Digital Photography Tips and Techniques

Japanese website ASCII has published an interesting interview (Babelfish translation, Google translation) with Nikon development personal on the development of the Nikon D300, due to be released in November 2007. Here are some interesting points:

• Targeted customers: Users of both D2X and D200. Personally I think the D300 will appeal to many current D2X users. It costs less with the body and the grip combined than the D2X, with better performances in most aspects. No doubt, many professionals will purchase the full frame D3. However many will find the DX format sufficient.
• As a flagship DX format DSLR, the three most significant features: 100% viewfinder (need very precise alignment of viewfinder, AF system, and the sensor), durability (150K shutter life), and high shooting speed.

• High ISO noise performance to be more than 1 stop better than D200, but this is scene dependent. It mentioned that mid tone is brightened a bit, so the images overall has a brighter look.

• The sensor is supplied by Sony according to Nikon specification and standard. The D300 sensor performs A/D conversion within the sensor to suppress circuit noise that may be generated when the analog signals are transferred to external A/D converter in previous designs. This also allows parallel conversion to improve shooting speed.
• The active D-lighting function achieves what post-processing does in camera. It is not just a simple tone curve manipulation, but also some localized adjustments, similar to the dodge and burn technique in Photoshop.
• The sensor has the ability of shooting 8fps but the mechanical parts cannot keep up without the attached battery grip. Without the battery grip, the maximum frame rate drops to 6fps.
• The mechanical parts like the AF motor are mostly the same as in D200, but the parameters are optimized to increase the shooting speed on D300.
• The speed improvement over D200: 45ms v. 50ms shutter lag, 90ms vs. 105ms viewfinder blackout time.
• Apparently the shutter release sounds are also improved by “the mirror balancer”, which reduces mirror bouncing. I guess we can assume less vibration caused blurring when shooting at slow shutter speed.
• The Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, who was involved in the F3/F4/F5/F6 design, is responsible for the D3 design. While the D300 was designed by in-house designers.
• Nikon apparently listened to the complains about the durability of the D200 vertical battery grip. It is now constructed in part from magnesium alloy to increase rigidity. The grip is no longer L-shaped. Instead, it becomes flat. One battery remains in the camera and one in the grip. With D200 grip, both batteries go into the grip. It also takes several different types of battery, including AAs.
• “3D-tracking mode”: When used in auto focus it photometrically utilizes scene recognition technique with the 1005 pixel RGB sensor and a diffraction grating to improve AF accuracy. The sensor maintains the focus by tracking the subject’s color and size. This application does not only scene recognition AF but is also is applied to auto white balance, and to background recognition in flash photography.
• On Liveview mode: Focus using the actual picture taken by the sensor is the most accurate. In the “tripod shooting mode” of liveview, contrast AF is used to achieve focus. The interviewer asked an interesting question about why contrast AF, popular in compact digital cameras, were not used in DSLRs. The answer is that DSLR sensors cannot capture images with sufficient frame rate. Contrast AF works by doing frame by frame focus finding (maximum contrast). In DSLRs, due to the higher quality requirements, the frame rate with DSLR sensors are too slow. That makes sense that it is only available in tripod shooting mode and, most likely, for still subjects only.
• On the dust removal: It is the first on Nikon DSLR. It has the vibration dust removal, an anti-static low pass filter with a special coating.

The simultaneous release of two flagship DSLR models D300 and D3, in DX and FX formats, are a significant achievement by Nikon. They reaffirmed the commitments to the DX format. Both formats will be continuous expanded and updated.

[Well, it took me a while to get throw the translations. If I missed anything, please let me know.]

Olympus has officially announced the professional four thirds digital SLR camera E-3. News and rumors of the E-3 were all over the web since this summer (for example, Engadget, DPJournal). As usual, DPReview has all the details as well.

Nikon D300 has not yet been released for sale but there are already lots of sample pictures making the rounds on the Internet. Some might be Nikon sanctioned tests, others appeared to be unauthorized releases by people who sneak into exhibits with CF cards. Lots of attentions are paid to high ISO performance of Nikon D300. Some say the high ISO images look great, others say they are still not as good as Canon’s. Well, go check them out yourself. Read More…

For users of digital cameras with interchangeable lens, dust can be a real problem. This is especially true for photographers who shoot at smaller apertures (large f/stop numbers). Why? Because the dusts are not sitting directly on the micro lens of the sensor but on the anti-aliasing (AA) filter. The typical distance between the AA filter and sensor surface is much greater than the size of typical dusts. At large apertures, the light rays that pass through different part of the lens surface can go around the dust and focus on to the pixel. The dust may not be visible at all or appears to be a fuzzy dot in your photos. When shooting at small aperture, the light is restricted and therefore more directional (coming through a smaller hole). It causes the dusts shadow to show up clearly and sharply in the photo.

It is not a good surprise when you come back from shooting then found out there are dark spots on the exact locations of your otherwise great photos. You cannot completely avoid getting dusts on the sensor even if you seal your camera in a air-tight bag. The moving parts on your camera and lens can also generate some particles. So, what are the options? Read More…

I heard numerous praises for the ergonomics and rich feature sets of Nikon’s SLRs. I personally think their digital SLR offerings are great, especially for the high end products such as Nikon D200, D300, D2x, D3, etc. However, a DPReview visitor has come up with a list of things that Nikon should have made it right. Many agreed and some have also contributed to the list. I think some of them really make sense but some are probably user preference. It is still great if Nikon would listen and offer more customizable functions in new digital cameras.

Nikon Japan has posted the official D300 sample photos. The photos were taken at ISO200. People have been anxiously waiting for a high ISO sample so they can find out the noise performance of the new CMOS sensor. The lack of high ISO samples for D300 have fueled some speculations that the performance might not be very good. Join the discussions at DPReview.

DPReview got their hands on a pre-production version of Nikon D300 and produced a detailed hands-on preview. Still no full size sample images though. The 922,000 pixel display looks great. The inclusion of the HDMI port may change the way people use the video-out port on the camera. Personally I have never used the video-out on my D70 or D200 due to its poor quality. Nikon paid great attention to details. No more tiny 10-pin connector screw cap to lose as it is replaced by an attached rubber cap. There is no need to remove the battery door to attach the vertical battery grip. On one down side, the exposure bracketing is still 1 EV maximum step size, just like D200. I wished they could make it possible to do 2EV/step, which is more practical for HDR photography.

Digital SLRs with APS-C sized sensors currently dominates the DSLR market. The smaller sensor size translates to lower cost and compact/light weight cameras for photographers. Macro/wildlife and sports shooters love the benefits of more DOF and reach, landscape and some former 35mm film photographers hate them because their wide angle lens is no longer wide enough.

In response to the market demands, many manufacturers have produced ultra wide angle lens specially for DSLRs with APS-C sized sensors. They include the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 12-24mm f/4G IF-ED, Tokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX 12-24mm f/4, Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC HSM, Tamron SP AF11-18mm F/4.5-5.6 Di II LD Aspherical [IF]. The first two are for Canon and Nikon photographers, respectively. The other models offer versions that are compatible with various camera manufacturers, such as Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, etc. Read More…