Nikon recently (and quietly) updated the D4's A firmware to 1.03.
Stated to improve autofocus with lenses having a maximum aperture of F8 it also seems to reduce the focussing system's tendency to jitter backwards and forwards when using faster lenses in conjunction with AF-C and a non-moving subject. Winter light levels in the UK prevent any investigation of whether the performance in very bright sunlight has also improved (the latter being a long-term problem - the D3 series focussing system was never at its best in brighter conditions).
Also worth mentioning, the battery charger for my personal D4 has been dogged by an irritating problem since new, namely it will routinely reject an inserted battery and cease charging within a few minutes of commencing a charge. The charger alternately flashes the CAL light and the charging light and according to the manual this indicates a fault in the battery itself. Since this happens with every battery I have for the D4 I've always considered this unlikely but have never been able to find time to take the charger in for repair. The short term fix incidentally is to remove and reinsert the battery, whereupon normal charging will resume. I've now found a better solution, which is to plug the charger in to the mains a few minutes before it is needed. Having done that, everything works as intended.
Tom Parkes is a London based corporate and editorial photographer
Friday, 14 December 2012
Sunday, 2 December 2012
Elinchrom Quadra Head Caps
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| ©Tom Parkes - Wilson head cap for Quadra |
When they were first introduced, the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra heads shipped with no protection for the flash tube when packed in a bag or case beyond that afforded by the standard reflector. These caps, designed by photographer Les Wilson neatly fill the gap in the market. The design is similar to that of Elinchrom's own head covers as supplied with the larger heads with the addition of a nice textured finish for extra grip when removing the cover.
Sunday, 28 October 2012
Pictures, Or It Didn't Happen....
Chances are you won't recognise this man or have heard his name. He is Gustave Whitehead.
How about this pair of brothers?
You may need help with the faces though they would once have been instantly recognisable across the world, but you know their names. They are Orville and Wilbur Wright. That's Orville on the left and almost everything you think you know about them is probably wrong.
Here's an easy pair:
No help from me this time.
So who was Gustave Whitehead?
In 1901 and two years before the Wrights pushed their aircraft out into the freezing headwinds at Kill Devil Hills, Gustave Whitehead, a German born aviation pioneer, piloted his Number 21 aircraft on a flight which exceeded the Wright's 1903 attempt in both distance and altitude.
The Wright brothers however had the presence of mind ask to John T Daniels to accompany them that day.
And Daniels was a photographer.
How about this pair of brothers?
You may need help with the faces though they would once have been instantly recognisable across the world, but you know their names. They are Orville and Wilbur Wright. That's Orville on the left and almost everything you think you know about them is probably wrong.
Here's an easy pair:
No help from me this time.
So who was Gustave Whitehead?
In 1901 and two years before the Wrights pushed their aircraft out into the freezing headwinds at Kill Devil Hills, Gustave Whitehead, a German born aviation pioneer, piloted his Number 21 aircraft on a flight which exceeded the Wright's 1903 attempt in both distance and altitude.
The Wright brothers however had the presence of mind ask to John T Daniels to accompany them that day.
And Daniels was a photographer.
Saturday, 27 October 2012
What, No Cookie Policy?
Visitors to the main site may notice no "Cookie Policy" message appears when they first enter.
For the purpose of transparency, a cookie is stored on your computer in the form of a token which is used to maintain the password you entered to view or download images. Without it you would need to re-enter the password each time you moved to a new page.
Such cookies fall into the category of "strictly necessary" for the site to function and provide you with the service and as such the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) states that it is not necessary for the site to obtain consent or provide the option to decline the cookie.
Source:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/privacy_and_electronic_communications/the_guide/cookies.aspx
For the purpose of transparency, a cookie is stored on your computer in the form of a token which is used to maintain the password you entered to view or download images. Without it you would need to re-enter the password each time you moved to a new page.
Such cookies fall into the category of "strictly necessary" for the site to function and provide you with the service and as such the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) states that it is not necessary for the site to obtain consent or provide the option to decline the cookie.
Source:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/privacy_and_electronic_communications/the_guide/cookies.aspx
Friday, 6 July 2012
D4 Noise Levels - High ISO Performance
A number of claims are circulating regarding the high ISO performance of the D4 compared with the D3 and D3S, notably that the D4 offers around a one stop advantage over the D3S despite the former's higher pixel pitch.
My own tests suggest in general terms the D4 actually offers around the same noise levels across the image as a whole as the original D3. This is by no means a poor performance, the D3 continues to be an excellent high ISO camera. So what is the basis for claiming the D4 offers a one stop advantage? Remember the D4 offers around 40% more resolution than the D3. Once the D4 images are downsampled to match the resolution of the D3, the D4 emerges as the better performer, possibly rivalling the D3S, but not exceeding it. Looking closely at the character of the noise, the D4 has more chroma noise and Capture NX2 reports the camera is always performing some noise reduction at high ISOs on NEFs, even with 'off' selected in camera. Significantly though, the D4 does have far less noise in the blue channel than the D3, meaning high ISO shots under tungsten light sources will have lower noise.
At the other end of the scale though, noise levels at lower ISOs are virtually non-existent. Overall, it looks as though Nikon has delivered its promise to produce a more rounded camera with a better balance of high ISO performance versus resolution.
