I have been using Eye-Fi cards since they released the original version, although when I switched to a DSLR I had stopped using them due to their limited capacity. That changed with the Eye-Fi Pro card, which doubled the capacity to 4GB, which made it usable with my D90.
The 4GB capacity of the original Eye-Fi Pro card still seemed tight when shooting a lot of raw images & video, and it’s slower than most standard SD cards, which limited the number of shots you can take in burst mode. I found that limitation very frustrating when I was trying to shoot dance & martial arts demos at Youth Day when it stopped letting me shoot in burst mode for several seconds while it finished writing.
The new Eye-Fi Pro x2 solves both limitations by doubling the capacity again to 8GB and increasing the write speed to match Class 6 SDHC cards. It also adds 802.11n support and an “Endless Memory” feature which automatically deletes older photos that have been successfully transferred, so you never have to manually delete anything.
Like all Eye-Fi cards, setup is quick & easy. As soon as you insert the card, it will launch Eye-Fi Center and step you through the initial steps of adding a network and setting the upload destinations.
The Eye-Fi Pro X2 card is a perfect match for the D90. The 8GB capacity lets you shoot in raw mode and capture video without running out of space, and the enhanced speed lets you shoot in burst mode without overrunning it.
For a long time I avoided the Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens after reading a few less than glowing reviews, but after Michael Mistretta told me he was happy with it and I saw several people using them at the last photo walk, I decided to get one. I find the quality to be very similar to the D90′s 18-105mm kit lens, which is an excellent general purpose lens.
In the past, I’ve missed several photo opportunities when I had the wrong lens on my camera and rushed to change it, only to find the subject was gone. With this lens, it should happen a lot less often.
The first thing I noticed when I got this lens is that it’s only slightly larger than the 18-105mm, although it’s quite noticeably heavier. Fully extended, it’s only a little less than an inch longer than the 18-105mm
This lens feels very solid & well made. Zoom action is very smooth with no slippage. Rather than the Auto & Manual focus modes of the 18-105mm, it has a M/A mode (auto focus with manual override), which lets you use auto focus and fine tune it using the focus ring.
As an example of the image quality, this shot was taken at 18mm.
This shot was taken from the same spot, zoomed in to 200mm on the purple flowers.
The 18-200mm VR seems to be a perfect lens for traveling or photo walks when you don’t want to carry extra lenses.
A common problem with many Nikon cameras, including the D90, is the tendency to over-expose and blow out reds. It’s especially obvious when shooting brightly colored flowers, like these.
Thanks to some good advice in Flickr’s Nikon D90 Club, I’ve been able to improve it a bit. Here I set it for spot metering using a red area and set it to underexpose -2.0EV. I would probably get even better results if I shot RAW.
If you look at the RGB histogram of the first image, you’ll see that the red channel is clipped.
Adjusting the exposure has a much bigger effect on the red channel.
I received my production model Eye-Fi Pro card today, after beta testing it for a few months.
Unlike earlier Eye-Fi cards, the Eye-Fi Pro supports RAW files as well as JPEGs and movies, which is great for anyone using a DSLR who likes to shoot RAW. Since it’ a 4GB card, it will hold 256 RAW files from my Nikon D90 or 1000 JPEGs. The Eye-Fi Pro also lets you set up an ad-hoc network with your computer for peer-to-peer connections without a router or access point when you lack a WiFi network.
As a bonus, it also geotags your images, avoiding the need for a GPS attachment for your camera.
See my full set of unboxing photos here.
The Nikon D90 is one of the camera models with built-in Eye-Fi support. It recognizes an Eye-Fi card and sets its power management accordingly, to avoid shutting off while an upload is in progress. It also adds an item to the setup menu which allows you to enable or disable Eye-Fi wireless uploading.
Using this card has changed my photography workflow. Instead of shooting pictures, then removing the card and using a card reader to import them into Aperture, I just let it send the pictures wirelessly to a folder on my MacBook Pro, where I can then import them into Aperture.
When I import the photos into Aperture, I prefer to keep them in their original location, rather than copy them into the Aperture library, which saves some disk space by avoiding redundant copies. iPhoto also offers the same option when importing from local files rather than a camera or memory card.
If you have a DSLR, you can easily spend more on lenses than the camera itself cost. Luckily there are a few great lenses you can buy for under $200. I will highlight two of my favorites here.
