Shooting a dam with Nikon J1

One quick pic about the set which I had and one image from the results.

Does Nikon V1 fit for bird photography? Part 2.

On Tuesday Nikon announced an update for Nikon 1 system. The biggest change ( for me ) was the long waited AF-C functionality when FT-1 adapter was used. I did already shoot some birds on Monday with Nikon V1 with 30-110 and 70-200/4, but really focused on testing the updated FT-1 on Wednesday.

I was on a trip to Turku and didn't know much places to shoot birds. I did found couple adequite locations where I mostly found Seaguls and Common Terns. Anyway my main focus wason testing the system not shooting new species.
For the last year I have mostly focused on landscape photography but it was fun to test this small system for birding. It wasn't as frustrating as it was when I had D90 and 70-300 VR. My hitrate was much better with Nikon 1-system. 70-200/4 can be shot wide open all the time and when using f5.6 it really shines with V1. My images are shot mostly wide open.

Bottom line about the new FT-1 update: GREAT!
Smaller subjects are as difficult as before, because the AF-rectancle is so big, but the AF-C mode really works. I think it also tracks the subject after keeping it in rectancle for a second or two. Then the rectancle disappears and it feels like it tries to track. Anyway, the hardest part is to trying to keep the focusing area on a bird. EVF does flicker quite badly when shooting, so mostly I was able to keep the subject in the picture only for a five images or so.

Here are some shots:

Nikon 1 for macro photography

I actually bought FT-1 adapter for macro photography. It just took 6 months to get a macro which I could use on it :)
Then finally a month ago I found a used Nikon 60mm f/2.8 AF-S macro lens from a local store. Nice lens on FX and it is still usable on Nikon 1 cameras with 2.7x focal length multiplier.

Actually 18.5mm f/1.8 lens works quite well for flower photography. Here is one.

Today I shot some photographs with Nikon V1, FT-1 and 60mm f/2.8 AF-S. I used a Sirui tripod and Markings ballhead. Not something to tell stories, but look at them as examples. Even when the sensor is so small as in Nikon 1 cameras the DOF is still mostly too short.

 

Sunset, again!?

Sunset is a problematic scene for a photographer. Every sunset is different, but still every photographer has seen too much sunset pictures. I like sunsets, every time, but I rarely photograph those. I have so many sunset pictures that I should not have a need to photograph those anymore.
But I do and I like it. This time I luckily had J1+18.5mm with me.

Normal beautiful sunset.

Nikon 1 in Scotland, Part 2

In the first part I just demonstrated a little bit possibilities of a RAW image. Here I will show some more images, a lot more.

I didn't use much the 10-30mm lens. I have got used to use prime lenses on D800 so I like to use those on Nikon 1 cameras also. I think if I would have used the zoom more, images could have been better on some cases.
Most of the time I had 10mm or 18.5mm lens on J1 and 30-110 telezoom on V1. Telezoom was on V1 because it is much easier to use with viewfinder.

 

 

Nikon 1 in Scotland, part 1

Last 10 days I spent in Scotland on a holiday. My main priority wasn't photographing so my small camera set J1/V1 were used quite much.

I will go those images through in next weeks, but here is one nice little example about the dynamic range of J1 image developed in Lightroom 4.

First the original.

And here is the adjusted version like I saw it with my own eyes. GND filter couldn't be used ( and I normally don't carry one with me ), but with correct exposure the dynamic range is enough.

Are you suprised?

Some random images from the last week

My computers hard drive broke down so I haven't had much time to photograph or process photographs.
Still, here are couple from the last week.