Late afternoon and into the evening with two good friends and a Nikon V1.

My friends, Andy and Frank are photographers.  They are as interested in the art and craft as I am and they are quiet and fun to spend time with.  We decided to meet downtown at Medici Cafe late this afternoon and go for a walk, have a little dinner and spend some time playing with our "miniature" cameras.  I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to see how my new little Nikon handled low light so I stuck the 10mm to 30mm kit lens on the front, crammed the 10mm into my shirt pocket and ventured into the land of "no parking."

I thought I'd be early but the guys were already there.  They were both in an Olympus micro mood today.  Andy was sporting an EPL1 with a Panasonic 20mm and Frank brought along his EP3 and switched between his new 12mm and his 45mm 1.8.  No tripods.  No flashes.  No other stuff.

We headed for South Congress Avenue and we were reveling in the sweet light that skims across the lake just before sunset.  On the Congress Ave. bridge we met this "Occupy Austin" protester waving a flag and waving at cars.  He said he wanted to get away from the city hall crowd and do his own thing so....there he was.  We approached and asked if he would mind us photographing him.  He didn't mind in the least.

 As far as I can tell the Nikon focuses quickly and accurately. One thing I've noticed is that I like to dial down the exposure by one third to two thirds of a stop under the indicated values in order to get files I like.  In post processing I always add a little bit more black with a the black slider in Lightroom.  And I am likely to use the "punch" preset with some of the files as well.  It imparts a fun grittiness to the images.

When we first started out there was a strong wind and low clouds whipped through the late autumn sun like a slow motion movie effect.  

 Everywhere we turned in downtown the light and cloud mix created little dramas on the faces of the buildings.  We were shooting and walking.  Shooting and walking.  Pretty soon we got our cadence down and  were able to walk in some sort of coherent pattern.  I'd been looking forward to our walk because Andy has a style that is untainted by previous exposure to the traditions of heavy, film based photography.  He's a natural with the LCD screen on the back and consistently tells me not to depend on the viewfinder but to "use the force."  I wanted to open myself up to new ways of photographing and looking and so I was purposely studying his approach.  Using the live view on the back screen he would maintain a loose and fluid methodology, making little adjustments with his feet or the bend of his knees.  The live view allowed him to make almost unconscious corrections to exposure and shoot quickly.  I tried to follow his lead and not be as rigid as I know I am.  Too many rules in my brain.  Reminds me of my favorite bumper sticker about dogs:  "More wag, bark less."

 Another odd thing about this evening.  Usually when I'm in a crowd of photographers I'm the odd man out, shooting with a bag of single focal length lenses.  This evening I was the odd man out for shooting with the only zoom in the trio.  The 45mm 1.8 on the Pen EP3 is a wonderful combination....Must.....resist......buying.....temptation....

When I got back home I downloaded my files and started to edit them.  I saw several things.  The Nikon was a bit too warm in many of the downtown building files.  It may be that it was really accurate to the way the scene was being lit, a low, late sun is very warm.  But the scenes all looked better as I made the color bluer in my raw conversions.

The second thing I noticed is that the Nikon has a very fine, black pepper grain to images shot over 640 ISO.  It's not apparent until I zoom into 100% but it's there.  There is none of the chromatic noise that causes the color sparkles in older camera images.  And, even though this very sharp and monochromatic noise sneaks in it doesn't seem to affect the sharpness of the files.  I'll stand by my original observations and say that you are good using ISO's up to 800 without much restriction (DON'T underexpose) and, with care, at 1600.  3200 is reportage with the intention to convert to black and white.  Even the files at 250 ISO have a little bit of this black pepper noise but it's not at all intrusive and doesn't seem to effect the image at reasonable print sizes.

Shooting in a group, no matter how small, always entails a bit of compromise but tonight was smooth.  One of us would linger behind to explore a reflection or something in a shop window and would catch up.  One person would find an interesting subject and go off on a tangent.  And we'd all come back together again, minutes later and compare notes.  I like to see how people photograph.  We're all so different.  Since we weren't lighting or directing each shot came and went quickly.

This is a close up of the forearm of the protester on the bridge.  That is not a temporary tattoo.  It's the real deal.  Still fresh and red around the edges.  He had other interesting tattoos as well.  If you want to shoot something specific sometimes you just have to ask.....

