Working the D800 Magic

Jun 13, 2012 | Field Reports

There are perks being married to someone volunteering to work the Media Ops at Reno Air Races. One is having our trailer right on the field giving us access to aircraft 24/7. Another is getting to come in early and watch the planes coming in for the events of the day. But one of the best is walking the line at sunset when things quiet down and the light just plays off shapes and aircraft. This is of course our dear friend Dennis’ T-6 that won the Gold. His trailer has my photograph plastered on it this year which was fun to see today for the first time. We just went for a walk and I had the D800 & 70-200VR2 along just in case. At the same time, wanted to play more with its amazing files.

This is another insane zoom in on a small portion of the image, the pitot tube in the middle, far left of the frame. I wanted you to see the silly finger puppet that Dennis has on the pitot but the wind was blowing too much to see its detail. But you can easily read the information and no matter how you slice it, that’s amazing. Many have asked, but like the majority of my photography, this image along with the one yesterday was shot hand held. Some guessed that and asked if it would have been sharper shot on a tripod. Technically, I guess, maybe, perhaps. Since most of my work is done handheld and I can see this detail, I will have to suffer with whatever detail is being lost.

Meteor Time Lapse

Jun 13, 2012 | Field Reports

01.01.2013 Pages are in the process of being updated. In the meantime you can watch our videos on our YouTube Channel as well as all Videos are available on iTunes as Podcasts!

A forecasted small meteor shower got my attention so I decided to set up The Box with the D4 and give it a go. This was the first Time Lapse (old fashion way with Jpegs & Photoshop) I had done with the D4, 24f1.4AFS and The Box and the new EP-6 AC adapter. I used all the same settings as before and while the Milky Away doesn’t appear until late at night, I like the results very much. This is a 1680, 8.5hr time lapse captured from our deck. Enjoy!

D800 Settings

Jun 12, 2012 | Field Reports

Here are my settings for the D800, top link is a PDF is for D800, bottom is D4 in case you want to compare them. Now these settings will change with time and when I think about it, I will update these settings and date the file accordingly. Now, External settings that can be set are as follows:

What Do I Think about the D800 File?

Jun 12, 2012 | Field Reports

I’ve been jumping through hoops so not be able to do a side by side comparison yet, but I have to admit this image gets my attention. This is a simple D800 click with the light being from a SB-900 and the file processed in ACR. If you look at the tip of the arrow, the space between the two nuts is what you see below. Now that’s amazing detail from a file! I have no idea what insane magnification that works out to be but we’re looking at less then 1% of the image enlarged. That’s what I term as a … holly crap!

Sensor Cleaning with Copperhill

Jun 11, 2012 | Field Reports

Here’s a simple video on cleaning your sensor using the Copperhill Sensor Swabs

SmallHD DP-6 & Problem Solving

Jun 11, 2012 | Field Reports

The SmallHD DP-6 is a monitor made for video work. On any camera with a HDMI out, it connects and displays whatever the LCD is displaying. As I’ve already mentioned, it works great for this and we pound it here at WRP for video production work. Well, I found another use for it and it saved my butt!

I started a new project with an bomber that’s being restored. A series of photographs I needed to take were from the top of the fuselage where I physically could not get because it was being restored. Some of it wasn’t physically in place. I needed to get the camera in the dead center of the fuselage and then frame up the fuselage dead center in the frame. Complicating it further was the need to do HDR. Not being able to look through the viewfinder or see the LCD panel was a major problem. I at first tired the old “eyeballing” it trick but that was going nowhere fast and the clock was ticking. Then I remembered the SmallHD DP-6 so I got it out of my Logistics Manager along with a 2′ HDMI cable. I plugged it into the D4 HDMI and turned on the LiveView. And there on the DP-6 appeared the photograph. Now turning the camera the right way at first was a little bit of a challenge but I was able to take the series of photographs perfectly even though I couldn’t see through the viewfinder. I was so glad I had the DP-6 in the bag!