Year end musings

As 2015 draws to a close, it's time for a short review of my state of the photo nation.

1. I'm down to three camera systems: Nikon FX, Nikon CX, and Fuji X. M43 has gone away, and hasn't been missed.
2. The D3 is now on its eighth year, and still going strong. The batteries are due for a replacement though, as they are at the end of life per the indicator, and don't hold as much of a charge.
3. The D5200 gets the occasional use when I need the extra resolution. I'm still not as impressed with the high ISO IQ though.
4. The V1 is gone, replaced by the V2. I haven't had much time to use this camera, and plan to save it mostly for surfing and video. There is already a flaw in the plan though as the Sigma 500mm won't work with the FT1. I don't know if this is a problem with the V2 or with the FT1 as  I upgraded the firmware on the latter. The firmware upgrade allowed the FT1 to do continuous AF with the V2, but it seems at a cost. I'm waiting for a response from Sigma to find out if there is a fix. If not, I'm stuck with the 70-200mm + TC-14E for surfing (756mm 35mm-equivalent). Still not a bad combination, but not quite the 1350mm 35mm-equivalent I'd get with the Sigma.
5. The V2 also has some weird restrictions when shooting at 15fps. There's an aperture limitation (no greater than f/5.6) in this mode. Nikon wants me to call them to discuss this, but I haven't had the opportunity over the hectic holidays.
6. The V2 IQ is a bit grittier than the V1. Looks like I need to work on my sharpening settings.
7. The Fuji X-E1 has been a great walkaround camera over the last five months. Yes, the AF is dog slow, but I've been mostly using it with adapted lenses, so that hasn't been an issue. The IQ from the camera has been very good though, and it's a good balance between the IQ of FX and the portability of CX. Nikon, where is your mirrorless DX body?

So overall things are looking good for 2016. No new hardware is in the cards, for now at least.

From the V1 to the V2

Earlier this year I was looking at getting a used Nikon V2. As much as I enjoy using the V1 for surfing photos, the damned image review that can't be turned off has cost me quite a few shots. I've been waiting for Nikon to make that oh so small change to the firmware, but that's been a waste of time.

In the meanwhile, I got distracted by the Fujifilm X-E1. The IQ is so much better than the V1, although AF speed can't compare. Despite that drawback, the X-E1 has replaced the V1 as my small, carry anywhere body.

So where does that leave the V1? Well, it was going to remain my surfing camera (which means selling the 10mm, 18.5mm and SB-N5), but then I found a V2 body with the 10-30mm PD lens going for a decent price (thanks again, Craigslist).

A few observations:

1. The V2 body is smaller and lighter. It's not that much smaller than the V1, but being thin with that big grip gives the impression that it's much smaller. Being lighter also helps, but that is at the expense of battery life.

2. The PD lens is very convenient. Turn on the camera and the lens opens and extends, no need to remove a lens cap and then push a button to extend the lens. Hopefully the mechanism doesn't break down.

3. The grip makes it easy to hold the camera, but it gets uncomfortable after several minutes. The corners are not as rounded as on a Nikon DSLR body, which is probably one reason my fingers start hurting after using the V2.

4. There are some surprising missing features compared to the V1, such as no battery status (really, Nikon?), no interval timer, and no option to independently turn the AF confirmation and shutter sounds on or off.

5. Auto ISO is still not correctly implemented with a minimum shutter speed setting as on Nikon's DSLR bodies. I thought the algorithm was favoring lower shutter speeds in aperture priority, but a quick test with the V1 shows similar exposures.
6. There's no way to manually select between the electronic and mechanical shutters (aside from picking silent mode). With the V1, I tend to shoot using the electronic shutter, even at slower speeds.
7. I found out my FT-1 was one firmware upgrade behind when I was unable to focus continuously at 15fps. I did a rough test using the same lens on both the V1 and V2, and the V1 feels like it's focusing faster (or refocusing more often) than the V2. 

Not having image review is a relief though. I'm looking forward to the next trip to Hawaii so I can test the V2.

The V1 is off to another Nikon fan. It will get some good use and will still be loved, but by a new owner.

DX travel

I recently had the opportunity to spend a little over a week in the island paradise of Bali. Since this would be my first (and probably last) time there, I obsessed over what kit to bring for this one shot deal. I settled on bringing both the V1 and the D5200. 

Lenses became the next issue. I had two options for a wide lens on DX: the Sigma 12-24mm and the Nikon 18-55mm VR. I chose the latter as it gave me the option to go really wide (18mm FX equivalent) if needed. I ran a few tests at home and was satisfied with the result. For reach, I chose the 70-300mm VR as this would work well with both cameras.