As we headed south on the bridge I turned around to snap a few images of the downtown skyline.  Austin has changed so much in the last five years.  Our downtown has been totally revitalized and is now the interesting place to be.  Many of the new skyscrapers are resident towers and I look forward to a time when we have a real, 24/7 downtown to move through.  The one thing we lack right now is a good number of 24 hour restaurants....

As we worked our way toward the food trailers I found myself falling into the familiar pattern of looking for familiar patterns.  The Nikon EVF is a perfectly suited for the process of grabbing graphic nibblets.  You see, essentially, the finished photo as you are previsualizing it and visualizing it on the screen.  It's kind of like seeing the future and the present simultaneously.

But I have to consistently practice my people engagement skills even if I flub the technical stuff.  The camera might be up for 1/8th second exposures but I'm not sure I am and I'm pretty sure this couple was moving a bit as well.  (Lit with very, very low incandescent lighting coming through a shop window.)

I photographed this flower/vase because I liked the combination of textures but when I developed the image in Lightroom I liked it more as an example of the graceful highlight transitions I could see in the different tones on the white ceramic.

The combination of streetlights and the afterglow of sunset makes for wonderful color contrasts.  I wish the skies would hang there, in this balance, for hours everyday.  As it is you have only glancing opportunities to catch a perfect balance and then it's gone.  Makes for a bit of a challenge.

I can't speak for the other guys but for me this was a welcome photographic vacation from my long day of photography related stuff in the studio.  One of the banes of modern commercial photography is the long hours spent in front of a monitor doing things like, clipping paths, black and white conversions and fine tuning large files destined for print.  I spent hours this morning taking 40 megapixel raw files, converting them into beautiful color files, making masks to drop out backgrounds while leaving wisps of hair intact and then uploading nearly a gigabyte of files to my client's FTP server.  Once you add in following up on some billing and putting together a few bids you find that you've spent the bulk of the day in a chair at a desk.  Which is decidedly not what I really signed up for in the beginning of this whole photography lifestyle thing.  But it's cathartic to get out as the light changes and the wind changes and walk down a busy street with the wonderful feel of a camera in your hand.  And even if you come back without any images you want to show to anyone else you know you've spent time well.  

I must confess that the photo above and the photo below were intentionally shot into light sources to see if the Nikon could be coaxed into showing off "red dot syndrome."   I think the camera passed this test well but I offer no guarantees for people who want to include the sun in their frames.  I do love the mix of street lights and ropes of bulbs against an evening sky.

We stopped at the end of our route and ate a jovial dinner at a fish taco restaurant.  We talked about cameras and we talked about life, and our plans for the holidays.  It was a simple moment but one without a care in the world.  And that's a rare thing to be able to say these days.  Our intention from the beginning was to walk.  Everything else would be whipped creme on top of the sundae.

This shop on south Congress Ave. had a display of old cameras.  35mm and other odd formats from the 1940's and 1950's.  The coolest thing I saw in the shop was this giant camera.  Every once in a while the flash bulb would light up.  The rubber ducks were a nice counterpoint.......

We wound up back where we started and we sat at the bar and watched people and talked to each other, and to the baristas.  In one of those, "Only in Austin" moments we were informed that salsa dance classes would be starting, in the coffee shop, in "just a few minutes."  When we left the salsa was already in progress and Austinites in black t-shirts with band logos on the front were dipping and dancing with women in skirts.  We each shook hands and headed off to find our cars and return to our homes.  I felt like a tourist in my own town.  And it was good.  There are always more attractions to see.  And the price is just right.

Funny to write about my adventures with the little Nikon.  Yesterday I was shooting portraits on black and white film with my Hasselblad and the 150mm lens.  The day before I was shooting still life with the Canon 1DS mk2 and a 90mm macro lens.  I guess I'm just destined to shoot "all over the map." But it sure keeps my job AND my hobby fresh.  

By the way, our protester with the "Occupy Austin" tattoo also sported this one.  I was thinking of getting one like this myself.  But my friends convinced me I should get a Leica tattoo instead.  I'm still pondering.   :- )

Final report on the Nikon:  I like it.  It's sharp.  It's no more or less infallible then any other comparable camera.  It does nice detail and has good color.  It's fast.  It's light and small and I can carry it all evening without a thought.  In all I think Nikon should do well with the new format.  It might not be the camera for you but.......it's not a bad camera.

