Sketching

Added on April 10, 2014 by John Sturr.

I literally set up, and took this shot without the subjects even knowing I was there. Upon talking to the gentleman on the left, he mentioned it was a pretty intense conversation and didn't even notice..

I'm glad I was there.

Moran Eye - West Side

Added on April 9, 2014 by John Sturr.

BW convert with SEfex2 and lens corrected with LR5 - lens correction is the only weakness of Nikon's software.

SBux on the back Porch

Added on April 5, 2014 by John Sturr.

I couldn't resist the light - and then I got to thinking - what makes a great image a success ?

Is it the camera, the light, the lens, the shooter -- or all 4 ?

Nikon 1 V1 - 18.5mm Converted with SFex Pro-2

Moran Eye - Interior wide

Added on April 4, 2014 by John Sturr.

3rd floor of the Moran Eye. Whenever I'm there I can't get over the dramatic view where this facility is nicknamed the "Palace" of those who visit who are in the professional eye community.

D4s - I'm sold.

Added on April 4, 2014 by John Sturr.

Going Wide on Moran Eye

Added on April 3, 2014 by John Sturr.

Testing out the new 6.7-13mm Nikon on the 1 V1.

Equivalent in 35mm it's a 18mm-35mm.

So - for some 18mm isn't very super wide - but for this sensor and considering it is a 6.7mm lens - well - it really is.

Converted in ViewNX2 to .tiff and then corrected in LR5.

Loving Spring

Added on April 2, 2014 by John Sturr.

...love it -- between this and fall -- are my favorite seasons.

Wide Sketching

Added on March 31, 2014 by John Sturr.

Rarely do I put the subject in the center of the frame - but when I shoot super wide, the combination of the two, with the right subject, works.

This is a full sized design study, being sketched. Shot with the Nikon 1 V1 and the 6.7-13mm at the widest, which is 18mm equivalent.

There are some things to keep in mind while using this lens. It doesn’t seem to be as forgiving at the 10-30mm on the sharpness scale. For some reason it seems that I can get a sharper photo with less effort. Maybe I’m too lazy during the shoot - so I will have to shoot more to really determine if I have to adjust technique.

And, while indoors the lens is slow - slower than one would expect - but that is the way it goes - take it or leave it. Sharpening is applied in post ever so slightly, or the image looks overworked. I still have yet to print one of these — that will be this weekend to see how it looks.

Image was developed in LRoom in order to take advantage of the lens correction tools - something of which I can't do in ViewNX2. Although ViewNX2's development is superior with Nikon's secret sauce.

March 28, 2006

Added on March 27, 2014 by John Sturr.

Every year - I remember this date.

www.jsturr.com/blog/2010/3/28/march-28-2006.html

Know your settings.

Added on March 26, 2014 by John Sturr.

Every once in a while I get snapped back into reality, to check settings and slowdown.

This only happens of course when the result of failure is very, very disappointing.

The scene is the office, again, and I wanted to grab and go with the V1 and flash. This time I was sure to be on Image instead of video from the day before - humph - but because I didn’t want to really mess around with settings with flash I decided to go “P” - Program.

Program is nothing to be ashamed of - as these cameras are really smart. So I set on P, and then I set ASA on 800. I didn’t want to be on Auto ASA as exposure would be fighting the flash. So with that - I started taking photos - and then I was seeing that flash was too distracting to the subjects - so I turned it off and started shooting available light. But get this — I didn’t re-adjust any settings to what I usually shoot.

The V1 was still on P

ASA was locked into 800

I should have taken a step back and stopped, and reset to “A” Aperture and then brought ASA to Auto.

Something did appear a bit peculiar while shooting - but of course in the middle of what Vincent Versace would call the “Hair Ball” - it didn’t make sense to me, so I drove on.

I did get some decent results - but not the best results for sharpness and exposure.

I wish was at on auto ASA and I probably should have been actually shooting the 18.5mm f1.8 for better resolution and ASA.

Also, my point is that all of this stuff takes practice, and these things even happen to the most experienced.

superWide

Added on March 21, 2014 by John Sturr.

I purchased Nikon's 6.7-13mm super wide lens yesterday. It allows me to go 18-35mm equivalent on the Nikon 1 V1. No complaints, as it is super sharp from edge to edge.

3 Nikons

Added on March 17, 2014 by John Sturr.

I shoot 3 Nikon’s - and the sensor of the D3s, CoolPix P330, and the 1 V1 all look the same. The dynamic range of the P330 seems to have the most depth - but for color rendering and richness and the ability to not have to touch exposure; they are all one in the same.

Exposure has become more important the more I realize that these systems performs so well. This is one of the reasons of which I keep coming back to the V1, and the speed is crazy fast.

As of late - I’m really done chasing megapixels as what I want is sharpness and performance. And there are two genres to what I shoot - pro and non-pro. And I think that is an essential distinction of which many never discuss - ever discuss. Pro vs. Non-Pro keeps Nikon and Canon from worrying about the mirrorless platforms of which I think is a mistake.

Since I shoot architecture and I have tilt shit lenses the V1 really can’t fit the bill, and I like full frame - but for everyday shooting; street, office, family - anything goes, and any system goes.

The uproar about the new V3 is a mind blower — total mind blower - good God. I feel sorry for Nikon.

The V1 also has a wonderful monochrome conversion - wonderful - the blacks are black, and the convert looks so organic. I love that.

I do wish there were more performance based primes - that’s a bit of a bummer. These vari-aperture zooms kill me.

Cat Brow

Added on March 4, 2014 by John Sturr.

Getting great pics of the cat is always good practice. And when it all comes together it's pretty cool.

Two Wheel Pan

Added on February 18, 2014 by John Sturr.

I don’t know where the 1 series is going — for all I know it could be Nikon’s new D2h.

When searching for a performance based system I reached for the Sony Nex-7 and once the honeymoon wore off I grew frustrated. AF was slow - color rendition was great as long as you were outside in great light - shutterspeeds were somehow pegged at 1/60, it seemed all the time in when in Aperture Pri. I guess I could have lived with everything except the color rendering and exposure.

I found myself reaching for it less and less. Paris was the last time I seriously used it - so I sold it.

But — in the mean time - on a lark I bought the Nikon P330 Coolpix. Canon’s products were rendering skin tones much too red and peachy. And I fell in love - lens was crazy sharp, it shot raw, and the colors were rich and deep and recognizably all Nikon. Hmm… I thought.

I wanted to get back into mirrorless, but funds were on the decline, Fuji wasn’t a contender as it was a slow system, lenses were getting great reports though, and i saw that the V1 system was getting better and better writeups. The $300 refurb pricing helped also.

AF is lighting fast - whoa… crazy fast - silent shutter is really trick, I use it almost exclusively, and most importantly rendering and exposure is nailed and finally the raw BW convert is crazy black.

So where does that leave me — The Fuji XT1 is attractive - bigger sensor, but raw development seems a bit challenging, irregardless of that the fans tell me it is a non-issue with LR etc. Sony’s A7 series is a bit too expensive and maybe needs to be tripod based for shooting and I just can’t see going m4/3 for some reason. So that leads me back to where I’m at - because I really love the V1.

The D3s backfills the pro work - and in the next few weeks I’ll be picking up the 30-110mm, and the 6.7-13mm where I have the 18.5mm, 10-30mm, and the flash.

So that’s my story.