Yeah, that looks like MF territory. Studio lighting at f/8 on the 85mm will simply feed the sensor with all the details.

Time to upgrade the phone !

Bangkok for business or leisure? See you there.

I'm using 16GB Sandisk Extreme CF (60MB/s). Have two of this. Also have older 8GB Sandisk CF cards (2 of them 40MB/s Extreme IV and 1 is the 45MB/s Ducati Edition) and not to mention two or three 4GB Extreme III ones lying around.

I think the new Ultra speeds (30MB/s) is about the same as the old Extreme III if I'm not wrong.

Anyway, what used to be a lot in the D700 is back to small in the D800.

Here's hoping prices for 128GB CF cards will drop.

Don't know how changgih your mum is but the J1 is expensive. For much cheaper and simpler, perhaps a good PnS like the Panny LX-5, Oly XZ-1 or the Canon S series is sufficiently good already.

You have PM.

LOL My 4 year old daughter also wants an IPad. Nothing complicated about it actually. But a J1 is not cheap even though it's relatively easy to use.

Even if 8.8k were true (which I don't think so), do you think it will still be available?

Hmmm, will go back and check. So far, the LCD did not show anything out of the ordinary.

Yeah, saw that leak. Looks like a very interesting all-in-one lens if it's indeed coming.

I've not really analysed the shots one by one but I went straight to the ISO 6400 JPG for the 5DMkIII and the D800 and downloaded them. My impression is that noise wise, the Canon is cleaner but just marginally. But when it comes to details, the D800 trumps it. I also notice that the Canon is slightly sharper than from the D800. They have always been this way as far as I can remember. On a side note, one can probbaly bump the default sharpness on the D800 from 3 to 4 or 5. Anyway on the 2nd pic, I showed that with just a tiny bit of USM, you'd get it as sharp as the Canon plus get more details too.



Again, just observing from the SOOC JPG files from both cams...

I may be wrong but I think he's referring to the big flood lights on the top right corner as the SB-920.

Many thank for the confirmation and feedback. As I suspected...

I bet that you'd be very reliant on the 70-200 and would not want to give your friend to borrow. Trust me. Hard to shoot with 35mm. You need to go very near and you'll block everybody.

Anyway, photographers over there are very discipline. They take turns and are always mindful of people around them taking photos. Not like photographers here unfortunately.

Woow... Nikon is really pushing to the max. Nice to see that for once. A few years ago, Nikon was always playing catch up.

Anyway, the 28mm f/1.8 sounds interesting with a quite nice focal length.

Who lah? Are you also thinking of jumping?

Like they say, the grass always looks greener on the other side. Likewise, Canon shooters also think of jumping ship to Nikon.

As for me, I'm more interested in details. You can have the cleanest JPG/RAW but what's the use when there's no detail to work on? Nowadays PP also can get very good results with 3rd party softwares. For me, I rather have slightly "noisier" file with more details and work on it from there.

Oh, just realised that I forgot to mention the D800 samples I posted were reduced to 5DMkIII resolution to compare apples to apples. Somehow, photobucket does not do a good job of showing the details.

I thought I saw somebody shooting at the BMW girls with a 35mm today...

Good advise. If in doubt, buy both !

I'm comparing D700 and D300. The D700 is slightly faster.

Note that the spread of AF sensors on the D300 is much wider than on the FX D700. The AF sensors on the FX body is mostly centered.

Yes, at the end of the day, it's what the eye can see. If you view a D800 pic at 100%, you can see all the noise flaws at high ISO. Reduce it to D700 resolution and everything seems to be gone.

D800 1 stop better than D700? Base on your findings, it's more like 0.5 stop since D3s is 1 stop better than D700.

I know. I meant your findings from DXO's results because I cannot find a direct link to compare all of them them head to head. There's only numbers associated with them which does not say how much better they are in real world performance. I'm only adding the D3s vs D700 to continue from your deduction because it's fairly known that the D3s is 1 stop better than D700/D3.

Per pixel noise when both viewed at 100% at their largest resolution, the D700 is cleaner (as with the 5DMkIII too). From what I can see, the D800 is about as good if not better than the D700 if downsized to the same resolution as the D700 (same with the 5DMkIII too).

Abused one?

On your camera you are able to select custom WB. Put the grey card under the same lighting you want to shoot and with the camera set to take the PRE WB shot, just click and your should be able to record the custom WB of the current scene. Look at the manual for more info.

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Added on April 3, 2012, 8:57 amI know. I meant your findings from DXO's results because I cannot find a direct link to compare all of them them head to head. There's only numbers associated with them which does not say how much better they are in real world performance. I'm only adding the D3s vs D700 to continue from your deduction because it's fairly known that the D3s is 1 stop better than D700/D3.

Per pixel noise when both viewed at 100% at their largest resolution, the D700 is cleaner (as with the 5DMkIII too). From what I can see, the D800 is about as good if not better than the D700 if downsized to the same resolution as the D700 (same with the 5DMkIII too).

Abused one?

On your camera you are able to select custom WB. Put the grey card under the same lighting you want to shoot and with the camera set to take the PRE WB shot, just click and your should be able to record the custom WB of the current scene. Look at the manual for more info.