So, why do I keep a Canon EOS 5Dmk2 around if I think the Nikon V1 is so hot?

Mostly because it can do this at 6400 ISO with an 85mm Zeiss 1.4 lens, wide open.  That's why.

Oh, and it can do this too.  Under the nastiest, lowest mixed florescent and tungsten household lighting you can imagine.  I can't quite do this with a V1 and though I don't do this kind of stuff that often I do like to be able to pull it off when I have too......

Rosie and the Ramblers were in the studio today, cutting a new album.  Rosie asked me to drop by and take some images for their website and promo.  She likes "real life."  So I came equipped with some fast glass and a Canon 5D2 as well as a Nikon V1.  I looked at the difference between the Nikon at 3200 and the Canon at 6400 and I put the Nikon away and shot "digital old school."

I'll keep the old stuff around for a while longer.  Is it just me or does that Zeiss 85 look good to you too?

I'm in San Antonio for the next two days shooting a hospital.  I'll be back in Austin Friday night getting ready to do my 10:15 am demo at the Austin Photo Expo Saturday morning.  I'll be the guy trying to juggle two cups of coffee.....

Nikon 1. Counterintuitive. Crazy. And a whole lot of fun.

Nikon V1 Camera with Kit Lens. Sweet.

I got some money for my birthday on Thurs. and it was still around when I decided to drop in and see what was new at Precision Camera, my local, grown up candy shop.  I was thinking I'd take a look at the Canon SX40 because Ben and I have had fun with the super zoom cameras from Canon in the past and it's a lot of camera for $400.  My camera guy, Ian, and I played with the SX40 for a few minutes and then I asked him, "What's new?"  And that set of the chain reaction that led to the insertion of VSL into yet another camera system.  

When the Nikon 1 Series was announced I thought it looked pretty cool but I didn't take time to understand any of it, and the howl from the denizens on the web forums threatened to kill the whole system before it even hatched.  It is amazing to me how entrenched people get with their current systems and the level of disbelief they have that technology can march onward.  People are shaking their heads at the "small" sensor while gushing over cameras like the Panasonic LX5 and the Canon G12 which have much smaller sensors.....

Ian sauntered over to the case that holds the Nikon goodies and pulled out the V1.  He asked, innocently, "Have you played with one of these yet?" and he put the camera in my hand.  Can I say, "love at first sight?"

I have average sized hands and this camera fit perfectly.  The thumb rest on the back and the finger grip on the front are as close to perfect for me as I can imagine.  If you have gorilla hands you may have a different experience.  While I love the control covered carcass of the G series mini-pro cameras from Canon I was pleasantly surprise how much I loved the minimalist control protrusions on the V1.

But let's back up for a second and I'll describe the V1 for those who haven't kept up with new introductions lately.  Nikon supposedly has been working on this camera system since 2007.  It's got a smaller imaging chip than the micro four thirds cameras and the chip has a 2.7X crop factor compared to full frame 35mm.  There are two bodies available but the cheaper one doesn't allow for an EVF so I pretend that it doesn't even exist.  The body I am interested in is the V1.  It has a built in EVF with a 1.4 million pixel res screen in the eyepiece.  The camera can be set up like the old Minoltas and Sony's so that the screen on the rear is live until you bring the camera up to your eye and then it switches to the electronic viewfinder.  Nice, but the first thing I did was to use the display control to turn off the rear screen all the time.

The camera is small but not too small which makes it easy to carry but nice to hold.  You'll hate this camera if you like all your major controls front and center.  Just about everything on the camera is menu driven.  And it's the Jekyll and Hyde opposite of the EP-3.  The menus is barebones.  Where you can fine tune and finesse just about every setting imaginable in the Olympus the Nikon is almost delightfully straightforward and uncluttered.  You can't fine tune many of the settings but maybe that's because it's intended to be a raw shooter.

