Nikon D700, 70-200 VR with 1.7 Teleconverter at 340mm, 1600th @ f/4.8, ISO 450

Nikon D700, 70-200 VR with 1.7 Teleconverter at 340mm, 1600th @ f/4.8, ISO 800

Summer’s arriving – which in the sleepy village of Sway in the New Forest means that the sound of willow on leather can again be heard on the village green. Well, the sound of willow wafting at leather anyway.

The second XI were at home to Beaulieu on Sunday, so off I went complete with D700, 70-200mm f/2.8 and teleconvertor, and a monopod to keep me stable. For the second time in as many weeks I was left feeling a little inadequate – filling the frame from the edge of the boundary was proving difficult. This time I was shooting in shutter priority mode, and varied between 1/500th and 1/1600th of a second.  I wanted to make sure the ball was a little blurred to give the impression of motion while the batsmen were frozen in their pose.

Sadly I had to go before Sway’s bowlers began their onslaught, but I’m pleased to say the end result was a well earned 154 run victory. The shots above show top scorers Rick How and Nilantha Atapattu on their way to 74 not out and 52 respectively.

Nikon D700, 70-200 VR with 1.7 Teleconverter at 290mm, 3200th @ f/5.6, ISO 500

Thanks to everyone for their kind comments about the Red Kite shots from a couple of weeks ago, as promised I thought I’d better post a bit more on the technique and equipment behind the scenes.

You might think that we used shutter priority to select a fast shutter speed, but I was worried that with contrasting low light in the background the camera would select too large an aperture, and the bulk of the bird may be thrown out of focus. So I used aperture priority, adjusting the aperture between f/5.6 and f/8, and using the ISO speed to get a quick enough shutter speed to make the Red Kites sharp. For much of the day I was able to use ISO 320 to get a shutter speed over 100oth of a second, but at times I went as high as ISO 800. Fortunately the D700 makes such choices academic.

I was delighted at the performance of the D700′s autofocus system which worked brilliantly in conjunction with the AF-S 70-200 f/2.8 lens and TC-17e teleconvertor. The effective maximum focal length was 340mm, which although not really long enough to fill the frame as much as I’d like was still fine for getting some shots I was pleased with. Andy Keen, a local wildlife photographer, was shooting with a Canon 5Dmk2 and 100-400mm lens and got some great shots, some of which are now on his blog. If I did more wildlife work then a longer lens would be nice (could a 200-400mm AF-S lens fit in my stocking, Santa?) but I think that’s a dream for another day!

Another thing I’ll take away from the Red Kites is a sore pair of arms. We had our tripods set up inside the hide, and while it was useful to track the birds as they came in from a distance it became a little restricting when they flew closer overhead. I found myself hand holding the lens (thanks to the quick release on the 70-200 lens collar) and taking more shots like this towards the end of the day.

Gigrin Farm is a great location, especially with the Elan Valley and it’s spectacular dams and reservoirs close by. In my youth I loved the Dambusters story, and my enthusiasm was nothing short of childish when I found out this was the testing area for the famous raid by 617 Squadron. Next time I visit I’ll be focussing on the dams in the morning when the light is at it’s best (hopefully!).

Hold on, they cost $4000. Perhaps I can wait. Here’s what the housing will look like:

Credit on this article, and more details on this and many other aspects of underwater photography can be found at DivePhotoGuide.com. Check out their excellent articles section for a selection of other underwater housings for Nikon digital SLRs.

By default, when you look through the viewfinder on a D700 with a DX lens attached you see a black outline showing the area that will be captured. This has been criticised in several reviews as not being as clear as with a D3, where the whole area not being covered by the lens is masked out. Well if you read the manual there is a way to add translucent masking to the D700 as well!

You need to go into the Autofocus menu and switch a6 AF point illumination -> Off if you want translucent masking. It’s covered in the manual on page 288 – can’t say I spotted this before!

Credit to Chai at Tech ARP for digging this info out!

