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Robert
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After a chance chain of events which I won't bore you with, I collected a very cheap D800 with just 15,500 clicks from London on Friday. On my way home I called on Eric for a chat and a cuppa, I also called at UK Digital at Clitheroe on Saturday morning on my way home. The D800 is very clean, a lovely camera. The reason I called at UK Digital was to take a look at a macro lens, the Laowa 2X to 5X 25mm f/2.8. https://www.ukdigital.co.uk/laowa-25mm-f28-25-5x-ultra-macro-lens-nikon.html?utm_source=googleshopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8q7qpOjA3gIVysqyCh1wRwFDEAQYASABEgKi6fD_BwE This is one image I took with the Laowa lens at 5X of a ball point pen. I didn't make any settings on the camera, this is a crop from the original. I can make out my reflection in the ball, which is about 0.5mm dia. This was hand held. Attachment: Screen Shot 2018-12-23 at 12.49.11.jpg (Downloaded 40 times) |
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Eric
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Robert wrote:After a chance chain of events which I won't bore you with, I collected a very cheap D800 with just 15,500 clicks from London on Friday. On my way home I called on Eric for a chat and a cuppa, I also called at UK Digital at Clitheroe on Saturday morning on my way home. Hi Robert ...glad to see you made it home safely and good to catch up. |
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Robert
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Don't know what happened there... I replied to Eric's post, which he edited, but my reply went awol? |
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Eric
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Robert wrote:Don't know what happened there... My problem, Robert. I got confused which day you came to see me.  |
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Robert
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I'm just confused! |
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jk
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D800 is very good. I still have mine and in reality it is still very useful. The D850/Z7 produce monster RAW files comparedto the D800. |
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Robert
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jk wrote:D800 is very good. I still have mine and in reality it is still very useful. The D850/Z7 produce monster RAW files compared to the D800. I'm still holding out for a D810, I feel the improvements over the D800 are worthwhile but am bideing my time, prices are plummeting, the D800 was at the right price, the D810's are still holding at the moment, time will tell. When a plentiful supply of Z6's arrive then the D810 may start to fall in price. The D800 fits my PB4 like a glove and pairs perfectly with the micro Nikkor 55mm lens for 1:1 copying, I am so pleased because it means I can start the laborious task of converting most of my slides and negatives to digital. Finally I feel the process (resolution and dynamic range) is 'good enough'. |
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Robert
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The D800 is meeting hopes and expectations I have taken over 400 exposures of my fathers slides which were taken in 1965 with a Zeiss Contaflex. Not wishing to be unkind but the exposures are frequently a long way from ideal, high contrast scenes flowers in sunlight with heavy shadows in the frame, very difficult exposures. Mostly Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides, some are a different make and are beyond salvage. I started by making trial exposures and homing in on a decent exposure but that wasn't successful. I couldn't get a decent reproduction with a single exposure so now I am bracketing five exposures at 0.7EV, then using Lr's HDR tool to make one decent image from the five. It certainly makes the MacPro work, I had 12 exposures of one slide which I used to make an HDR. The MacPro seemed to be taking a long time then I realised it's clock had stopped! I re-booted and ran the HDR again, no problem second time. The large D800 NEF files don't seem to be too much of a problem, the interface seems just as lively as usual, importing 400 plus D800 NEF's didn't seem to be significantly different from importing 400 D3 files onto the SSD where I store the imported images while I process them. |
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jk
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What LR version are you using LR Classic CC? |
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Robert
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Yes, the Classic version. This is a typical example of the slides, this one taken at the Chelsea Flower Show, very poor shadow detail but HDR seems to enable the extraction without compromising colour density. Attachment: CFS 1965 a.jpg (Downloaded 25 times) |
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Robert
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This is the HDR version, using five exposures with 0.7EV steps. Attachment: CFS 1965 b.jpg (Downloaded 26 times) |
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jk
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HDR works best. First image is very contrasty. |
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jk
