Nikon Showcase Post Nikon Df Photos

thanks ray. i used the 5d/green dot mf confirm for years with m42 lenses and almost never missed focus. of course my adapters had the 'confirm' chip, but i never had a focus issue. seems pretty much the same with the Df. your 135 shots are very nice and in focus.
 
A few from downtown Philly with the Zeiss 21mm. First two from the Kimmell Center:

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Kimmell Center by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Kimmell Center by ramboorider1, on Flickr

One from the City Hall Courtyard - they're not making municipal buildings like this anymore!

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City Hall from Courtyard by ramboorider1, on Flickr

And a few from the recently opened new Dilworth Plaza and transit concourse just west of City Hall. This was most recently the site of the Occupy Wall Street demonstration / protest back in late 2011 and early 2012, when they kicked all of the campers / protesters out and closed the plaza for construction. It's a pretty nice public space. I have mixed feelings about the wide expanse of fountains (I guess it'll discourage future camping protests!), but I like the rest of it...

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Dilworth Plaza and City Hall by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Dilworth Plaza and City Hall by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Dilworth Plaza and City Hall by ramboorider1, on Flickr

View attachment 98899Dilworth Plaza and City Hall by ramboorider1, on Flickr

This one with the 135mm f2.8 AI lens I picked up for $150:

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Dilworth Plaza and City Hall by ramboorider1, on Flickr

Man, I LOVE that Zeiss 21. Nikon just announced a new 20mm f1.8 that early reviews of look stellar. For a LOT less than I paid for the Zeiss even used. I can still get my money back for the Zeiss if I want to. I'm tempted to return the Zeiss for the slightly smaller, much lighter, auto-focussing, more than a stop faster, and much less expensive Nikon. OTOH, once you have this nice a lens in use, it's REALLY hard to think about parting with it. If the Nikon had come out before I'd found a pretty decent price on a used Zeiss, it would have been a no-brainer - I'd have gotten the Nikon, been happy with it, and never given the Zeiss another thought. But thee was no good alternative at this focal length to the Zeiss up until this lens was announced a couple of days ago (and the rumors just started a few days before that), I did buy the Zeiss, I LOVE the damn thing, and I think I'm gonna have to keep it because it'll never lose much value... And, damn, it's nice!

-Ray
 
Nice shots RT - I like the musicians more than the boxers, but they all seem to get at what you were after.

Those old AI lenses are really nice, aren't they. Looks a lot like my 135 f2.8 (shown a few posts earlier) but just a bit shorter. Same pull back, self-contained hood. I'm gonna practice doing candid portraits with it over the holidays. If I can handle MF for that, I'm gonna sit tight with it or maybe find another old f2.0 version. If not, I may have to see what the rumored Sigma 135 f1.8 is about. I know it's gonna be about a lot more $$, but it's such a great portrait length, if I need AF and VR, I may have to check it out down the line sometime. I'm hoping not, though - I love the size and rendering of this little gem. Not to mention the lack of investment... And I do have an AF version of the 85 f1.8, so maybe this combination will be enough...


-Ray
 
Nice shots RT - I like the musicians more than the boxers, but they all seem to get at what you were after.

Those old AI lenses are really nice, aren't they.
-Ray

Yep they are nice! - But actually, my preference is for the Non-AI lenses over the AI & AI-s glass.....:eek:
Most of my glass is Non-AI but I do have some AI an AI-s pieces...:)

Oh, and I've got some Non-AI 135 2.8 shots in the queue...:)
 
Hey All,

Nice images P! Are you using a film pak for the "look" in the first two? And Melissa certainly has that G chord shape down!

-Ed-

PS Be sure to check post number 9 - this thread. :) Just kiddin ya! What with the name change an all...
 
Hey All,

Nice images P! Are you using a film pak for the "look" in the first two? And Melissa certainly has that G chord shape down!

-Ed-

PS Be sure to check post number 9 - this thread. :) Just kiddin ya! What with the name change an all...

EasyEd...Tks
And yes for the band shots, I used the Nik Analog Efex 2 for the film type look....
And yes again...Melissa Ludwig Band rocks!
 
Ray - Urban Green Space, can you give me a sense of how much work you had to do to bring those shadows up? Did you layer it in post, stack two images, what?

Nothing fancy Kyle - I just played with the shadow and exposure sliders. They weren't ALL that dark in the initial shot, but fairly dark. But no problem just raising them a bit. Then I also applied a couple of filters in Color Efex Pro, but the basic exposure and levels were set before I did that. I may have increased the saturation in the grass a bit, but I don't recall for sure.

I'm telling you, the dynamic range in these full frame sensors (and a few APS sensors - the 24mp sensor in the D7100 is pretty great) is something you have to work with to believe. The Df is really good in this regard - the 24mp sensor in the D610, RX1, A7, and the 36mp sensor in the D810 and A7R put the Df to shame. They're not as good in low light and that's a higher priority for me, but the dynamic range and malleability of those files is not something you can imagine until you open a couple of them up and start playing with them... I was totally unprepared for this when I first started using an RX1 early last year. But it wrecked me for anything else...