Everyone should own Nikon’s wonderful 50mm f/1.8D AF, which sells for under $140. This is one of the best lenses you can buy because it’s extremely sharp and the large aperture lets you shoot in low light and blur the background nicely. It’s my favorite lens for those reasons.
Note that this lens lacks an internal AF motor, so if you have a D40 or D60 you can only use manual focus with it. If you have one of those cameras and you really need auto focus, Nikon also sells a 50mm f/1.4G AF-S, which costs around $480.
If you need a long zoom, Sigma’s 70-300mm f/4.5-6 DG Macro is a good choice for around $150. This is one of the longest lenses available at an affordable price, as most similar lenses only go up to 200mm. It has a macro mode available from 200-300mm which lets you focus much closer and gives a 1:2 close-up magnification. Since it lacks vibration reduction, you’ll either have to use a tripod or shoot at a very fast shutter speed, since the long focal length amplifies any camera shake. On the plus side, the image quality is excellent with less distortion than Nikon’s 18-200mm.
I really love the D90, but sometimes it’s just too big to carry. For those times it’s nice to have a compact point & shoot camera that will fit in my pocket. As much as I love Nikon DSLRs, I don’t care much for their Coolpix point & shoot cameras, since the image quality isn’t that great and they’re very slow.
I decided on the Canon A2000 IS based on its image quality. I’ve always liked their A-series, since they use standard AA batteries. I noticed some really great pictures taken with the A1000 IS & A2000 IS, but I chose the A2000 IS because of its larger & brighter 3″ display and longer 6x optical zoom. It’s also a lot smaller & thinner than older A-series cameras. It normally sells for just over $200, but I found it for $150 at buy.com last month.
The A2000 IS doesn’t provide any manual controls and the battery life isn’t great, but the image quality is excellent. It also takes great videos. I started getting a battery warning after shooting 80 pictures & 2 videos with a set of fresh AA alkaline batteries at the Polynesian Festival today.
I posted more pictures here.
I recorded a lot of hi-def video on my D90 at Oakland Park Youth Day. Here’s an unedited video straight from the camera. This is the only one that was small enough to upload to Flickr.
I find that it’s hard to keep the video in focus when the subject is moving, and it’s very difficult to see if it’s in focus on the LCD screen in bright sunlight.
I also uploaded lots of photos here.
Today I got my first wide angle lens, a Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6D EX DC HSM. I’ve been very impressed with the quality of Sigma lenses since I got the 70-300mm and this lens didn’t disappoint me. The 10-20mm is very sharp and the auto focus is extremely fast and quiet.
Since most of my lenses are longer zooms, this one gives me a new perspective. It should be great for landscape photography.
Both of these shots were taken from the same spot at 20mm and 10mm.
Taken with my Sigma 70-30mm lens using spot metering at shutter priority of 1/320, without a tripod.
When I attempt to take a photo of the moon, it usually comes out as a featureless white blob, due to being overexposed. Thanks to a tip on Flickr, I discovered that the secret to taking a photo of the moon that doesn’t suck is to use spot metering rather than matrix.
With matrix metering, the camera will use both the dark sky and the bright moon to determine the exposure, which usually ends up overexposing the moon to avoid underexposing everything else. Spot metering lets you use only the moon to determine the exposure, which avoids the usual blown out appearance.
For this shot, I used my Sigma 70-300mm lens with shutter priority. Since I wasn’t using a tripod and this lens doesn’t have VR, I used a shutter speed of 1/250 with ISO 3200.
After using the lens for a few days, I’m very happy with it. For the price, it’s a great lens and a good addition for anyone who wants a higher zoom and macro capabilities. It does take some getting used to, but it’s possible to get some excellent results from it. In macro mode, you can get very sharp images with good bokeh.
Since the lens lacks vibration reduction, if you’re not using a tripod, you’ll have to use a very fast shutter speed, around 1/focal length, to avoid camera shake. I find I get the best results using shutter priority and raising the ISO if necessary. For this shot, I used a shutter speed of 1/320 and ISO 1600 at the maximum aperture, which is 5.6 at 300mm.
The focus can be very slow, so in many cases you’ll probably want to use manual focus. The macro switch can be a bit tricky – it can only be engaged at a focal length of 200mm or greater, and you can’t switch it off with the second extension (used for focus) extended. In most cases, that means you’ll have to switch to manual focus to rotate the focus ring.