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Did you check this out Robert? https://www.proav.co.uk/lenses-controllers/lenses/nikon-f-mount-lenses/laowa-24mm-f14-2x-macro-probe-lens-nikon |
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Robert
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jk wrote:Did you check this out Robert? Wow! A microscope in a stick! Amazing. The price tag is a tad on the high side... |
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Robert
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The slides don't generally have great artistic merit but my father used them to illustrate his talks and lectures on plants and trees. I would like to try to 'rescue' them so I can enjoy some of them in todays surroundings. They were taken at Kew, Chelsea where he worked as a consultant for Practical Gardening and various gardens and arboretums around the country. |
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jk
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We should try to get to Westonbirt as a group in October or whenever the leaves are changing. Of course there are other places as well. I went to Gardens of Heligan the other night and it was all lit up very different. I will post some shots another day. |
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Robert
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jk wrote:We should try to get to Westonbirt as a group in October or whenever the leaves are changing. Of course there are other places as well. I went to Gardens of Heligan the other night and it was all lit up very different. I will post some shots another day. Super idea, please post pix of Gardens of Heligan, not been there, keep forgetting about it. |
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Robert
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I had a surprise package in the post this morning... Graham kindly sent me the Quick Guide for the D800-D800E. I have the PDF User Manual for the D800 but the quick guide will be very useful, Thank you Graham. I am still plodding through the 400+ images, I have HDR'd them with no fuss but some of the slides are covers in dust and debris, I did try to brush the dust off followed by a blast of air from the Rocket Blower but sometimes it seems to stick to the slide. Methinks I might do more damage trying to get the muck off than leaving it for post process. I am going through them, adding captions and ID'ing the plants/trees where I can, plus the locations and dates. Many of the labels have fallen off the slides so it's a bit of a lottery and guesswork on my part. I'm lining up the next box ready to photograph them too. |
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GeoffR
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If you have an iPhone or iPad you can download Nikon Manual Viewer and then the various manuals and guides for a range of cameras. |
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Robert
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Thanks for reminding me Geoff, just something else I forgot! Will do it now.  |
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Robert
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Done! Excellent, thanks.  |
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Robert
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They say you have to be careful what you wish for... One of the things I had hoped for with the D800 was increased sensitivity and greater detail, with an absence of banding and excessive heat generated noise, for my astro photography. Last night after a very large New Years roast Dinner with the family, as the tribe drove away, Christopher suggested we take advantage of a clear Moonless sky and take the new D800 out. I leaped at the chance, grabbing my heaviest tripod, the D800 and the 16mm fisheye, we braved the icy roads and headed for the hills. It was bitterly cold but quickly setting up and returning to the car for a couple of mince pies and a sip of coffee from the flask kept the seasonal theme. About 25 minutes later I judged I would have enough for a stack, about 40, 20 second exposures with 20 second intervals at f/4, ISO 3200. All saved as NEF's. My intended use is to stack them to intensify the stars. I then took a further 50, 30 second exposures @ f/5.6 for star trails. I have processed these files and created the final star trail image. This is where the superb definition of the D800 becomes a problem... It can define so many stars, so clearly that the sky is filled with trails. The individual stars are very clear, well defined and sharp, previously with other cameras the stars were just an indistinct blob of light, with the D800 even with the Nikkor 16mm f/2.8 fisheye lens each and every star is clear and very distinct, OK there was CA but Lightroom dealt with that perfectly, CA gone. Taken at Stickle Pike, in the Lake District; Orion bottom right, Ursa Major, top left, the Milky Way is central, top to bottom. Attachment: Stickle StarTrails 2019.jpg (Downloaded 24 times) |
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Robert
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Curious to see how it works with the pre ai Nikkor 105mm f/2.5, I took this one of yesterdays dining table. I will never win prize for flower arranging! Wide open, ISO 400, LED room lighting/limited daylight, a bit wider than a quarter of the frame. Attachment: Dining table.jpg (Downloaded 23 times) |