From Nikon’s InFrame email update:

Nikon’s GP-1 Global Positioning System records the exact location of your camera when you take a shot, giving you truly accurate records.

The GP-1 can be mounted unobtrusively on the camera strap or accessory shoe and, when connected to the GPS supporting D90, D700, D3x, D3 and D300 cameras, it automatically records latitude, longitude, altitude and time as geotags in the image data.

Geotagging gives you the option of filing images by location, and enables them to be used with mapping applications such as Google Maps. The GP-1 RRP is £202.99.

For more information about Nikon accessories, including the GP-1, download our latest Total Digital Imaging System Brochure here.

- When Custom Setting a4 Focus tracking with lock-on was set to Off in Continuous-servo AF, the lens drive moved gradually without achieving focus.  This issue has been resolved.
- When the Speedlight SB-800 was mounted on the camera with flash mode set to Distance-priority manual (GN) mode, and then the exposure meters were reactivated or the camera was turned on, the distance information displayed on the SB-800 changed.  This issue has been resolved.
- When the Multi-Power Battery Pack MB-D10 was mounted on the camera and an EN-EL3e battery inserted in the camera but no batteries inserted in the MB-D10, and SB-900 flash mode set to TTL auto flash mode, the flash mode changed to A mode when the exposure meters turned off or were reactivated, or the camera was turned off or on.  This issue has been resolved.  (This issue has also been resolved with SB-900 firmware Ver. 5.02.)
- An issue that, in extremely rare cases, resulted in noticeable black dots in images captured with Long exp. NR in the shooting menu set to On has been resolved.
- Manamah, displayed in the Time zone options for the World time item in the setup menu, has been changed to Manama.

Download the new D700 firmware here.

There’s also a new D3 firmware update (2.01), for a list of the full changes see the link below.

Download the new D3 firmware here.

Most parents there had cameras, I decided to use my D700 with AF-S 24-70 f/2.8 lens, shooting in natural light. I flicked the auto ISO on, and set a minimum shutter speed of 1/60th second. No flash – the D700 is so outstanding at high ISO it wasn’t necessary.

Here are a few of my favourite shots from the party:

Ben, the birthday boy – taken at 70mm, 160th at f/2.8, ISO 250

Taken at 40mm setting, 1/60th second at f/2.8, ISO 1800

The eyes have it! 32mm, 1/60th second at f/2.8, ISO 560

It’s okay, Dad can’t find me… 36mm, 1/60th second at f/2.8, ISO 1250

There are many different reactions you get from people when they see you carrying a DSLR with a reasonable lens. Having a two year old child, I’ve attended a number of children’s birthday parties recently and inevitably have ended up standing next to another father watching our kids, cameras in hands.

They’ll normally say something like “That looks an impressive camera!” and I’ll reply wittily “Yes, digital cameras are so compact these days.” And then they’ll show me their digital compact in an almost embarrassed fashion. There’s nothing to be embarrased about of course – you can get some great shots from a compact. But it was only after another parent told me how superior his Canon G9 was to my D200 that I felt the need to take him down a peg or two.

Now at this point you can rightly say that a great photographer with a G9 will produce better images than an amateur with a D200. But for arguments’ sake let’s say their equal, or at least look at it from a sensor point of view. A G9 has a sensor 7.6 x 5.7 mm in size, bigger than many compact cameras, but no bigger than a fingernail. The APS-C sensor in a D200 is nine times bigger – and the full frame sensor in my D700 is twenty times the size!

Is it any surprise that compacts suffer at high ISO, or even just going above ISO 400? It’s not. The surprise is really that you get such good images at all. It’s a marvel of technology really.

So much so that I’ve actually purchased a G9 for my Wife. Why? She won’t carry a DSLR – which rules out a D40 or D60 which would have been ideal. And the biggest problem we have with a compact and an active child is that to get “the moment” you need a minimum of shutter lag, which the G9 seems to be the best – right up until the G10 was released!