Hello new friend - kind of a camera review.

******I wrote more than I planned to, but here's the TL:DR version. I love the D750, it has what I want in a camera and some more, plus image quality isn't bad either. ********

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I had just written a few hundred words into this blog post and decided to delete it. Why? because I think the only way I can explain this properly is to just get to the point. 

I bought a Nikon D750 and I love it. It's probably the best camera i've ever used/had/owned. Period. 

Like most photographers, I suffer from GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) I always want the newest and bestest* (not a word) things. I'm always online looking at camera sites, rumour sites, just to see what the newest and latest in camera technology is. In the past I owned a Nikon D3s, I loved her, she was like the loyal dog that never left your side, she never let me down. However, although she took amazing images and was the queen of darkness, she was just too big to take around when not on assignment. Think of her as the great dane that you have to try and fit into your little hatchback, doable but annoying for everyone involved.

Over the years I bought cameras such as the NEX and X100s to use as my portable carry around cameras. They're great pieces of kit, the NEX is a mini DSLR and the X100s is.... well.. just a special item on its own, bit of a love hate relationship, mostly love. So as good as the NEX and X100s are in terms of size, portability and image quality, they can't beat a DSLR on continuous AF, battery life, lens choice and weather sealing. Yes there are some mirrorless cameras that come close to these things but for me, DSLR is still king. 

 

I'm planning on doing some freelance photography in the near distant future and unfortunately I had sold my D3s so I was in need of a new DSLR. Coming from professional style bodies such as the D3s and 1D series cameras that I use at work, instinctively I wanted a "professional" styled body. As a Nikon fanboy I wanted a Nikon, if I wasn't a fanboy i'd be all over the 5DMKIII in a heartbeat. 

Unfortunately, Nikon has been doing some pretty confusing things with their current FX DSLR line which made picking a camera that much harder. Currently in the FX lineup you can either buy the 16MP D4s/Df, 24MP D610/D750 or the 36MP D800/D810. As much as i'd love the D4s, I can't really afford to drop $6k and the Df is a near perfect camera for me, but the overall ergonomics and poor AF system are the reasons I didn't go for the Df. The D610 is nice in terms of MP size, but poor AF system in a consumer body means she's no good, and the D800/D810 are a perfect size, professional body with dials and controls where you need them, but 36MP... why can't you make a 24MP sensor or a 16MP sensor in the D810 style body.. argh.. Nikon are scared of cannibalisation of their products, ie D3 and D700.. I'm no business man but wouldn't you rather cannibalisation of your own products than money in the competitors pockets? 

Amidst all this confusion there's the D750, a Frankenstein camera of sorts. As its name suggests it should be the successor to the D700, many say no, but I say yes. I'll explain. The D750 has the superior 51 point AF system with group AF as the $6000 D4s, the 1080 60P video features of the $3200 D810, wifi, tilty screen, 6.5FPS, arguable some of the best high iso quality, BUT in a consumer styled body at $2200. It's all very confusing but here's why I think it's worthy of being the successor to the D700. 

The D700 put professional features in a small body, some have said that the D700 and D300/s were anomalies, flukes, products that will never be made again, but I think the D750 comes close. At its price point, nothing comes close to it in terms of features and image quality. Like the D700 before it, it really does have professional guts, but unlike the D700, in a not so professional body. But, lets be honest here and get to the crux of it all, does it REALLY matter that it's not in a professional style body even though it offers professional features? At the end of the day we're photographers, we're judged on the images we take, not the camera we use or whether it's professional or not. 

When I first started getting into photography, my dream camera at the time was the D2X with a 300mm lens. Why? because it was big. Yes, we photographers have small man syndrome when it comes to camera gear, i'll be the first to admit it. As a photojournalist who works in a regional daily, I don't really, need a 1Dmk IV or 1DX. They're nice but 90% of the time i'm shooting setup shots with nice light and flashes. Of course it's nice to have the high fps and vertical shutter when doing sports, but that's the other 10%. I'm sure that others will disagree, but this is my opinion and my shooting style. 

Right.. I didn't mean to write as much as a did but I got a little carried away. No more talking, time for photos.

This is my mate Wye Keen. (http://www.skaduweelig.com/) He came to Wollongong to visit me as well as shoot a small documentary about the rock pools in the region. These photos were taken on the day that I picked up the D750 and used with the 50mm f1.4. 

 

The first thing I really noticed was how quick and zippy the AF system was. It was nice to have a camera that just near instantly picked up on what you want to focus on. The button layout took a little to get used to, specifically the ISO button, but over time i'm sure it'll become second nature.

Having owned a Nikon D3s in the past, I had a benchmark set for what would be considered acceptable in terms of AF speed and tracking. The other day I went down to the rodeo and thought it would be the perfect place to test the AF and tracking of the camera. Safe to say, she didn't let me down. 

