A View To Kill (POTD June 30)

A View To Kill

To the east of Vancouver Island is the vast Pacific Ocean, which was an obvious route for attackers to challenge British rule over what is now Western Canada. During the late 1880's the British setup a number of coastal batteries to protect the entrance to Fort Victoria's harbour and Esquimalt, the navel base in the area. One of these fortified areas was Fort Rodd Hill, which had three batteries. The upper battery had a large gun for hitting ships at a distance, while the lower battery had smaller guns for smaller ships. The Belmont Battery was designed to sink ships that attempted to land troops on the shore below the larger batteries. 

During the second world war, due to the threat of possible Japanese attacks along the Pacific Coast, the Canadian army upgraded to the Belmont Battery. The first change was a rapid firing twin 6 pound gun designed to sink submarines and torpedo boats that might attempt to attack the Canadian navel base at Esquimalt. Today's photo is not looking down the sights of the twin 6 pounder guns, but one of the smaller guns at the same battery. The next image is one of the same gun from the other side. One of these guns in the Belmont battery may have been one of the few that were actually fired in anger at a possible Japanese sub that was spotted along the coast of the Island in 1943.

Fisgard Lighthouse (POTD June 29)

Fisgard Lighthouse

The Fisgard Lighthouse was one of the historic sites that I visited while I was exploring Southern Vancouver Island last Friday. The lighthouse was built in 1859 by the British colonial government of British Columbia. From that time until 1929 the lighthouse was manned by 29 lighthouse keepers. In 1929 the lighthouse was automated, and is to this day. In 1960 the lighthouse was made part of the Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse Canadian National Historic Site. Today the red building that was once the home to the 29 lighthouse keepers is a museum that tells the story of the keepers and lighthouse technology.

What We Left Behind (POTD June 27)

Last Friday I took a day trip over to Vancouver Island to scout out some parks for photographic prospects, and to visit some national historic sites. To reach Vancouver Island I took a ferry from Tsawwassen, 25 minute drive from Vancouver, to Swartz Bay, which is a 40 minute drive from Victoria. The ferry travels through some extremely beautiful areas among the southern Gulf Islands. Today's photo shows the wake from the ferry as it curved through one the passages between several of the Gulf Islands. I took this photo in the evening, during the trip back to Tsawwassen.

What We Left Behind

 

Nikon AF-S 50mm F1.8G vs. AF 50mm F1.8D

There have been many reviews of the Nikon AF-S 50mm F1.8G, but how does it compare to the AF 50mm F1.8D that it replaced? Over the course of a week I took a number of photos to compare the two lenses under the same or similar conditions. While most of the test images were taken while the camera was mounted on a tripod, some were not. The purpose of shooting from a tripod was to reduce any discrepancies that might result from movement, as movement could affect the angle of view and depth of field between the test shots. This is by no means a scientific comparison, rather the idea of this post is to show how the two lenses act real life situations.

Physical Comparison:
The first comparison between the two lenses is physical; the new AF-S 50mm F1.8G is a larger lens, being at least twice the size of the 50mm F1.8D. Part of the reason behind the larger size of the newer lens comes down to the need to create space for the silent wave focusing motor (SWM in Nikon Speak). Depending on your point of view the increased size of the new F1.8G could be a good or a bad. I find the F1.8G to be more comfortable to shoot with when mounted on the D700, while others might like the smaller profile of the older AF-D lens.

Ready To Cook (POTD June 24)

Late post, since I was out all day on Vancouver Island. Today's image is another from the Gulf Of Georgia Cannery.

Ready To Cook

Once cans of fish were filled, and a lid was attached, they were sent down the line to be cooked. Racks like the ones seen in today's photo would be moved into a fast heating oven that would cook the cans at 250ºC for a set period of time. After cooking the only steps left in the canning process were to seal and label them.

I was told about an interesting fact about the oven by my tour guide. During off season or after work hours, if the local lockup was too full, the Cannery allowed the police to keep prisoners in the it! It wasn't used to execute anyone, the oven would not be on while they were in it. The oven was a good place to keep prisoners because it could only be opened from the outside.

Pentax Q, say what?

Pentax announced their new Pentax Q camera and lenses this morning. At first glace this seems like a nice system, a small interchangeable lens camera that might even fit into your jacket pocket, with a fast F1.9 49mm equivalent lens. Wow, great, oh no, wait it has a sensor smaller than the S95, G12, P7000, LX-5, or the XZ-1. So you have a 1/2.3" sensor in an interchangeable lens camera, leaving me with one simple question, why? To put this into perspective, that is the same sensor used in the Nikon P300, which is both smaller and lighter. Mind you, the Pentax Q does give you RAW shooting, and better manual controls. Okay, not to bad, so how much does it cost? $800 USD. Say what? Pentax, what were you thinking? Who is going to buy this camera?