Off I went on my long journey. First thing, the Sigma is a heavy lens. I'm used to traveling with the V1, which makes for a light and small kit. The Sigma weighs about as much as the whole V1 set. I did manage to fit most of the kit in a Lowepro Transit Sling 250.

Second issue: The Sigma has problems in the corners. The results were all over the place, varying with aperture and focal length, corner to corner. Sometimes one corner would be OK, then it would be bad on another photo, with the difference between the two being one or both of the two parameters. Yes, I should have tested this more before I made the trip, but I was pressed for time. And looking back at the test shots that I made, I can see the same issues, although not as bad.

Here's a sample taken with the Sigma at 24mm and f/8. Note how the three photos from the lower part of the image don't have the amount of detail that can be seen in the upper corners.

Third issue: Flare and the lack of a polarizer. The Sigma with its huge, curved front element is plagued by flare, even with the extra hood. This is a problem in an always-sunny, tropical location like Bali. I was also surprised to see vignetting in two corners with the extra hood attached. Keep in mind that I use this lens mostly on an FX body, and rarely use the extra hood. I thought it wouldn't be an issue on DX because of the sensor crop, but again I should have done more testing. Thankfully the lack of having a polarizer for the Sigma was solved by using the V1.

In hindsight, the 18-55mm would have been the better choice. There were very few instances when I needed to go really wide, and I could have just done a stitched shot instead.

Fourth issue: My 70-300mm VR won't VR with the D5200. Turns out VR doesn't work on the D3 either. It works fine on the V1 (which was the last body on which I used this lens); something to do with having VR always active that forces it to work. Not too much of an issue as I didn't hit any good surfing spots on this trip.

Overall, the bodies and lenses that I brought accomplished the task. Could the photos have been better? Yes, but it's too late for that. Lesson learned: don't use a once in a lifetime opportunity to test lens and body combinations.

First album of the year

Made a short trip to Sin City with some friends for Chinese New Year. Surprisingly, it wasn't as crowded, most likely because it was the middle of the week. The weather was nice, but not warm enough to hit the pool.

I tried to get a good seat on the plane going to Vegas, but unfortunately I was stuck behind the engines. I also picked the wrong side as the sun came up and reflected my yellow shirt in the window. I did manage a few good shots as the plane circled the strip.

The 10-30mm worked fine throughout the trip. I could be wrong, but it looks sharper than it did before (it's considered one of the weakest in the CX lineup). I'm happy to have the lens back as it's a good walk-around lens, and indispensible for videos because of VR.

I didn't manage to ride the High Roller. One of these days. No night shots either, but then that's not really the V1's forte without a tripod.

Hit rate: 44/274, or 16%

More images can be found here.

Cars under the bright sun

I only made it to one Jimmy's Old Car Picnic, and it happened to be the last one. No, I didn't kill the event. Sad to see it gone as there were a lot of sweet cars parked in Hellman Hollow. Some were in concours condition, some had more than a few rust spots.

It's the latter cars that are more interesting, because you can tell that they've been used hard, and yet are still loved.

I had the 35mm f/1.8DX mounted on the V1 when I started taking photos. This was my first outing with the lens, and it's not the ideal length for car shots on a CX body as it's a bit long. It helped that this was an outdoor event with some space, but it make for tough framing. You do get that nice fade to OOF with this lens.

Outdoor car shows are brutal because of all the polished chrome, shiny panels, and other reflective surfaces. It didn't help that the sun was pretty high up in the sky and shining brightly. Dark colors and highlights are a challenge for the V1 as the sensor's dynamic range isn't as good as a DX or FX body.

The flare on this Buick Riviera is interesting because of the inverted points. So far this is the worst case I've seen, and a reminder not to shoot into the sun with this lens. I do like the little touch of the picnic table in the background, gives the shot that '60's feeling.

Chromatic aberration is a bit of a problem with specular highlights and the 35mm DX. Proper NEF processing will reduce it a bit, but there's still a lot more than with the native CX lenses.

The V1 and 35mm DX combination did a lot better at Bayline 2014, aided by the overcast skies. The two did a stellar job when I used them at Super Hero Festival. The 35mm DX is my poor man's 32mm f/1.2, at least until I can afford the 32mm.

I eventually switched to the 10mm f/2.8 to be able to frame a whole car in the viewfinder. Who says you can't get subject isolation at 10mm on CX? And yes that's me reflected in the radiator, yet another problem of shooting closeups with cars.