My own tests suggest in general terms the D4 actually offers around the same noise levels across the image as a whole as the original D3. This is by no means a poor performance, the D3 continues to be an excellent high ISO camera. So what is the basis for claiming the D4 offers a one stop advantage? Remember the D4 offers around 40% more resolution than the D3. Once the D4 images are downsampled to match the resolution of the D3, the D4 emerges as the better performer, possibly rivalling the D3S, but not exceeding it. Looking closely at the character of the noise, the D4 has more chroma noise and Capture NX2 reports the camera is always performing some noise reduction at high ISOs on NEFs, even with 'off' selected in camera. Significantly though, the D4 does have far less noise in the blue channel than the D3, meaning high ISO shots under tungsten light sources will have lower noise.
At the other end of the scale though, noise levels at lower ISOs are virtually non-existent. Overall, it looks as though Nikon has delivered its promise to produce a more rounded camera with a better balance of high ISO performance versus resolution.
Wednesday, 4 July 2012
D4 Firmware Update 1.02 - It's Tough Being Green
Released this morning, the D4 firmware update 1.02 attempts to address the monitor problems detailed in the previous post:
"Gamut for Adobe RGB images displayed in the camera's monitor has now been changed. This enables more vivid display of images."
I've updated my D4 and can confirm the monitor display has improved somewhat, particularly in relation to the rendering of skin tones. The overall green tint is still visible but appears reduced.
My D4 was supplied with firmware v1.01 installed and it's worth noting that the installation process has changed somewhat from earlier cameras. Full details are available on Nikon's support site. The update took a fair while to instal itself, with no visible progress for several minutes after the progress bar had completed its journey across the screen. Just leave it alone and it will complete.
Two things are particularly interesting, first that Nikon appears to be rapidly addressing snags in the D4 and second, for the first time ever, Nikon actually emailed me to inform me of the availability of the update. If you haven't registered your camera on-line with Nikon then its worth opening an account. As an added benefit you will have instant access to the serial numbers of your equipment should anything be lost or stolen.
"Gamut for Adobe RGB images displayed in the camera's monitor has now been changed. This enables more vivid display of images."
I've updated my D4 and can confirm the monitor display has improved somewhat, particularly in relation to the rendering of skin tones. The overall green tint is still visible but appears reduced.
My D4 was supplied with firmware v1.01 installed and it's worth noting that the installation process has changed somewhat from earlier cameras. Full details are available on Nikon's support site. The update took a fair while to instal itself, with no visible progress for several minutes after the progress bar had completed its journey across the screen. Just leave it alone and it will complete.
Two things are particularly interesting, first that Nikon appears to be rapidly addressing snags in the D4 and second, for the first time ever, Nikon actually emailed me to inform me of the availability of the update. If you haven't registered your camera on-line with Nikon then its worth opening an account. As an added benefit you will have instant access to the serial numbers of your equipment should anything be lost or stolen.
Saturday, 30 June 2012
D4 Monitor
I'm now working with the D4 alongside my D3 and D3S bodies and one of the first questions I had concerned the colour accuracy of the monitor. I'd read various comments from users who found the display to have a green tint. Nikon says the new display is more accurate than that used in previous cameras but the short answer is, yes it does appear slightly green in some light. The truth is, every iteration of the professional cameras has a different monitor tint. The D1 was very blue, the D2X less so, the D2XS was noticeably yellow in comparison and the D3 tended towards magenta, with the result that moving from the D3 to the D4 the green tint appears greater than it actually is. There is a temptation for camera manufacturers to adjust the display to show the image to best effect and so the slight green tint of the D4's display offsets the very slightly magenta-tending Nikon skin tones perfectly. Does the green tint matter in the real world? No, not in my view. At times you're aware of it, at others not. It very much depends on the ambient lighting and it has to be remembered that the magenta tint of the D3 monitor would often disguise a green tint from fluorescent lamps.
New on the D4 is an ambient light sensor for the monitor, or auto brightness. My advice is to turn that off unless you're using the camera in live view mode on a tripod. The reason being that the reading used to set the brightness level is taken once, using a sensor on the rear of the camera. If anything blocks the sensor, such as your face as you lower the camera, the display will be too dark as a result. The camera also tends to set the display at too low a brightness indoors. It works fairly well in sunlight where it's otherwise very difficult to see at all, but the nature of the system introduces another variable to take into account when assessing the image. I've settled on a brightness level of -1 for indoors and either just accept the image will look darker that it actually is when viewed in sunlight or I'll use a hoodloupe for a better view. If I was working outside for a long period I would consider adjusting the display brightness, or even using auto, especially if clients were viewing the display with me, but otherwise it's one of those setting I don't like to change. It's all to easy to forget you made a change when you move back inside or the sun goes down.
New on the D4 is an ambient light sensor for the monitor, or auto brightness. My advice is to turn that off unless you're using the camera in live view mode on a tripod. The reason being that the reading used to set the brightness level is taken once, using a sensor on the rear of the camera. If anything blocks the sensor, such as your face as you lower the camera, the display will be too dark as a result. The camera also tends to set the display at too low a brightness indoors. It works fairly well in sunlight where it's otherwise very difficult to see at all, but the nature of the system introduces another variable to take into account when assessing the image. I've settled on a brightness level of -1 for indoors and either just accept the image will look darker that it actually is when viewed in sunlight or I'll use a hoodloupe for a better view. If I was working outside for a long period I would consider adjusting the display brightness, or even using auto, especially if clients were viewing the display with me, but otherwise it's one of those setting I don't like to change. It's all to easy to forget you made a change when you move back inside or the sun goes down.
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