For the rodeo I used my 70-200VRI. I'm happy to say that the 70-200 is doing just as well on the 750 as it was on the D3s.

As you can see from the gif above, AF locked on tight. The images were shot at 1600ISO using the new group AF at 6.5fps. I'm currently using Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb/s cards and they had no problem churning through the raw images to the card. Not once did I have the buffer fill or have to wait for the card to clear. 

These horses came in quick and the 750 was able to focus in and get usable images at 8000-12800iso.

Before I bought the camera I did a lot of reading about the 750 having -3EV AF sensitivity. As a photojournalist who usually works in less than ideal lighting situations, being able to focus in dark environments is very appealing to me. 

When I saw this cowgirl on her horse I knew exactly the shot I wanted, all I needed was the camera to be able to create the shot for me before the moment disappeared. No word of a lie, this sucker locked onto focus straight up. Like a laser beam it just snapped into focus. I find that the middle AF point is by far the most accurate and it never missed a shot. When using the outer AF points in the dark, it did hunt once or twice, but locked on pretty much after that.

Again, black hat in dark light and the camera locked on instantly.

I've written more than I wanted to but I think i can safely say that the D750 is new best friend. Watch this space for photos from her.

Until next time,

Ciao.

Horsin' Around.

There's a reason for the title, last week, or maybe the week before, I attended the Calliope Campdraft. What is campdraft? I'm not too sure exactly either, but what I saw was guys and girls on horses chasing cows and making them run a circuit for points. Essentially like herding cows, pretty good fun, nice country folks out there too. The event ran for two days and I spent a lot of hours there taking snaps, luckily I had a pretty quiet week that week and could afford to sit around and watch all the action.

Never realised how majestic, powerful, graceful and intelligent animals horses were, like, i've always known horses are pretty cool, but seeing them just herd up these animals and literally get in the way of these angry, scared cows and take hits from them, they truly are dedicated animals. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the skill of the rider too, but these horses. Really very impressive. 

 I did feel kind of bad for these cows, beasts, as the locals would call them. The cows are brought into a pen, and the horse and rider have X amount of time to pick out a cow they want in the herd, and try to single it out. Once the cow has been singled out, they have to give a call to the guys who open the gate, the cow runs out the gate and the horse and rider has to guide the cow around an obstacle course in order to score points.

SO yeah, that's my horse day. Was really a lot of fun. Before I forget, I have one more horse, but not related with the campdraft.

This guy and his horse got into the finals of Polocrosse in Qld. Polocrosse = polo x lacrosse.

So that's the end of my horses, what else have I been up to? There was a dance performance I attended a few weeks ago. Dance Around the World. Sort of like.. a whole bunch of performers who dance according to different countries. If that makes sense. So, lots of traditional dance and costumes. That's what it was at first, until it became a lot of interpretive dancing.. then I got a bit confused.. any way, photos.

I like how you can immediately tell which ones are the interpretive dancing performances...

There have been a fair few accidents in GLA lately, I think I covered 3 in a week, which is basically how many I've covered in 7 months of being here, now i've doubled that amount in a week. 2 crashes were non fatals, with the third being a fatal on the highway. I haven't got any photos from the fatal, as i've left them at work, but i'll put those up in my next post hopefully, if I remember.

This crash here was a head on at a T-intersection, don't know who was at fault, but all i'll say is that there was a P plater involved. Actually, thinking back, that fatal was caused by a P plater too - who didn't die, killed a 54 year old minding his own business. They're the worst ones.

Just to be clear, i'm not sure if this guy was involved or not, I just like his expression at the scene. One person was sent to hospital with head injuries. There was a massive head crash on the drivers side windscreen, where the person has obviously flung out from their seat and smashed their head on the windscreen. Not wearing a seatbelt maybe? no idea. 

From car crashes to sport, stock standard. I like how before I started this job I have ZERO sport in my portfolio. I'd say that a good 40-45% of my folio now is sport related. All news agencies want sport in their folios. Can't ay I don't have enough now.. Anyway. Sport. Rugby Union. 

This one was pretty scary. I had done a similar shot in my older post with some girls hitting the hockey balls at me as I stood behind the net, however, this one was scary cos she was good, and she hurled that ball right at my face. Even though i'm behind a net, seeing that ball come straight down the lens is a little nerve racking. The goals have a metal base, so when the ball slams into it, it makes one HELL of a noise. Earplugs were the way to go on this shoot. lucky I always have some in my bag.

 I really like this shot for a lot of reasons. The look of him, the light and the ball. But for all the things I do like about it, I hate that it's in his backyard. Why? cos he had just finished school and couldn't get to a local rugby park, I wish we had more time so i'd drive him to one to get the shot, but, doesn't matter.

That's about i for me. Thanks for reading =]

until next time,

Ciao.