More images can be found here

Hit rate: 191/328, or 58%

Teaching others to use the V1

Last weekend at the karting shoot (see my previous post), I lent the V1 to a friend so he could give it a try. He's a Canon shooter and knows his stuff, and he has used Nikon bodies a few times.

But the UI of the V1 isn't the most convenient to use. I had to show him how to dig into the menu to switch between the exposure modes. I also had to explain how to adjust the shutter and aperture. Cycling through images was familiar to him as Canon also uses a thumbwheel.

I didn't realize (or I'd forgotten) how inconvenient it is to adjust settings on the V1 until I had to explain it to someone else. I can see how this was done to simplify the camera, but from the outset this was not a tyro's body (that would be the J1). Nikon realized their mistake and wisely changed that with the V2 and V3, but the V1 is stuck with the menu system.

On a side note, I love the thumb wheel for quickly finding the photo you want. Nikon needs to adopt this on ALL their bodies.

Once he had the camera set up the way he liked, he was a happy shooter. He did like the images he got using the V1, so score a point for the little camera.

Karting

First outing for 2015! I've been a little lazy, and haven't gone on a photo outing since last year.

So for 2015, it's off to Sonoma Raceway (formerly Sears Point) for some go kart action. I tried the V1 with the 70-200mm VR and TC-14EII. A little too much reach, and AF tracking wasn't as good as the D3, but it's great if you want to get up close. The camera correctly reports the focal length with the TC attached.

The D3 lacks a bit of reach (I was too lazy to bring the Sigma 500mm), but playing with 3D AF got some good results. Panning is still not my best skill though, and the 70-200mm really doesn't like it when you're shooting into the sun.

A slow, but not bad, start to 2015.

Ecstasy and agony

While attending this year's SuperHero Street Fair, the neck strap on the V1 managed to slip free of the buckle, causing the camera to drop a foot or so to the sidewalk. The hood on the 30-110mm has several scratches and nicks. The left corner of the V1 also has some chips. Not a good day.

The event was more populated with costume revelers this year, making it a constant shoot fest. I used all the lenses in my small bag (35mm, 50mm, 30-110mm, and 10-30mm), with the 50mm getting the least use as it was a bit  too long. I do love how the V1 kit can be so small yet have such breadth and depth. I do wish that F-mount AF lenses were able to use AF points other than the center as focus-and-recompose is a pain for events.

I haven't gone through all the images as 2013 is still calling. In the meanwhile, here are some that jumped out and demanded to be edited.

When is a parade not a parade?

When you don't have the time to attend a parade (because there's another event at the same time), you can just go to the location where the parade attendants are staging themselves before the parade. The St. Patrick's Day Parade happened to coincide with the Brides of March event a few weekends ago, so I ended up having enough time to take shots up to the point where the parade goers began to march.

 

The atmosphere is a little different. The kids are restless (as kids tend to be when they're forced to wait). The parade vehicles are being made up, and some people are practicing their routines.

 

It's also been some time since I've used the D3. The optical viewfinder is a thing of beauty after months of using an EVF. The 70-200mm VR remains one of the best lenses I've used, and it's unmatched for parades. It looks like my left forearm is OK as it didn't hurt at the end of the day (the major reason I switched to the V1). The right elbow is another story!

 


Complete set of photos are here.

Hit rate: 66/243, or 27%

FX on CX

Time to put the 85mm f/1.8G on the V1. With the CX crop factor, this works out to a telephoto lens on a Nikon 1 series body.

It's not too heavy a combination, even with the FT-1. AF is limited to the center sensor, but it is snappy and accurate. There is chromatic aberration wide open, and it goes away by about f/3.5. This lens has very good contrast, with colors that are pretty vibrant. The included hood is a bit too shallow, especially on CX.

This is probably not a combination that I'll use often, but it's something to keep in mind if I need a tele with good low light capabilities.

Generic C-mount and the V1

One of the attractions of the V1 is the ability to use non-CX lenses, ranging from F-mount, C-mount, Canon, Minolta, Fujica, M42 and many more through the use of adapters. Other than with AF F-mount lenses, you will lose AF, all autoexposure modes, and won't record any EXIF information. There is no AF peaking, so focusing can be difficult as the AF confirmation dot isn't very accurate.

I got a generic C-mount adapter and a generic 35mm f/1.2 C-mount lens (branded 'Fotasy') on eBay. It's a challenging lens, with a non-uniform field plane of focus. OOF can get swirly (apparently common to C-mount lenses). But it is sharp when you nail the focus.

I used this lens a few times, but the results have been less than optimal. It hasn't found a regular place in my bag. I was considering other C-mount lenses, but that plan has been put on the backburner after buying the 18.5mm and the FT-1.