This post has been edited by jchue73: Apr 3 2012, 08:57 AM

Doesn't need to be oof or in manual focus. The camera will capture anyway when you press the shutter. But making sure that the grey card fills the whole frame to capture WB, that's spot on. At the end of the day, the LCD screen must indicate GOOD for the WB to be captured properly.

Yeah, the method outlined above is done in PP only. The grey card must be captured under same lighting as your other photos. Use eye dropper and copy to other photos so that they have the same WB. Works only in RAW.

For JPG shooters, you can still use a grey card to capture and set as custom WB so that other JPG photos can use the custom WB. I actually don't use grey card. I press and hold the WB button until the PRE blinks and set custom WB by shooting off a white surface that is reflected under that particular lighting even though I shoot in RAW. Just like ojtee, I like to get the WB correct in camera.

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Added on April 3, 2012, 11:46 amBeautiful ! Yes, even though you can still shoot with a fast lens, a flash is still the best to open up the shadows.

This post has been edited by jchue73: Apr 3 2012, 11:46 AM

Try it yourself. Put a grey card under the a difficult lighting on a table or on the floor. Press and hold the WB button until PRE comes out. Zoom or walk towards the card till most of it is filled up in the viewfinder. Take a snap.

This post has been edited by jchue73: Apr 3 2012, 11:50 AM

First day was without flash. 2nd day I thought I try it out. Turns out better but now the whole left and right arm is sore. 80-200mm + SB-800 + D800 plus shooting in potrait orientation without a battery grip...

A battery grip would help a lot though. Anyway, best traffic was Friday. Saturday was a little crowded and therefore quite difficult to get close and one-on-one.

Anyway, curious if the girls on Sunday were different from Saturday because most of them on Friday were also on Saturday.

Speaking about flash... Did you see the ones that had huge softbox with a dedicated lightstand? Did not take a photo of it but it looks very intimidating in a huge crowd to be walking with one.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with you on that. Despite with the language barrier, they are still very friendly and accomodating...

If I'm not wrong, I saw the same guy taking photos in IMPACT !

Agreed. For me, it's just a faint light thrown on the face to get some catch light in the eyes and get rid of some shadows on the face.

When shooting RAW, LR does not recognise the camera's vivid settings.

400 to 500 sounds more like D800 NEF files. 16GB CF can fit more NEF files from D700. I filled up 1201 pics in a single 16GB CF during the last F1. D800 shoots about close to 400 shots.

I need a new PC. Crawling when trying to open NEF files.

Have you tried shooting 1800 pics before?

I stopped chasing socket technology because everytime you buy a new system, it's already obsolete. Best of the best is always Intel but it's expensive. Thinking of AMD or just settle for Sandy Bridge and if I can get away with something in the middle of the pack but faster than what I have now, it should be good.

I'm currently using Capture NX2. The 64 bit version is suppose to be fast but opening and minor processing (exposure, WB etc) D800 NEFs on the Capture NX2 is damn slow. I have 6GB memory on my overclocked Q6600 and I see that it already uses 5GB plus when I process one D800 NEF.

SSD would help but they way I see it, Capture NX2 does not trash the hardisk so much after a while. Most of the time, it's waiting for the quad core processor to finish processing.

I think 16GB memory should be the way to go. You sure i5/i7 enough? Overclock the 2600k? Is there any website specifically talking about PCs for post processing?

Sure it does. But will it be wide enough since now 24mm will be 36mm FOV?

I think the OP must answer why he chose the 24-70 in the first place...

Fro Knows Photo?

Yup.

I read that LR is not so demanding on hardware. Capture NX2 is damn demanding and slow. I think I would make a switch since LR has matured somewhat. Perhaps can stretch the life of my rig a little bit more.

On smaller NEF files like D700, it's not so cacat and slow. But saving one D800 NEF under Capture NX2 after making changes to the NEF file takes about at least 20 seconds to complete. When you save, it does not do anything and then towards the last 5 seconds, writes the file to disk. It's 14 bit compressed by the way. Perhaps it's because it's compressed. I read people with uncompressed NEF files work faster. But uncompressed is like 70MB per file.

Hey, that's a great idea ! Great effort that you post. I do not have photos of the last two girls you posted. Anyway, I'm trying to find time to PP but since I got back, work piling more and more.

Depends on what you use to edit. I believe LR is less demanding on hardware... Or rather more efficient to use your hardware.

Hey, you're thinking about D800 now? You work damn hard and so long for your 24-70. The D800 is 2 times more expensive. Stick with D700 lah and you will not have problems with PC hardawre.

Most places no stock. But I think if you're willing to pay a little higher, you can get your hands on it.

Anyway, the D800 is very sensitive to lens shake. I had a hard time shooting with my non VR 80-200. Perhaps it's time to retire the old horse.

Also, I read some sites reporting that the left side of the AF sensor on the D800 is not giving correct focus especially on f/1.4 lenses. Will try and check mine.

Wah, you took such a long time to decide on the 24-70. You sure you'll be ready for the D800 and plus a new laptop? That's some serious cash.

Hold the combination on the lens. More stable. But the lens hood looks like modified from 70-200mm f/2.8 VR.

Disgrace? Just too much demand.