Looking Back (POTD June 23)

Yesterday afternoon I visited the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site, which is located in Richmond. I've had the pleasure of visiting several sites like this lately, thanks to the Discovery Pass I bought last September when I first visited Jasper and Banff National Parks. The pass cost $67 Cdn, and is good for one year. That sounds like a lot of money for a park pass, but a visit to any Canadian National Park or Historic site requires a $10 day pass. Thanks to the Discovery pass I've more than made up for the initial cost, as I've spent more than 14 days in National Parks, and now several days in various other historic sites. Anyway, back to the visit to the Cannery!

The first thing you see when you enter the exhibit is a pair of men in a small two man fishing boat from the late 1800's. The light in the Cannery is dim, and the above photo shows what you have to work with. Some areas are better than others, but this shot typifies the lighting conditions. I took the shot with the D700 and AF-S 50mm F1.8G at F1.8, using center weighted metering. I took some other shots using spot metering, but I didn't like the results as much. I've have more shots from the Cannery in the days to come.

Nikon AF-S 50mm F1.8G: After A Week

It has been one week since I received my Nikon AF-S 50mm F1.8G, and so far I am very satisfied with the results that I have obtained. When I decided to upgrade to the new G model from the AF-D model that I have been using I was looking for a lens that was sharp wide open. Nikon delivered just that with the new 50mm F1.8G. This week I'm looking to do some head to head tests between the two lenses to compare the similarities and differences.

I haven't done any major comparisons yet, but the first glaring difference between the two is one that I mentioned already, sharpness wide open. The 50mm F1.8G is sharp wide open, while the AF-D requires being stopped down to at least F2.8 before there is any resemblance of sharpness. Contrast wide open is also better with the G than the D, but not by much, and i think that comes down to using a hood with the G vs not with the D. I'm not going to rush out and buy a hood for the D just to find out though.

For my up coming full comparison I'm looking to test sharpness at different apertures, bokeh, contrast, chromatic aberrations and distortion (brick wall test anyone?) In the mean time, here are a few more samples.

Sample #1 @ F1.8

Sample #2 @F5

Links:
Nikon AF-S 50mm F1.8G: Initial Impressions
Nikon AF-S 50mm F1.8G: Day 2
Nikon AF-S 50mm F1.8G: Day 3
Nikon AF-S 50mm F1.8G Review

Tinder Box (POTD June 21)

This past weekend I was in the Nicola Valley, near Merritt, British Columbia. This region is rugged and hilly, hosting a wide range of life. I spotted many different types of birds and other wildlife including Osprey, Clark's Nutcrackers, Cedar Waxwings, Brown Crow-birds, Robins, voles and more.

Tinder Box

This image tells the story of the forest floor in the Nicola Valley, which is a four hour drive from Vancouver. The forest floor is covered with needles and cones from Ponderosa Pine trees that are common in the area. These needles and cones form a thick cover over the mix of sedimentary and volcanic rock, creating a recipe for disaster if a forest fire were to breakout. To make matters worse, the Nicola Valley is one of the driest regions in Canada, receiving an average of 23mm or 0.9 inches of rain a year! I tested this danger by putting large bunches of pine needles in my campfire, and the speed at which these dry needles burned was rapid to say the least. I could easily see entire hill sides burning up in less than an hour.

As a side note, June is the wettest month of the year and it rained while I was there several times. I would hazard a guess and say that over the four days I was in the region there was 1-2mm of rain. The ground greedily sucked up the moisture within a few minutes of rain ceasing to fall and if you didn't seen the rain falling, you likely wouldn't know that it had.

Spotlight (POTD June 17)

Spotlight

One way to isolate a subject is to get close and make sure other objects around the subject are out of focus. Another way to isolate a subject is to use negative space. Basically this means having empty space around the subject, which means that there is nothing to distract the viewer. In this case I spot metered off the leaves, which were the brightest objects in the scene. As a result all of the other leaves and brush behind the subject are dark and thus not visible.

Nikon AF-S 50mm F1.8G: Day 3

In yesterday's post I mentioned that vignetting seems to be more apparent in the new 50mm F1.8G, when compared to the old AF-D. I have not done a direct comparison yet, but today I'm going to post some sample images that show the effect of vignetting. These samples also give us a chance to see the differences in bokeh at different apertures. Note that these samples are coming from a FX camera (D700), and the effects of vignetting are reduced on a crop sensor (DX) camera.

Sample 1: F1.8

Although these images have been corrected in post, I did not add any vignetting reduction, for obvious reasons.

Sample 2: F2.8

I shot both of these images seconds apart, in bright light, to demonstrate the what I'm talking about. Looking at these two images you can quickly see the effect of vignetting with the 50mm F1.8G. In sample shot #1 a large portion of the frame is darkened by the vignetting, but that can be corrected by almost all post processing software. The good news is that vignetting is vastly reduced, by stopping down to F2.8, as seen in sample #2. 