 More samples here

The cheap system that wasn't

Nearly a year has passed since my last post. I blame time for passing. What follows was sitting in the drafts folder for six months.

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It's been almost a year since I got the V1. Since then, I've added an SB-5 (since the camera has no flash), the FT-1 F-mount adapter (since I want to use my Nikon lenses with autoexposure and AF), the 18.5mm f/1.8 (since it's the cheaper lens with the largest aperture that I can afford), and the 10mm f/2.8 (since it was less for a refurb than for a craigslist  one). I also added a 35mm f/1.8 AF-S DX because of a $100 discount from dpreview (thank you!).

Adding it all up, I've spent over $1k on what was supposed to be an under $400 replacement for a p&s. Yikes!

Welcome to my friend, feature creep. The SB-5 is needed as the V1 doesn't do too well at high ISO's, and I didn't have the 18.5mm f/1.8. The 18.5mm is needed so I can get some sort of subject isolation, and still use lower ISO's (see above on the SB-5). The FT-1 is needed because it was a good price, and I want to see how well this camera does with actual AF on the Sigma 500mm (MF doesn't work too well for surfing shots). The 10mm is needed so I can have a small kit for my upcoming trip. The 35mm is needed for portraits because the 32mm f/1.2 is just plain expensive.

 

What's next? The GP-N100 would remove the inconvenience of syncing GPX files from my phone. I have yet to upgrade the firmware for the FT-1 as I'm worried my Sigma lenses may not AF. I should send the Sigmas in to Sigma to have them upgraded. I haven't decided on whether I need a grip or not.

Decisions, decisions :-)

I've also been working through my backlog of photos. I didn't realize that I had some images from two years ago that I had yet to process (again, because life!). I'm now up to April of this year, which is quite a bit of progress. I should have some images up tonight, or in the next few days.

Yet another new toy, the Nikon V1

Welcome the Nikon V1. Getting old is not fun, and the D3 is starting to strain my shoulder. I've been looking at the interchangeable lens compacts, and settled on the V1 as a compromise between price and features.

Why the V1? A viewfinder is a must-have (refer to my post on the Olympus E-P1). It's a plus that there's an available adapter for AF-S lenses, but it's out of my budget for now. AF is very fast in bright daylight, slower in dim light. The viewfinder is bright and the refresh rate is high. I tried an OM-D and the viewfinder showed noticeable flickering. There's a slight lag before the viewfinder turns on, but this can be fixed with a little tape.

The camera has a 10mp sensor that's on the small side. With some PS retouching, I was able to make a clean 13x19 print. 

The rear LCD screen is the same as that in D3, but without the fogging issue (so far). I do enjoy the rotating rear controller, which makes it easy to go through the menu items (spin quickly instead of clicking or holding a button). So far the mode dial hasn't slipped, but the detents are on the loose side.

Now for the drawbacks of the V1. Noise is always present, even at the base ISO100. Very noticeable in blue skies and in shadows. Higher ISO's are a problem, limiting the usefulness of the camera. Battery life is also dismal, giving 160 shots with 20% left on one of my outings with the camera. That works out to about 200 shots maximum, much less than the 350 rating for the battery. It's the price you pay for an electronic viewfinder that's always on.

Selecting simple things like exposure mode, ISO, AF settings, and other basic features are hidden in the menu system. The V1 is targeted at the p&s user, and the novice user to be specific, hence the simplified controls. It's not likely that Nikon's going to change the firmware, so this is just something that I'll have to accept.

The lens selection is limited for now, and given the small sensor, it's doubtful that buying a lens for isolation is going to be cheap. Third-party lenses are non-existent, although there several adapters available for other mounts.

Surprisingly, it's not that hard to manually focus. I've tried the 50mm f/1.8E and 75-150 f/3.5E, and it's easy to get accurate focus with either lens. They also perform decently on the camera. Metering doesn't work with these lenses, so it's back to the sunny 16 rule and guesstimating.

I considered the OM-D, Nexus 6 and 7, but they're all more expensive than the V1. The Panasonic G3 is now a steal at $300 with the kit lens, but the AF isn't up to the V1's speed. I also looked at the Nikon D3200, but the price is a bit high, and it's not as small or as light.

The V1 is not a D3 replacement, but then again at $350 for the body and kit 10-30mm lens, it's definitely a bargain.

Things to order: a second battery, a handgrip, a lens hood, and a strap.

Hit rate: 59/162, or 36%. Click here for more photos.

Addendum on 12/02/13: B&H is now offering the V1 for $300. Definitely a bargain. Now, do I take the savings and buy the 30-110mm, or the FT-1....