That said, this particular image was not all that challenging to raise the shadows in...

-Ray
 
Exactly what I was looking for. Except that I was hoping it wasn't mostly the sensor... ie, that they aren't that much better. Dangit. I know what that scene would've looked like on the XT, and I know how far I could've brought up that shadow with tone mapping and some sliders. It's too big a differential for me to have had it come out as balanced as you got. Yours looks like what eyeballs see.
 
Exactly what I was looking for. Except that I was hoping it wasn't mostly the sensor... ie, that they aren't that much better. Dangit. I know what that scene would've looked like on the XT, and I know how far I could've brought up that shadow with tone mapping and some sliders. It's too big a differential for me to have had it come out as balanced as you got. Yours looks like what eyeballs see.
Yeah, well I went back to the XT1 for a while too, having decided it was good enough. But I still had an RX1 and it didn't take me long to decide to go all in. I didn't want to - I shot m43 and Fuji for long enough to know their charms and I was REALLY happy with them, fully satisfied, until I shot with an RX1. You shouldn't spend time with a sensor like that if you're not prepared to deal with the consequences. I wasn't, but after a while, I had to find a way to go all in. And, again, the D610, which is the bargain of the Nikon line, has the same sensor as that in the A7 and RX1, and it's DR leaves my Df in the dust. It's simply amazing. The Df is just really really really good. This particular scene was no problem for it, but I honestly don't think the Fuji would have had much problem with this one either. Where I ran into problems with the Fuji was usually blown highlights more than buried shadows. I could usually pull the shadows up well enough if the ISO wasn't too high. But I could get in trouble with highlights. And in the D610 sensor in particular, you can't believe how much information is hiding up there in those clouds... But it's not just shadows and highlights - there's something about the way these files handle all kinds of wierd effects. With lesser files, I'd have to fight to avoid all sorts of artifacts and halos and stuff playing with the Nik plug-ins. But with these full frame files, I can try just about anything, because they can handle just almost all of it....

-Ray
 
#1 and #4 are my favs...Nicely done! :)

A few more from Downtown Philly with the Zeiss 21. I think I finally have most of these processed, other than another handful of street shots that I'll get to, mostly from the Nikon A...

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Shadows and Light by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Schuylkill Riverfront by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Urban Green Space by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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30th St Station by ramboorider1, on Flickr

View attachment 99053Shadows by ramboorider1, on Flickr

-Ray
 
Yeah, well I went back to the XT1 for a while too, having decided it was good enough. But I still had an RX1 and it didn't take me long to decide to go all in. I didn't want to - I shot m43 and Fuji for long enough to know their charms and I was REALLY happy with them, fully satisfied, until I shot with an RX1. You shouldn't spend time with a sensor like that if you're not prepared to deal with the consequences. I wasn't, but after a while, I had to find a way to go all in. And, again, the D610, which is the bargain of the Nikon line, has the same sensor as that in the A7 and RX1, and it's DR leaves my Df in the dust. It's simply amazing. The Df is just really really really good. This particular scene was no problem for it, but I honestly don't think the Fuji would have had much problem with this one either. Where I ran into problems with the Fuji was usually blown highlights more than buried shadows. I could usually pull the shadows up well enough if the ISO wasn't too high. But I could get in trouble with highlights. And in the D610 sensor in particular, you can't believe how much information is hiding up there in those clouds... But it's not just shadows and highlights - there's something about the way these files handle all kinds of wierd effects. With lesser files, I'd have to fight to avoid all sorts of artifacts and halos and stuff playing with the Nik plug-ins. But with these full frame files, I can try just about anything, because they can handle just almost all of it....

-Ray

I've noticed that blown highlight problem since getting an X-Trans. Honestly I don't recall that issue on the X100's bayer. The X100's blowouts were pretty balanced and forgiving. I've changed how I shoot with this XT, especially my presets... they're NOTHING like the X100 presets I had. It took me several thousand shots (a month or two) to get it to stop annoying me. The answer for me has been Astia with the color raised up a little and the white balance manually warmed up a little, until the light doesn't look right for it, in which case I switch to Velvia with shadows and highlights at -1.
 
I've noticed that blown highlight problem since getting an X-Trans. Honestly I don't recall that issue on the X100's bayer. The X100's blowouts were pretty balanced and forgiving. I've changed how I shoot with this XT, especially my presets... they're NOTHING like the X100 presets I had. It took me several thousand shots (a month or two) to get it to stop annoying me. The answer for me has been Astia with the color raised up a little and the white balance manually warmed up a little, until the light doesn't look right for it, in which case I switch to Velvia with shadows and highlights at -1.

Yeah, but I was shooting raw and still found it a problem. Not a huge one mind you - I did plenty of stuff with the XT1 that I really liked and was able to work with pretty effectively in post, but it just doesn't have the latitude of full frame. Some non X-trans APS do better in my limited experience (my Nikon A has surprising latitude, as did the GR), but all fall short of full frame. Just a fact of physics I guess...

-Ray
 
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