes

Big T, little OK, I-N-A...

Alright, it isn't great lyrics. We're selling DSLR lenses here, not Broadway musicals.

From a situation of not many a little while ago, we have moved to quite a few right now - keeping Tokina lenses in stock, I mean. I count the following in the cabinet:

100mm Macro
SD 12-28 f:4 DX
SD 16-28 f:2.8 FX
SD 11-35 f:4 FX
SD 12-24 f:4 DX
AT-X 11-16 f:2.8
AT-X 70-200 f:4 FX
Reflex micro 4/3 300mm f:6.3

I can attest to the good performance and sturdy build quality of these lenses - I own a 35 macro for studio use. Thus:

All of these would make worthy additions to a Canon or Nikon outfit. Please come in and try them out.