Kit Posts
Nikon D850 Looks Awesome
August 24, 2017

It looks like a perfect all rounder from the specs, great for pretty much everything. I will be saving up! Which will take a fair old while because it is a huge £3.5k and then the battery grip is essentially about £800 more by the time you have bought the additional battery and the charger! Ouch! I would really like get a 19mm PC-E lens too for photographing buildings. So that it about £6k of kit. :/ Not sure exactly how I am going to finance that, might have to get creative!

Key Features: Nikon D850 Digital SLR Camera Body:

  • 4537-megapixel Back Side Illuminated sensor enables true 8K time-lapse
  • Tilting 8” 2360k-dot LCD Screen
  • Expeed 5 processor
  • ISO range of 32-102,400 equivalent
  • LCD Touch Function
  • All-weather sealing
  • 4K UHD Time-Lapse Movie
  • 8K Interval Timer
  • 200k shutter reliability
  • The same 153-point automatic focus system as the Nikon D5
  • 9 frames per second shooting
  • Approx. 1840still images from a single battery charge
  • Slow Motion Full HD Video
  • Electronic Vibration Reduction (video)
  • Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity
  • Focus Peaking
  • XQD Card Compatibility for reliable video and data management
  • RAW Batch Processing
  • Wireless Radio Frequency Compatibility
  • Silent Photography Mode
  • Focus Shift Photography
  • Button Illumination
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Kit Posts
Nikon D850 Announcement 24th August
August 19, 2017

Rumour has it the Nikon D850 will be properly announced on the 24th of August (ish, depends on where you live a little). So that will be the date when the speculation about spec etc will all come to an end and we likely will be able to put down a deposit on the camera soon after. Shipping is rumoured for sometime around mid September. Now all I need is about £3800…

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Kit Posts  /  Rumours
Nikon D850 Low Light Video
August 18, 2017

Something quite interesting happened with what is reported to be a low light video shot on the forthcoming Nikon D850. It appeared on Instagram and was reported on Nikon Rumours, however it has since disappeared. The video was impressive, showing very high quality low light capability, which is something that has been rumoured to be present in a new camera by Nikon. Is this part of a teasing media campaign by Nikon? Maybe? Could just have been withdrawn at their request.

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Rumours
Nikon D850 Specs!
August 15, 2017

Its coming, the new Nikon D850! Perhaps in a few days (16th of August?!) the official announcement will be made, in the meantime there has been plenty of leaks to keep us interested. They look reasonably likely to be at least close to the final spec with a couple of things that are super interesting. 

One is the potential for 4K Video with no crop! That would be awesome, that would make this camera very handy for both video and photos, depending a little on how the focus can be controlled.

Next is the silent electronic shutter in liveview, that would be a great addition to the camera. I know that some people have suggested that there might be a dual optical/evf thing going on but I think that would add a lot of complexity to the camera.

Here are the full rumoured specs from Nikon Rumours.

  • 45.75MP full frame CMOS sensor
  • New and improved version of SnapBridge
  • No built-in GPS
  • Tiltable LCD (3.2″, 2.36 million dots)
  • Fully functional touchscreen: supports touch AF, touch shutter and touch menu
  • Memory card slots: one SD and one XQD
  • AF system from the D5 (153 points, 130% frame coverage compared to the D810, all AF points @ -3EV,  middle/center crosshair sensor @-4EV)
  • New smaller AF point
  • No built-in flash
  • Back illuminated buttons
  • Joystick selector
  • Built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
  • 8K time-lapse video capabilities
  • 4k UHD video in FX format (with no crop)
  • No EVF or hybrid viewfinder
  • Slo-mo full HD 120fps video
  • The SD slot will support UHS-II
  • Improved LiveView split-screen display
  • Improved silent shooting mode: fully-silent, no-sound electronic shutter in live view (6 fps silent shooting, no mechanical movement, can shoot up to 30fps @ 8MP with the electronic shutter)
  • Improved battery life
  • Lighter than the D810
  • Native ISO range: 64-25,600
  • ISO 64 extendable down to ISO 32 (Lo1 = 32, Hi 2 = 108,400)
  • 7fps without grip, 9fps with grip (MB-D18a battery grip and the EN-EL18a battery)
  • 51 images raw buffer at 14-bit RAW
  • 0.75x optical viewfinder (largest ever on a Nikon FX cameras)
  • 180k RGB meter
  • No AA filter
  • Supports for Nikon wireless transmitter WT-7
  • Built-in focus stacking: up to 300 pictures with up to 10 levels of focusing steps (still need external software)
  • Price will be CNY 23,999 or around $3,600 (source: Chinese forum)
  • Announcement date could be August 16th
  • RAW sizes: small, medium, large
  • New 1:1 mode
  • New natural light AWB