Nikon AF-S 50mm F1.8G: Day 2

Didn't have a lot of time yesterday to do any serious testing, but I did this afternoon and I'm impressed. The sharpness of the AF-S 50mm F1.8G is superior to the 50mm F1.8D where it counts, F1.8.

Sample Shot #1

The first sample shows how sharp the new F1.8G really is at F1.8, despite the razor thin depth of field. The old AF-D lens is just too soft wide open to get an image like this. Contrast wide open still isn't great, but is improved over the AF-D. Another improvement is in the area of bokeh, which seems just a little bit smoother overall.

Sample Shot #2

The bokeh isn't as smooth as the 50mm F1.4G, but that was expected to be the case. Vignetting seems to be more apparent in the new lens, even though the new 50 has a larger filter size.

More samples to come in the days ahead.

Links:
AF-S 50mm F1.8G: First Impressions
AF-S 50mm F1.8G: Day 3
AF-S 50mm F1.8G: After One Week
Nikon AF-S 50mm F1.8G VS Nikon AF 50mm F1.8D
Nikon AF-S 50mm F1.8G Review

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm F1.8G: Hands On Preview

Read My Full Review of the Nikon AF-S 50mm F1.8G

I received the new Nikon AF-S Nikon 50mm F1.8G this morning and will commence testing once I'm finished making this post.

Initial impressions:
The build quality of the lens is far superior to that of the previous 50mm F1.8D, in just about every way possible. I would even be tempted to say that the build quality is a little better than the slightly more expensive AF-S DX 35mm F1.8G. The plastics are higher quality and are more tightly assembled. There is a rubber gasket on the mount to help prevent dust and moisture from entering the camera that it is mounted on. The manual focus ring moves smoothly, making manual focus much easier. The lens also comes with a plastic, circular hood, unlike the old AF-D lens, which had an optional rubber hood.

Auto focus speed is very similar to that of the AF-D 50mm F1.8D, although the process seems a little slower due to the smoother focusing. Auto focus is very quiet, unlike the squeaky AF-S DX 35mm F1.8G, so that is a step in the right direction from my point of view. The focus distance scale is now under a plastic window, rather than on the focus ring, which is also nice to see.

I have not taken any test shots yet, so I cannot comment on image quality, but I'll be posting samples and comparison shots with the old 50mm F1.8D within the next few days.

Links:
AF-S 50mm F1.8G Hands On: Day 2 
AF-S 50mm F1.8G: Day 3 
AF-S 50mm F1.8G: After One Week 
Nikon AF-S 50mm F1.8G VS Nikon AF 50mm F1.8D

Mirrorless Camera updates for 2011

Over the past 7 days a number of new mirrorless cameras have been released by Sony and Panasonic, which are squarely targeted at consumers. Olympus is due to release a number of new models before the end of June as well. How do we know that these cameras are targeted at consumers? Each of these cameras have limited external controls over what can be considered, photography centric features. There are no dials to change shutter speed or aperture and no dedicated ISO controls for example. In the case of the GF3 many of the features are manipulated by a touch screen. That sounds great, until you are in bright sunlight trying to change settings!

The Sony NEX-C3 is basically a NEX-3 with a 16MP APS-C sensor in a trimmed down body, while the Panasonic GF3 is another 12MP m4/3s camera, which is dumbed down GF2, which is a dumbed down GF1. This time Panasonic cut out the external socket for a flash and other accessories and made the body a even smaller. Both the NEX-C3 and GF3 have small bodies with simple controls, that will appeal to compact camera users. Sony, Panasonic, and to a lesser degree Olympus, realize that compact cameras are starting to fade due to the quality of cameras that are in modern cell phones. That means that at some point in the near future, dedicated point and shoot cameras will fade into history. With that in mind these camera makers want to design and build cameras that still appeal to people who don't care about photographic centric features, but want better image quality than a cell phone camera can provide, thus the NEX-C3, GF2/GF3 and EP-L1/EP-L2.

In Flight (POTD June 13)

Capturing Swallows in flight can be tough, as their flight patterns are erratic, or so they seem at first. Once you watch these little birds for a while you start to notice a pattern to their flight, and you can start to track them, although it isn't easy.

Tracking is not the only difficult aspect of taking photos of them, you also need a lens with fast auto focus! I found that the auto focus speed of the Nikon AF-S 300mm F4D IF-ED was just barely fast enough to keep up with the Tree Swallow in today's image. None the less, after some practice I was a able to get a few in focus images.

A Bright Light (POTD June 10)

As my friends and I drove back from Harrison Lake on Wednesday we stopped for a few minutes and I noticed the sunlight breaking through the clouds against the mountainous background. The bright light against the dark background caught my eye and so I took a few shots. The sun itself of course was far to bright for the camera to handle, but I like the image anyway.

