Using a light level typical for tungsten light shots at 1600 (1/60th at f8 = 1/500th at f2.8 for action, 1/250th at f4 for concerts etc) I have made a quick first day – D3X arrived this afternoon – comparison which, in the process, also evaluates two lenses (24-120mm VR Nikkor and 28-105mm RS Minolta) and two anti-shake systems. Sadly, my 5DMkII test kit went back on the same City Link van which brought the Nikon kit. Look out for my Nikon review/s in the British Journal of Photography soon.

Nikon image:

http://www.pbase.com/davidkilpatrick/image/106952293

Sony image:

http://www.pbase.com/davidkilpatrick/image/106952572

There are caption notes to each image. The point of targeted focus was the end of the fingerboard with the spattered rosin on it. Feel free to download and print. The red rosin cloth is interesting, so is the sharpness of the point of focus. Clicking on the small images here will open a full size 24 megapixel file in each case!

Ref the exposure difference: these were locked down manual exposures. The Sony does not appear to achieve a true ISO 1600. However, when shooting the same subject using auto exposure, the Sony image is perfectly exposed and the Nikon consistently overexposes. Here, I have set the exposure to the correct density for the Nikon.

– DK

The National Media Museum in Bradford has become the first UK institution to make sections of the internationally renowned National Photography Collection available to millions worldwide through online photo management and sharing application Flickr™. Read the rest of this entry »

The latest release of Adobe Lightroom, v2, handles pretty well all digital camera raw formats including the latest Sony, Canon and Nikon models. It is updated along with Adobe Camera Raw 4.5 to handle Nikon D700. Because Canon appears to have left their filetype identical to the A400, their new 1000D was recognised immediately by ACR even in 4.5 Beta. Read the rest of this entry »

Portrait Professional, the downloadable software from Anthropics which resculpts face shapes while smoothing out skin imperfections and signs of ageing, has been updated to Version 8 and launched for Apple Mac as well as Windows PC. We tested it briefly as a first look in our magazine Master Photo>Digital.
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CLICKING on key mapping points of a face, then adjusting some simple overlaid Bezier curves using movable anchors, it takes only a minute to load a typical headshot portrait into Portrait Professional.

Update: coverage of the new Mac and PC dual platform improved Portrait Professional 8 is on line now.

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IKEA has a very low cost optical focusing theatre-style spotlight which can be used, or adapted, for studio work. It comes complete with an adjustable iris diaphragm unit, a four-blade square aperture adjustable unit, a gobo/filter holder, a set of stainless steel cut gobos and a set of coloured glass filters. The focusing lens is not sealed against light leaks but open to allow heat to dissipate, however if this unit was adapted to hold a flash light source in place of its halogen bulb, you could also make a tube to seal off the light leaks from the optical assembly.

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CANON may get some stick from their own users who reckon Live View is not much use, and Sony’s decision not to put it in the A700 may well be defended on the same basis. How wrong that is. Here’s one (plus another two) good reasons why Live View is your best friend in the studio. Read the rest of this entry »

David Kilpatrick reported in January 1996 on the performance of the Leaf Lumina, which Icon had acquired in early 1995 as one of the first digital studios to operate in Britain. Read this report on prices and technology in 1995-6 and weep!

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BACK in 1996, David Kilpatrick and Andy Aitken reviewed the latest Canon for David’s Photon magazine. It has something which the Canon EOS 1D MkIII of 2007 also features – 10 frames a second. But to achieve this it had to sacrifice focus tracking and use a pellicle mirror, with the lens permanently stopped down during fast sequences. This article makes interesting reading in the light of developments since in the digital domain. Read the rest of this entry »