Logic be damned I bought an ND

[kdemas]

OK, I couldn't resist and I bought a mint ND the other day. Although I am perfectly happy with my Nikon D70 I can't resist the chance to use my N1 lenses on a full frame sensor.

Plus... I sure do like the handling of the N1. I gathered a ton of info regarding the limitations of the camera from reading posts on this site and I finally thought "why not".

I'll post some impressions when the camera arrives, if our fine California rain dies down a bit by then.

Take care and thanks to everyone for posting such informative ND posts in the past.

Kent

 

[djg]

Kent,

Make sure you shoot raw if you have Photoshop CS and can use the Camera Raw plug-in, which supports the ND.

DJ

 

[kdemas]

DJ,

Thanks for the tip. I was going to give the raw a try with the CS Raw developer. The one thing that I still can't believe is that they ever rolled this puppy out without the raw image review in camera. I know that's beating a dead horse, and it is what it is, but it still makes me chuckle a bit that they left out that functionality.

In any event thanks for the input and I look forward to giving it a run through later in the week.

Take care,

Kent

 

[fotografz]

Welcome to the asylum Kent. I have 2 NDs and am actually searching for a third one, so I'm crazier than most. Irakly ask me why I wanted another one, and I told him it was to make sure I would always have one, no matter what.

I recently took the camera to LA with me and shot a lot of Tiffs as well as RAW. What you may find out is that the camera does quite well shooting J-Pegs, I once shot an entire vacation using j-peg Large and the images were outstanding.

Search out extra battery holders as fast as you can, although the new 2500 mAh batteries have gone a long way toward easing the power issues this camera has.

Anyone want to sell their ND? ; -)

Pic: Santa Monica CA coast shot with ND and 17-35:

 

[fotografz]

Oh, BTW I still think this camera shoots images closest to a film look of any digital camera I've owned and used. The next closest appears to be the RD-1 using Leica M lenses. Both are CCD sensors using German designed lenses ... hmmm...

Kent, if you don't have the N70-300, give it some thought. It truly is an outstanding lens even if it is a bit slow. It can focus really close. Here's one of my little friend that always watched me photographing from the balcony of my Santa Monica hotel balcony : -) Contax ND, 70-300 @ 300mm...

 

[dirk]

Hi Marc,

same as Kent and you, I am thinking to buy an ND as soon as there are some available for a reasonable price compared to the competition.

I remember that there was always a "problem" with high ISO performance of the ND. ISo 100 very good, but ISO 200 or 400 very bad.

For me it would not be important, whethere the other DSLR have a better ISO preformance at 200 or 400 then the ND. For me the benchmark is slide-film, which I use almost exclusivle for my hobby. I.E. Velvia 50, Velvia 100F (adjusting it to ISO 160), Provia 100F (adjusting it to ISO 160) and Provia 400F.

Can you, DJ or other ND users tell us your experince when comparing the ND reslts in the different ISO settigs wit these slide films?

In terms of color reproduction, grain/noise, sharpeness etc.

Can the noise be taken away and on par with i.e. Provia 100F with an extra software (Ninjia I think it is called) without loosing to much of the image quality?

Thanks in advance.

P.S: If Kyocera is closing Contax, many NDs and N-lenses must be soon very cheap on the market. stocks are still full worldwide. That is the best time to buy, I hope

 

[fotografz]

Yes Dirk, by all means get one. And do not fear a bit higher ISO with this camera any longer. Proper exposure and Adobe RAW developer has made it much, much better. Both Irakly and I use the camera at ISO 200 and above with ease now. He is better at developing those files than I am. Perhaps he should write a processing tutorial for all ND users ; -)

BTW, the Pigeon photo above was shot at ISO 250.

Think of it this way Dirk. Some digital cameras excel in lower light, but struggle in brighter conditions with blown high lights and hard to control contrast. The ND is very good in brighter light conditions, (IMO due to it's apparent wider latitude). It's the reason I use it for vacations ; -) Plus, the ISO goes down to 25 which allows control of shallow depth of field when using a fast lens like the 50/1.4 and 85/1.4 up close in extremely sunny light.

Here's one of the Hotel Oceana in Santa Monica where I was staying. The light was incredibly contrasty. It's balcony stairs are like an Echer (sp?) design ... LOL. It was shot at ISO 25 with the Zeiss 17-35. I could make a huge print from this file without any noise (not that I would make a print of this snap shot ).

 

[fotografz]

Here's one also showing how the ND performs in blasting sun light. ISO 100 with the ND and 17-35.

I was on location in LA all last week supervising the filming of a TV commercial for my ad agency. The entire street was lined with equipment trucks which were all pure glossy white. The ND handled the contrast fine even with direct sun on them. I think my other digital cameras may have had contrast issues with this shot.

 

[dirk]

Hi Marc,

thanks for these postings! So I can conclude that the ND will be on par with a Fuji Procia 100F or Velvia 100F, in terms of Noise, even if the ND is setted to ISO 400. And thsi is all I needed in the past and therefore also in the future

Rgearding manuals etc. Yes we should elaborate with Irakly something. But we have to make a new layout for all forums first to make it more pleasant for the eyes. After that we are focusing again on the content more as already discussed last year with Irakly.

We are late, but we do not forget our goals

 

[fotografz]

Heck, they should have made me and Irakly the marketing people for this camera ... LOL.

Another on at ISO 250 (which I use a lot Dirk). Inside of a prop prep truck ... this one had a full kitchen in it.