70-200 outside the house...

Here is some more 70-200 VR goodness....went on a short santa bike ride...dropping off presents at the doorsteps of some friends....I took the 70-200 and D200 out with me to finally test it outside. We rode up and over the Queensway Bridge and I tried the Continuous focus mode on the camera (something I almost never use because I didn't have a lens that needed it). The 70-200 tracked pretty well. Love it!

An early Christmas :)...or my mini 70-200VR review

No one knows what you want better for Christmas than yourself:)

My Christmas came a little early this year. Just got a Nikon 70-200mm VR lens after about two months of hunting. It seems to be backordered everywhere. It dawned on me today that I have a friend that works in a small camera shop and they might have it. And they did!



It came in a huge box for a lens, or so I thought, until I unpacked it. It's a long lens. "One of those over-compensating lenses," my girlfriend tells me. Thanks. With the lens hood it measures over a foot long!

So what's so great about this lens? It's got pretty good range for a telephoto going from 70-200. Other nikon tele's go from 80-200. The little extra 10mm on the wide end makes a difference indoors or when you want to work a little closer to a subject.

The build quality is superb. Heavy, but because it's got metal parts! Remember when cameras came with those? Barring dropping this lens from a 2nd floor window, this will last me many many years. The focus and zoom rings are silky smooth and have just the right amount of dampening in them. Unlike 3rd party lens makers or lower-end Nikon lenses, where the rings are a little jerky, snagging in the middle of the arc.

This one is like butta.

And another bit of awesomeness....actually the thing that makes this lens so darn expensive is VR. Vibration Reduction.

Does it work? Hell yeah.

I was playing with it last night inside the apartment. Photographing things lit up only by Christmas lights, handholding the camera at 200mm 2.8! Doing this on a non-VR lens is a waste of time without a mono or tripod. You could do it, but the hit ratio would be pretty low. With the VR, things came out sharp. I'm not going to say tack sharp in that sitation, but definitely exponentially sharper than I could have done handholding without the VR.

I'm going to go outside and shoot something now :)

Looking for an extra 5k in the couch...

I don't get excited by digital cameras too often (especially Nikon ones). However, I just about messed myself when I read about their latest offering, the Nikon D3.

I guess I've been under a rock when it comes to Nikon's new offerings. I never thought they would offer a full frame camera, but here it is!

And let me tell you, it's beautiful.

It's full frame. Did I mention that? That means when you're on 17mm on the lens it's 17mm and not 25mm. For wide angle shooters (like me), this is a godsend.

As if having wide angle return to Nikon wasn't enough, the darn thing can shoot up to ISO 25,000!!!! I've seen sample shots of it at 6400 and it's beautiful (for 6400). I was an available light shooter when I was shooting film (Leica and Neopan 1600) and now I can be an available light shooter again with digital (without a tripod and noise).

Downside is that it cost $5000, which isn't too bad considering everything you get. The first shipment comes out in November for those who have already pre-ordered. I'll have a long while yet of saving pennies until I get my hands on one, unless there's an extra 5k hidden in my couch somewhere.

Portrait Kit....

I carry different permutations of gear for different assignments. This is my single person portrait kit. If I know I'm shooting just one person this is all I'll bring. Basically, the camera, a wide lens (17-55), a portrait lens (85mm), some light to give me more control (Nikon SB-800, SB-28 with pocket wizards), some light stands and an umbrella or softbox.


With this setup, I can shoot a nice available light portrait outside in the shade. A dramatic portrait where I over power the sun with a little help from the Nikon speedlights. Or I can also shoot inside and get a nice studio-ish portrait with the umbrella or softbox.

All this fits in my Xtracycle. Brilliant. I don't accelerate or climb hills as fast, but I can still move at a good clip (cruising around 18mph). Which means, I can get from my apt to City Hall in about 12 minutes, or to Belmont shore in about 15 minutes and seal beach in about 25 minutes.

This particular setup I took to shoot the Garden of Eva portrait (see the entries below) which is at the border of Long Beach and Paramount. It took me about 35-40 minutes via the Los Angeles River bike trail.

Another Graduation...

This time it's my youngest brother, Andrew, graduating from middle school. It was good to see him graduate. He even won the school spirit award.

On a photographic note, I was playing around with the highspeed shutter sync of the D200 and SB800 combo. I've actually never really used it before and was pretty happy with the results. I had the flash off camera with a TTL cord. The last photo, I told the camera to underexpose by a stop and the flash to go over by a stop. The net result was a properly exposed subject and darkened background. Sweet.