Despite those limitations, there probably isn’t another lens that offers the same capabilities for under $200.
I received my Sigma 70-300mm AF Macro lens today. It was $147 from Overstock.com. For the price, it’s a good choice if you need a macro lens or an extremely long zoom. I got the non-motorized model, so AF won’t work on low-end cameras like the D40 or D60. The motorized version sells for about $30 more.
The major drawback of this lens is the extremely slow and noisy auto focus. It often seeks through the entire zoom range to focus. The lens has a macro switch providing 2x magnification, which can only be used above 200mm focal length. The lens doesn’t have an auto/manual focus switch, so you’ll have to use the M/AF switch on the camera body.
The lens feels very hefty and seems rugged with a rubberized surface. Mounting it on the camera can be a bit difficult, since it’s hard to grab it in an area that doesn’t rotate for focus or zoom.
The macro mode gives a very narrow depth of field with good bokeh.
Until now I’ve never considered a non-Nikon lens, but after seeing some of Jonathan Johnson’s sample photos, I’m considering getting this Sigma 70-300mm lens. The price is very appealing (around $150), it has a good zoom range & macro ability, and the reviews are fairly good.
Nikon has released development kits for many of their newest cameras, including the D90, as well as a NEF (RAW) file decoding library. The SDK lets you write applications that control the camera directly via USB (like Aperture’s tethered mode).
To get any of their SDKs, fill out this form at Nikon’s site.
When you’re shooting in mixed light, most camera’s automatic white balance can give incorrect or inconsistent results. The most accurate way to get the correct white balance is by measuring it. Most photographers carry a gray card for measuring & setting white balance, but Photojojo has something a lot more convenient: the white balance lens cap.
Instead of carrying around something extra, simply replace your lens cap with the white balance lens cap. Before you start shooting in a new location, measure the light and set the white balance. Then remove the lens cap and shoot normally.
On a D90, press the white balance button and turn the command dial until it shows PRE. release the white balance button and press it again and hold until PRE starts blinking. Set the camera to automatic exposure and snap a picture (which will be solid white/gray). The display will flash GOOD if it was able to successfully capture a reference image. That’s it – you can now shoot normally.
Here are two sample images, taken with automatic white balance and measured white balance, both with no adjustments. The wall is off-white and the lighting is a halogen lamp.
 |
 |
| Automatic white balance |
Measured white balance |
This is why I love the D90. I simply used ‘P’ mode with ISO 3200 to shoot our tree trimming party last night. I really love the lighting, sharpness, and clarity in this shot.
Many more photos here.
D90 Video I captured at last night’s tree trimming party, with music added in iMovie.
Lots more photos here.
The people in my condo really go all out for Christmas, so I walked around and took some photos of the decorations. The D90 still continues to impress and amaze me with its performance at high ISO settings. I simply used Aperture priority with the widest aperture and auto ISO with a maximum of 3200 when I took these shots.
The D90′s video capability also came in handy.
I haven’t had much of a chance to blog in the last week, since life & work got in the way. I had an awesome time Monday night when my friends took me out to dinner at 101 Ocean for my birthday.
People are already starting to put up their Christmas decorations – they don’t even wait for Thanksgiving any more. One of my neighbors put up blue lights & butterflies, as you can see from this photo.
Shooting holiday lights can be a challenge, since the camera will try to adjust the exposure for the background, which will make the lights disappear. Instead, you want to underexpose the picture enough to darken the background and make the lights stand out.
You might be able to get good results using exposure compensation, but to really get it right, you need to use manual exposure. It’s difficult to apply any standard exposure rules, since the ideal exposure depends on how dark it is and the color, size, and brightness of the lights, so you’ll probably need to experiment to get the best results. I took these pictures shortly before sunset tonight and I found that I got the best results using shutter speed 1/30 at f5.6 with ISO 1600. A good way to start is by using one of the semi-automatic modes and noting the shutter speed or aperture it chooses, and adjusting it from there.
The D90′s excellent high ISO performance makes it a lot easier to get good results in these conditions. With a lot of cameras you wouldn’t want to go above ISO 800, so you’ll need to adjust the shutter speed & aperture accordingly.
With all of the focus on the election, there was one very welcome bit of non-election news yesterday. Apple released Digital Camera Raw Compatibility 2.3, which finally adds RAW support for the Nikon D90 to Aperture, iPhoto, and other applications.
Recent Comments