A Bright Light

Nikon 50mm F1.8G Now Shipping

It appears that Nikon has started sending orders of AF-s 50mm F1.8G lenses out to dealers this past week, earlier than the anticipated June 19th release date. Europeans have been seeing orders filled over the last week or so, and now Canadian and American buyers who made pre-orders for the 50mm F1.8G are as well. I received shipping notice today around 12PM.

I'm looking forward to doing a head to head test of the AF-S 50mm F1.8G against my older AF 50mm F1.8D, and will start doing so once it arrives.

Looking Up (POTD June 9)

Yesterday some friends and I did some exploring around Harrison Lake, which is located between Mission and Agassi British Columbia. The area is best known for the hot spring in the area, but there are plenty of other interesting places to go as well. Our first stop was at the Harrison Lake day use area, which is along the east side of the lake.

Looking Up

This tree in today's image caught our eyes right away due to the shape of some of the branches, which twist and turn at various angles. Upon closer inspection the textures of the bark, and how the light was filtering down through the tree became intriguing.

I'll have more images from the outing to share in the days ahead.

Geese Goslings (POTD June 8)

June is a month of transition as most of the larger birds, Canada Geese, Sandhill Cranes, Great Blue Herons, Mallards, have nested and had their young. Meanwhile smaller birds, such as Hummingbirds, Wrens, Swallows and Sparrows are just starting to lay their eggs.

Cute and Fuzzy (Canada Geese Goslings)

Some of the families of Canadian Geese had their young much later than others, as some of the goslings are already adopting the gray and black colours of their parents, while others, such as those in today's photo, and still small and yellow. At this stage it might be easy for the knowledgeable observer to mix up these geese goslings with mallard goslings. One of the quickest ways to tell them apart is the shape of the bill, not to mention who is watching over them.

Rufus Hummingbird (POTD June 7)

Hummingbirds are beautiful little birds, but spotting them out in the wild can be tough. A few years ago I had the opportunity to shoot a hummingbird in it's nest with it's young, which was a real treat. Aside from that just about the only place I've seen them is at feeders. Today's shot is of just that, a Rufus Hummingbird at a feeder.

This photo is cropped, as even with a 1.4tc on the 300mm F4 this little bird is rather small in the frame. I didn't take all my shots with the tc attached either, because I found that the D700 was struggling to nail focus with it mounted. I think I might have to play around with AF fine tune, because I didn't notice this problem nearly as often when shooting with the D300. Of course the issue could also be that the hummingbird was moving very quickly.

Old News (Photo Of The Day June 6)

Old News

This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit Fort Langley National Historic Site, which located just east of Vancouver, about a 45 minute drive. The fort today is run by the National Park service, but in the 1800's it was operated by The Hudson's Bay Company, which in it's early history was one of the larger fur trading companies operating in North America. Today The Hudson's Bay Company operates "The Bay" Department stores across Canada. 

There are many interesting exhibits to be seen at the fort, including the building where the creation of the British colony of British Columbia took place on August 2, 1858. Fort Langley was the first capital of the colony of British Columbia. That status was short lived though, within a year it was moved to New Westminster for strategic reasons, as Fort Langley is very close to the US border. Later, when British Columbia joined the Dominion of Canada, the capital was moved to the current location in Victoria. The photo above was taken in a small office off of the room where the bill to create the colony was signed.

How Do I Go Green As A Photographer?

Yesterday I musing over the idea of how I could be more environmentally friendly as a photographer, but didn't get very far in terms of what I could do to achieve that. For me the primary issue is the amount of driving that I do as a photographer, which in a sense could be helping to destroy the subjects that I love to photograph. That isn't a nice thought to ponder, considering how much I love to travel and explore. Exploring would be nearly impossible without driving, at least to some extent.

If I had the money to do so I would invest in an electric car or at the very least a hybrid, but they are simply out of my budget for the foreseeable future. A possible solution would be to only take photos within the range that I could ride a bicycle or walk, but I feel as though that would be very limiting. At the same time, limiting myself to those modes of transport would be a small step in the right direction. I read a newspaper article about a local bird photographer who made that same choice over the last few years and it doesn't seem to be hurting his work.

I might have to challenge myself to only walk or ride a bike to shooting locations for a month and see what happens. Of course that would only be a useful solution for hobby shooting, paid gigs will still require vehicular transport due to distances involved.

Camera Settings: How Important Are They?

Over the last few years I've seen a growing number of posts on various photography forums about camera settings. Generally you'll see questions like, what settings do I use to shoot this subject matter? How do I capture that? Good questions, but how important are camera settings to capturing the image you want? Short answer, they can be. Some other questions come to mind as well, what kind of settings do people change most often? Do some photographers attempt to replace skills they are not willing to take the time to learn by asking others for camera settings?