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First Nikon DSLR and Lens

Jan
3
2010
January 3, 2010
By 177 Comments

Recently, I have been asked by my readers to suggest what Nikon DLSR camera and lens to get for someone who is switching over from a point and shoot camera. Since I spent a considerable amount of time responding to the emails, I decided to write a quick post on what DSLR and lenses I suggest to buy.

1) For a budget below $1,000 USD, I recommend buying the Nikon D3100 camera with the Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX lens. The Nikon D3100 DSLR is a great DSLR to begin your photography journey and its image quality is outstanding. The 18-55mm kit lens will cover the wide-angles and will give you the zoom flexibility, while the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 AF-S DX lens is a very inexpensive (only $200), sharp lens that will deliver great results when shooting portraits and in low light.

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Nikon 70-200mm VR II Review

Dec
12
2009
December 12, 2009
By 243 Comments

Overview

This is an in-depth review of the new professional Nikon AF-S 70-200mm F/2.8G ED VR II lens that was released in July of 2009. The Nikon 70-200mm lens is a professional-grade lens that was introduced by Nikon in early 80′s in a shape of 80-200mm f/2.8 constant aperture lens for professional news, sports, wildlife and portrait photographers. Since then, Nikon has been enhancing and redesigning the lens every 4-5 years, making it faster, sharper and more versatile by enhancing the optics and introducing new features.

Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II Review

The latest generation of the 70-200mm lens is no exception – Nikon completely redesigned the lens, adding more “ED” (Extra-Low Dispersion) optical elements, making this lens sharper than the previous version. Nikon also added the new “N” (Nano Crystal Coating) to this lens, which is supposed to minimize ghosting and lens flare. Other new features include a brand new “VR II” vibration reduction system, which provides a four stop benefit over non-VR systems and a new “A/M” focus mode for auto-focus priority.

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Nikon 300mm F2.8 G ED VR II and AF-S TC-20E III

Dec
9
2009
December 9, 2009
By 11 Comments

Nikon has just released an update to the superb Nikon 300mm f/2.8 lens, along with an update to the TC-20E teleconverter. The new lens is now called “AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II” and the TC is “Nikon AF-S TC-20E III“. Both are targeted for professional sports, nature and wildlife photographers that need the best of the class. The Nikon 300mm f/2.8 lenses have always been the sharpest lenses in Nikon’s arsenal – that’s why Nikon calls them the “pinnacle of image quality”. There is a big reason why the teleconverter was released together with the 300mm f/2.8 lens, because normally 2x teleconverters substantially degrade image quality on most lenses, but not this one. The 300mm line is known to work best with all teleconverters, including the 2x TC.

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Nikon D300 vs D300s

Jul
27
2009
July 27, 2009
By 89 Comments

Nikon has just announced the new Nikon D300s, so I decided to post a quick comparison between the old Nikon D300 and the new Nikon D300s.

Nikon D300s

Nikon D300s

Basically, the new D300s is exactly the same camera as the D300 in terms of features, except for the following:

  1. D300s shoots HD movies at 720p resolution, 24 FPS with stereo audio. Maximum length is 5 minutes for 720p and 20 mins for lower video resolutions.
  2. D300s is slightly faster than the D300, shooting 7 FPS in Ch mode (Nikon D300 is 6 FPS). With MB-D10 battery pack, it will shoot 8 FPS.
  3. A new release mode “Q” (quiet shutter-release) is added to the dial right after Ch (continuous high speed).
  4. Dual card slots – the Nikon D300s features dual card slots to work with both CompactFlash and SD (SDHC-compliant) cards. Either card can be used as the primary card. Secondary card can be used for overflow or backup storage, or for separate storage of NEF (RAW) and JPEG images and images can be copied between cards.
  5. Active D-Lighting now has “Auto” and “Extra High” added. “Auto” is something expected, as both D700 and D90 have this mode. The “Extra High” is something new though.
  6. Nikon D300s is slightly heavier than the D300, adding 15 more grams of weight, weighing total 840g total.
  7. Nikon D300s has a dedicated “Lv” (LiveView) and “Info” buttons on the back of the camera.
  8. Nikon D300s has a virtual horizon now (D300 did not).
Nikon D300s Back

Nikon D300s Back

Along with the new Nikon D300s, Nikon released an entry-level Nikon D3000 (which replaces D60) and two updated lenses – Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 DX and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II. I really don’t care about the 18-200mm lens update, since I sold mine and I’d rather be shooting with quality primes instead, but the 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II is definitely a worthy update that everyone has been waiting for. However, the 70-200mm price point left me scratching my head…$2,400 is too darn expensive! That’s $500 over what the current version of 70-200mm f/2.8 is selling for.