Read more at Nikon Rumours.

 

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Photo Projects
Building a Darkroom
April 27, 2017

I have always wanted one, or at least access to one, but never could find the space. Now I have. As part of the Empty Shop TESTT space in Durham I have managed to carve out a space to set up a Darkroom. There is a toilet in a corner of the building that is big enough for a darkroom and has everything needed. Water, power, darkness, and space for enlargers etc. A number of people have also donated equipment (including me). So we have a few enlargers of different types and ages, trays, dev tanks, safe lights, and pretty much everything else you could think of. We also have a few cameras that could be loaned out. Although they are in varying states of functionality. 

There was one little gem in the boxes…

An FM2 found in the boxes, needs a bit of a repair to the winder.
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Kit Posts
More Lenses or Save Up for for D760/D850?
December 26, 2016

So I am currently back down to one body after selling my D90 and the 18-200mm that went with it on eBay. I don’t know if I should either save up for a second body, perhaps a D760 or D850 (the rumoured replacements for the D750 or D810). Buy one of the current bodies second hand. Or that last option is get a couple of lenses that I would really like. Perhaps a while angle prime like a 14mm or 20mm. Or perhaps the 300mm. 

None of these purchases can be considered as essential, so I am starting to think that my photography hobby should paid for itself. 

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Kit Posts
Nikkor AF-S 85mm F1.8G
November 29, 2016

So after trying the 85mm AF-D F1.8 I wasn’t completely happy with the focus speed although it seemed nice and sharp, I ended up sending it back. Partly because the new Nikkor AF-S 85mm F1.8G wasn’t actually all that much more really (It was a really good used version of the AF-D).

So far I am liking the lens, took some really nice portraits with it, which is what I bought it for. I couldn’t afford the Nikkor 105mm or the F1.4, way too much money for an amateur. I have no doubt I will be able to get a lot of good photos out of this lens. 

Call my old fashioned perhaps but I love primes; I have a few for my old Mamiya. I would like a 35mm, maybe a 24mm, and definitely a 300mm of some sort. There are some nice used 300mm AF-S F4s around. That would be nice.

My D750 with the Nikkor 85mm F/1.8 G AFS Lens.
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Photo Trip
Photo Visit – The Old Durham Passport Office
November 21, 2016

Myself and two friends visited the old Passport Office in Durham today to take some pictures of the interior and the exterior. The building is currently being demolished, and I managed to arrange access to take some photos. I am fairly sure the guys there thought we were nuts.

It was a tough shoot, the lighting was awful as the weather was rubbish, the sky was greyer than the concrete building. It was fun though, and there aren’t going to be building built like it again. So it was worth while capturing it. We cannot release the photos yet as part of the deal was that we would check with them before hand. Below is a snap taken of the outside of the building from across the river.

The Durham Passport office. The sky was much darker when we visited, really tough lighting for the shoot.
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Kit Posts
Boya Microphone Quick Test
November 20, 2016

This is a very quick test of my Boya Microphone. The microphone switches after about 1.35mins. You will hear it as at first it is a little to far from my mouth. 

I am please with it, the sound quality is pretty good. 

Boya Microphone Quick Test
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Kit Posts
Boya Microphone
November 17, 2016

I bought a Boya BY-M40D Lavalier Microphone to try out. They are very cheap, and this one seems to be well made. It will be interesting to see if it is good enough or if I should have stuck with Sennheiser which I normally use.

Trying out the Boya BY-M40D Lavalier Microphone
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