You can look at the picture of the product at the top of the page and you'll find it to appear very rudimentary.  I like it.  But I like Mid 20th Century Russian Industrial too.  I think, once you hold it in your hand and shoot it you'll find it's a cross between "collective functionality" and the kind of simplified interface that makes Apple products so usable.  If you are the kind of guy who likes to replace the motherboard in your PC just so you can say you built it yourself then.....nope, this one might be something different.  To me, clean, spare and functional are attributes.

When Ian and I were playing around with the camera in the store we shot photos of the inside of a camera bag.  Silly test, but at ISO 3200 we saw very, very little noise and lots of non-smushy detail.  There was a little bit of evidence of noise reduction taking the edges off eyelashes and what not but not much.  On par with a Canon 7D at that setting.  Maybe a little better.  

I beat Ian out of a 4 gigabyte card because I wanted to go out and shoot immediately.  The battery had a 40% charge fresh from the box so I saddled up, asked my full service camera guy to put the strap on the camera and set the date and time and, a grand lighter, I was out the door and headed for downtown.  I thought I'd head to Cafe Medici and read the owner's manual.  Something I do with every camera I buy.

OMG!!!!  Nikon managed to do the IMPOSSIBLE.  The manual is only about 60 pages long and yet manages to cover everything I needed to know with good, clear explanations.  Amazing, since even the most rudimentary cameras these days come with books that rival War and Peace  for length.  I was back out the door one cappuccino and ten minutes later.  

I'd write more stuff but I just spent three hours and 200 files with the camera.  Look above.  It's a shot right out of the camera in Jpeg.  Click on it because I uploaded some big files.  You'll see lots of detail and lots of dynamic range.  I know the sensor is small and I won't be able to put lots and lots of stuff out of focus but I also know that I can lean over a bridge, shoot in total automatic, and come away with a shot I like.

What are the "gotcha's" that I've found so far?

1.  I don't like the fact that they use a brand new mechanical interface for the flash.  I'll have to use their dedicated flash and figure out how to use it to trigger studio flashes if I want to use it that way.  They haven't shipped flashes yet so I'll see what that's all about when they get here.

2. "Wake from sleep" takes far too long.  When you turn on the camera from the "off" position it leaps into action and is as ready as a teenager.  But when you've let the camera go to sleep it wakes up like a grumpy old man.  Figure on several seconds and some pressure on the shutter button before it says hello and asks for Sanka.

3.  Shot to shot recovery is too slow in the single shot setting.  You click, it shoots, then it pauses and then it shows you the shoot and then waits for you to put a little pressure on the button before it comes back to pre-shoot readiness.  Fine for still life and things that don't move much but not so good for my kind of shooting.  Switch to continuous and gain immediate shot to shot responsiveness and a 45 shot buffer.

 What do I like about the camera?

Can you say, "Image Quality?"  Forget all the crap you hear on the techno sites and just look at the images.  They're gorgeous.  I don't remember which ones I uploaded at full size but if you click around I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding them.  I think the out of camera jpegs are very, very good.  Maybe the color is different than Jpegs from Olympus Pen cameras but it's not necessarily worse color and the sharpness and resolution are second to none in the tiny class.

The other major thing I like is the use of the big, D7000 style battery.  It's rated for 500 images.  I'm tired of tiny batteries that cough up the spirit after only 200 or so images.  

Do I like the camera better than my EP3?  No.  But I do like it just as much.  The EP3 is very elegant and so beautifully designed.  The V1 seems more industrial.  Will I get rid of the Olympus stuff to replace it with Nikon stuff?  Naw.  I still like using all my legacy lenses and Leica lenses on the Olys.  And I still love their color.  What do I like about the Nikon? I love the crisp feel of the files, the perfect meter, the fast autofocus and the incredible ten frames per second I can get at the full 10 meg image res.

There's a lot more to this camera and I've barely scratched the surface of it's capabilities in video (can you  imagine 400 fps video played back at 30 fps for incredible slow motion?).  The camera is small, discreet, focuses faster than my Canon 5Dmk2 (the whipping boy of modern focus...) and fun to handle.

I've only had my hands on it for five hours and I'm still learning.  But I've learned on thing: If most people who've never handled a camera hate it.......it might be really good.  More.  Much more to come.

  

Another fun review by one of the VSL readers: http://www.b-vong.com/journal/nikon-j1-review-by-a-girl/