Is D300s worth the upgrade? If you already have a D300 and do not care about the video feature (which kind of sucks, since I was expecting full HD at 1080p), it is not worth the upgrade. The sensor of the new D300s is basically identical to the older D300. It is nice that the D300s has dual slots and faster frame rate, but it is nothing extraordinary.

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Focal length comparison on Nikon DX (1.5 crop factor) cameras

Jan
8
2008
January 8, 2008
By 6 Comments

This test shows focal length comparison on a 1.5 crop factor camera (all Nikon DX cameras) from 12mm to 500mm. All images were taken on Nikon D300 with ISO 200, f/10. The focal lengths are not 100% accurate because of different lens sizes and mounts (when short lenses such as the 50mm f/1.4 were used, the camera was mounted on the tripod, while zoom lenses had to be mounted via lens collars). The tripod was never moved (just slightly re-adjusted to focus on the top-left portion of the blue ornament). The 420 and 500mm shots are a little soft because of slight vibration and use of a teleconverter.

The shots were taken indoors because it was too cold outside :)

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First Nikon lens?

Dec
20
2007
December 20, 2007
By 134 Comments

A lot of people wonder what to buy as their first Nikon lens. Most people new to digital photography and DSLRs don’t bother reading about cameras and lenses as much since there is too much information and too many recommendations. They end up purchasing a kit lens that they use for a year or two and then they realize how bad their lens is and end up selling it to get something better. Yes, kit lenses are a good deal but are they worth the purchase? I personally don’t think so.

When I bought my D80 it came with a 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens. Anything looked better compared to my crappy Sony Cybershot point and shoot, so I was very happy for about 6 months. Then I started getting into photography more and more. I was reading books and spending a lot of time testing the camera in different conditions. I really loved the pictures in daylight out of 18-135mm when there was enough light and aperture was high enough, but low light conditions kept on frustrating me and indoor photography without a flash was close to impossible. Any camera shake resulted in blurry photos which I wouldn’t even notice until seeing the picture on my computer monitor. I ended up selling the lens for a lot less and spent more money getting better gear. The gear was truly better (18-200mm VR) and I was quite happy for a while, but I started encountering other problems such as bad image quality on shorter focal lengths and shooting wide open. As I read more, I wanted to be able to shoot in low light, have better background rendering (bokeh) and sharper image quality, so I got 50mm f/1.4 next.

I’m sure a lot of people go through a similar experience, sometimes more or less painful. After doing an analysis of my lenses and borrowing/renting other lenses and testing them, I created my own list of must have lenses. Lenses that will serve you well for a long time.

I separated the list into two categories – low budget and high budget.
Low budget:

  1. Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 – great for portraits
  2. Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 VR – for everything else

High budget:

  1. Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 or 85mm f/1.4 or 70-200mm f/2.8 VR – sharp, excellent bokeh for portraits
  2. Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 – super sharp, professional lens for landscapes

I’m not taking into account special type of photography (such as macro or telephoto). The above lenses are good for most types of photography. I’m also not including rare lenses (such as the Nikon 28mm f/1.4) because they are expensive and hard to get. If you do not want to keep a lot of lenses and just want to buy a couple of excellent lenses, the above would definitely satisfy most of your needs.

So, what should be your first Nikon lens? Nikkor 50mm of course! (f/1.4 or f/1.8 depending on your budget) It’s a very inexpensive lens that produces exceptionally sharp images and great bokeh. You will learn a lot from this lens and transitioning to a zoom lens or other prime lenses will be easier later. Plus, you will not have to worry about selling this little jewel – it will last you forever.

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Nikon Lens Bokeh Performance

Dec
16
2007
December 16, 2007
By 12 Comments

If you don’t know what Bokeh is, I suggest reading an article here. Basically, bokeh is the rendering of out-of-focus areas by a camera lens. The tests on this page illustrate how bokeh is rendered by different Nikon lenses.

The following Nikon lenses were used in this test:

  1. Nikkor 50mm f/1.4
  2. Nikkor 12-24mm f/4 DX
  3. Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 DX VR
  4. Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro
  5. Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR

Since the focal lengths are different, I cropped images and resized them for your viewing pleasure. It is hard to compare bokeh on these lenses because it is impossible to measure them all with the same focal length. Also, the lenses vary in maximum/minimum aperture and good bokeh can only be achieved when the aperture is set to the maximum (lowest f number), meaning shallow depth of field. Focal length also plays a big role as can be seen with the 105mm VR.

All pictures were taken at ISO 200 (D300 native) with default camera settings without any post-processing, VR was turned off.

Bokeh Comparison

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