Free Nikon App for the iPad/iPhone

If you just got a new Nikon flash or a new Nikon camera like the D4 or D800, maybe even a Nikon 1, there’s an app for you. If you are like me, you don’t want to carry a big manual with you everywhere you go but for those rare occasions you need to refer to it, it is nice to know that you can download the manual in pdf form from the Nikon website. To make it simple, Nikon has a free iPhone/iPad app (not available for Android to my knowledge) called Nikon Manual Viewer – it is free and much more convenient than carrying around a manual. Several of Nikon’s product manuals for DSLRs, NIkon 1 and speedlights are available for download and viewing from within the app itself (currently only in English or Japanese).

What is Does

The app is free and easy to use, you go to the Downloads button and select your product from the menu.

Nikon App Homepage

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iPhone Sunset

Decided to post these while on the subject of iPhone’s camera capabilities and while writing a new article on photo noise reduction. This first image is slightly modified in Lightroom 3 (+20 Fill Light and +10 Saturation, Noise Reduction: +50 Luminance, +80 Detail):

iPhone Sunset

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Giveaway answer and the winner

First of all, big thanks to everyone who participated in our first giveaway – we have gotten over 60 comments from our readers and over 120 people voted in our poll. Before I announce the winner of the giveaway, I would like to first provide the answer to the question “what camera the image was shot with” of the Maroon Bells. The majority of the readers guessed it right – I did shoot the image with the iPhone (specifically iPhone 4). The original image did not look very good and had a couple of problems, specifically:

  1. The image was not very straight due to poor framing
  2. There was too much noise in the image (although shot at ISO 80)
  3. The colors were way off and there was too much magenta in the image
  4. The corners were very soft

Here is the original image:

Maroon Bells iPhone Original

Maroon Bells iPhone Original

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iPhone Panorama

While driving through a local state park with my family, I saw this beautiful sunset and decided to take some pictures of it with my iPhone (I know, I left the real camera at home). I took a few shots and then realized that the scene did not quite fit the frame, so I put the phone in vertical position and took a few vertical shots using the same technique I describe in my “Panoramic Photography Howto” article. The only problem was, I could not lock the exposure or change white balance on the phone… So, here is the result:

iPhone Panorama

iPhone Panorama

I stitched the panorama in Adobe Photoshop CS5, then brightened up the grass a little and slightly increased contrast. I think the result is OK, although the colors are a little out of whack…still not bad for a crappy phone camera (the new iPhone 4G is supposed to have a much better 5 megapixel camera). As Chase Jarvis puts it, the best camera is the one that is with you :)