I got a new camera

[Mason Jarr]

In the past I've been using a Nikon D5100. I love this camera, but it's a DX sensor. I decided to move up to a full frame format so I picked up a D810 a few months ago. We have some really good light and cloud formations this time of year in Idaho and I went out a couple of evenings ago to try for some sunset shots. I ended up working around some rock formations instead and this is the best of the group. It looked okay in the color version, but this monochrome edition really seems to work. The D810 shoots a 36 Mpix RAW file and the resolution is incredible. Of course, you can't see that detail here when we have to reduce down to a 420 K file, but I hope most of it will come through.

 

[Nauti]

You're right,it works lovely as a monochrome photo.........there is something special about black and white photos and this one demonstrates how shooting in b+w can create a more dramatic shot.Lovely photo.

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

What lens did you use in taking this picture? All I can say is you just posted a picture that in my humble opinion displays great composition with amazing detail...I love it.

Do you have any regrets going to the full frame format? Thanks for sharing this picture, and I hope that you will post more in the future. Kelley (Texas)

 

[Mason Jarr]

Thank you, guys. Kelley, I shot this with a SWA, Nikon 14-24 f/2.8 lens. It's rated as one of the best wide angle lenses on the market....some Canon shooters even use it with an adapter on their cameras. I've only recently gotten the lens, so I can't say if that hype is true. But, I like it so far. I really got it because I want to try some night photography and the 2.8 f stop should let me get more light for that purpose. I'll do my best to put up some photos as time allows. The last two days we've had a very thick fog, so I haven't had any chances to get out at all.

 

[Mason Jarr]

Oh, and yes, I do like the full frame camera. I didn't get rid of my 5100 because there's a time and place where the cropping sensor will be better than the full frame. Plus, I can use my full frame lenses on the 5100. I just have to account for the cropping. The only drawback is that everything is more expensive in the full frame arena.

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

A year or so ago I took a series of night pictures of the skyline of San Antonio using a Sony A300 camera and the 18-70mm kit lens. Needless to say, I was disappointed in the pictures produced that night, colors were OK, but the pictures lacked the desired detail. I think that I expected too much of the kit lens, pushed it just a tab past it's limit. Now I am ready to try again, only this time using my Sony NEX-6 camera and a few vintage Minolta MD lenses, should be interesting. You mentioning taking some night pictures renewed my interest in taking a few night pictures, thank you! Kelley (Texas)

 

[Mason Jarr]

They're doing some pretty interesting shots at night...taking photos of the stars, Milky Way, etc. It takes some fairly long exposures at higher ISO settings so the photos typically will have some noise issues. My D810 has a long exposure noise reduction feature so I'm hoping it'll help with that. From what I've read about it thus far, if you divide 400 by your lens focal length, then the resulting number would be the maximum time exposure you can have without getting star trails. So at 20mm focal length, you can have a 20 second exposure. That's another reason why I bought the 14-24 lens. If I use the 14mm focal length, I can get almost 29 seconds of exposure time. All this is just theory as of yet, for me, as I haven't tried it. The Milky Way will be pretty high in the sky again in Idaho around mid-April, so I have a little while to wait. Good luck on your attempt though. I'd like to see what you come up with.

 

[Mason Jarr]

Look up a guy named Adam Woodworth in New Hampshire. He has a website. He's done some amazing night photos and has a good tutorial on his methods.

 

[Roscue2]

n/t

 

[Nancy-IL]

I love the landscape photo. Such quality. Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[Mason Jarr]

Thank you. I'll try to be a regular participant here, but I have a lot of competing interests....so things tend to run in spurts. My real name is, Mike, by the way.

 

[jbolf6]

Really beautiful!