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Robert
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Finally processed this one, 30 second exposures at f/5.6, ISO 3,500. 20 exposures taken with 10 second intervals, TIFF's, stacked with the median process in 'Starry Landscape Stacker'. The Eastern sky was too light polluted for a good image but it was a good test for the D800 in adverse conditions. First the entire image, second a close to 100% crop.  The crop with Orion featuring.  |
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Eric
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I suppose what surprises me (I know it shouldn't) is how the massive number of 'visible to the camera' stars tend to camouflage the 'visible to the eye' main constellations. I struggle to see Orion in the photos....have to close my eyes and squint to block out the 'star noise'  In other words the camera is working well. I admire your application and skill.  And who is to say whether it's extra Mp might be a cropping bonus if you were to do some bird photography even without big lenses? I am beginning to think that whilst a long lens is required when the bird is distant, trying to fill the frame when birds are closer may not be the be all and end all in representating the bird anyway. Keeping the bird in a larger setting may be more pleasing pictorially as well as more helpful technically. Or maybe that's some post rationalisation on my part .....because I can't get close enough to the little b8ggers at the best of the times. Glad the camera is delivering for you. |
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Robert
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Thanks Eric, I am delighted, the last images are stacked to intensify the stars, in Starry Landscape Stacker, I think I might have more control in Ps with layers. The trouble is the dimmer stars have been intensified more than the brighter stars, I think? I will have a play with the source images, I think I have 44, 20 second exposures, it may be I would get sufficient intensification from fewer images, say 10? I think I used 20 for the above image and it's rather overdone it. I am probably trying harder than I need to and turning everything up to max and spoiling it a bit on the way. What I am really pleased about is the firm boundaries of the star shapes, just slightly oval, or slightly elongated circles from the 20 second exposure. I want to experiment with lower ISO, shorter exposure and stacking my own images in Ps. I am relieved the 16mm fisheye holds up with a 36Mp sensor. Many of the fainter stars in the Milky Way are only visible screen at 100% zoom and picking them out from noise is tricky, I am thinking there isn't too much noise even at 3,200 ISO and zero banding, even after at least an hour and a half of 20 and 30 second exposures. The last 30 second exposure was as clean as the first 20 second exposure. I am with you on the wider framing for birds, I might be persuaded to try a 1.4X converter on my old 300mm f/2.8 for closer birds. The magnification will be less so noise is less of an issue. Win - win. |
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Robert
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Rather than cluttering up the animals thread with my ramblings, an image with the D800 and the 16mm f/2.8 Ai fisheye. On my way home from from pre-dawn star photography, I stopped at a viewpoint and grabbed some exposures of the Duddon estuary with Black Coombe behind. This is not cropped, about 9am, the nearby field in shadow, as shot SOOC the field was almost black, like the bottom left corner. Attachment: Screen Shot 2019-01-19 at 00.19.09.jpg (Downloaded 10 times) |
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Robert
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This is a 100% crop you can see the crop area in the top left of the screen shot. Lower you can see the adjustments I made, first auto then backing that setting off by adjusting the white, black and shadow recovery off because it had rather over brightened the image. The waterline is about a mile away from the camera, bear in mind this is a 16mm fisheye, on FX. The lighthouse to the right, on the other side of the estuary is quite small, not much higher than 25 feet, it's about three miles from the camera. Attachment: Screen Shot 2019-01-19 at 00.22.31.jpg (Downloaded 10 times) |
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jk
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Nice clear day. Brings out the best in lens and camera. |
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Robert
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Another but not such a nice day, and the reason why Black Combe is so called... Heavy rain and bright sunshine, almost dark. Difficult to capture and show the extremes. D3, 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5. Attachment: Screen Shot 2019-01-19 at 09.49.46.jpg (Downloaded 9 times) |
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jk
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Lovely image. HDR like but without its glow. |
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Robert
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jk wrote:Lovely image. That's the range the D3 gives for such difficult exposures. I have a similar image I took with my iPhone on another occasion, no way could I get anything worthwhile out of that. |
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