More Nikon D600 vs Fujifilm X100s

I have been shooting with the x100S for a few weeks now and every day I use it, I am more impressed with the Fujifilm image quality. At times I love the results much more then the Nikon D600.  In mixed lighting situations, I find I have more control over the x100s.

A few comparison shots:

D600

X100s

Windmill

X100s

D600

Interior of a train

X100s

D600

Burned Bridge

X100s (B&W)

D600

Cash Register

X100s

D600

FujiFilm X100s vs Nikon D600

I wanted to post a comparison of some pictures taken on the Nikon D600 vs the FujiFilm x100s. These pictures were taken about 2 days apart around the same time of day.

Images were edited using Color Efex Pro.

D600

X100s

D600


X100s

My first sensor cleaning

As I have noted before, I am one of the many who has experienced the dirty sensor issues of the Nikon D600.  After already sending my camera to Nikon once (at around 2500 images) for a "real" cleaning, I was not in the mood to wait 3 more weeks for another cleaning by Nikon.

I am at around 4000 shutter clicks right now and images taken at f16 using my 50mm Nikon lens were full of probably 40 small dust spots.The spots were not nearly as visible with my Tokina 17-35mm lens.

50mm at f16. Image enhanced to show the spots

I purchased a wet cleaning kit and used probably 10 or more swabs over the sensor in an effort to get things clean.  Pretty scary process at first, since I had never done this before. At one point I had made things worse. The end results were far from perfect but I still think it is an improvement. What do you think?

Below is a sample image after cleaning.

50mm lens at f16 AFTER cleaning. Image enhanced

50mm at f8 AFTER cleaning. Image enhanced

Image enhancements done with Color Efex Pro.

UPDATE:

I have been shooting for over a week since I cleaned the sensor myself and so far I haven't seen a single spot. This has probably been the first time since sending the camera back to Nikon that I have been dust free.

Image 4500 taken today:

Cleaning was done with a Sensor Swab kit:
https://secure.copperhillimages.com/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=45&=SID#MOREINFO

Before and After

I haven't made a blog post in a while, but I thought it would be interesting to post a couple of pictures that show the water level at the EBRPD Del Valle Park has dropped dramatically in the past year and a half.

June 2011

December 2012
Note the water gauge to the right of the building

I haven't been to the park since December, but I suspect it isn't much better. I may return in June 2013 to see if it is much lower.

EyeFi Cards and the Nikon D600

I have been using EyeFi memory cards since I first saw them at Macworld many many years ago. I probably bought an EyeFi card within the first few months the company put the cards on the market. In total I probably own 4 or 5 cards with capacity going up to the new 16GB card. All of the cards have been reliable and the wireless upload with Geotagging of images had been fantastic.

With the Nikon D5100 I had no problem using the card. It was a little slow to upload to my computer but I didn't mind the wait.  Now with the 24 megapixal D600 I am finding that the wireless download time of a RAW image is just unusably slow. JPEG images upload really fast but RAW is impossible.  With 200+ RAW images taken on a typical shoot, it would take hours and hours to complete the download.

With the slow download, I am finding myself removing the card from the camera and putting it into the iMac's SD card slot and doing a drag and drop so I edit my images.

Just to be clear, I do not think the card itself is the main source of the problem. Home internet connections are great when downloading from the web, but uploads speeds are pretty bad.  The EyeFi card uploads every image to the web and returns it to your local computer and that is just a super slow process.

If anyone has suggestions for getting a faster download of a RAW file from an EyeFi card, let me know. For now, I am probably going to drag and drop my images even if that means the file doesn't get a geotag.

UPDATED 5/5/2013

I recently made a minor change to my wireless network and suddenly I have seen a speed increase in my Eye-Fi transfers.  In the Wireless settings of my Airport Extreme I changed WPA/WPA2 to just WPA and suddenly transfer speeds jumped. Not sure why, but that is the only change I made to my network.  The Eye-Fi card is working fast enough now to use it with the D600 RAW files.

HDR Showdown

If you have been following my blog, you will know I am a big fan of train interior shots.  I have always considered the below train interior image one of my best pictures.  Originally it was taken as a 3 shot bracketed HDR edited with Photomatix.

I have been using Photomatix for my HDR work for over a year but I haven't really been happy with the "softness" that the images produce.  Today I purchased a copy of HDR Efex Pro and re-edited the image.  The difference in quality is stunning. HDR Efex Pro left a brighter, more realistic image that is sharp and clean.  Look at the details in the train ceiling. Look at the richness of the wall colors.

I am hooked. HDR Efex Pro rocks. The editing controls are simple and clear. The detail it produces is fantastic. But at the same time, it is far from perfect. I tried to re-edit a bracketed landscape image from last year and the Photomatix results are fantastic while HDR Efex Pro really made a mess out of the image.  I think both products are great to have, depending on the image type.

I played around with some bracketed image of Vasco Caves and found that Efex Pro did a nice job. You can see the image is slightly sharper.

Photomatix HDR

HDR Efex Pro

Photomatix

HDR Efex Pro

D600 repair status

Just giving an update on my repair.  Nikon received my package on Wednesday. Saturday morning they sent me an email with my service number and details:

1) Covered under warranty. No cost

2) Problem Description from Nikon: • EXPOSURE OFF -- OVEREXPOSURE • CHECK SENSOR - CLN -

3) Category is a B2: Moderate Repair-Major parts replacement.

Wonder what would qualify for major parts replacement?

New Online Store

Yes, I have tried this in the past but I think I finally found a really simple and fast online store for photographers who may not need a fancy custom store.

The store comes from Image Kind, which appears to be the same company that owns CafePress.

Setup is easy. You can login with your Flickr account and you can import your images directly from Flickr.

They have pricing options from free to under $99 a year. You pick your pricing and markup for the items you sell.

So go ahead and check out my store. And of course buy something:

http://rhmimages.imagekind.com/store/

D600 Sensor spots

After 2000 images on my D600 I decided it was time to send it into Nikon to have the sensor professionally cleaned.  The amount of dirt was just out of control and it was becoming too hard to "repair" every spot.

Below is an cropped example of the upper left corner of an enhanced image that shows off the amount of dirt/oil/dust that is stuck to the sensor. If you look at a larger view of the image, you can see at least 15 spots.

I took about 500 more "junk" shots to get the count to 2500, packed up the camera and shipped it off for repair. I hope Nikon is fast.

Best of 2012

I wanted to figure out which of my images would follow into the "Best of 2012" category.  I have shot a lot of crap, but I have also shot a few pictures that I am really happy with.  The following would be the top 15 based on visitor popularity and my own preference. They appear in no specific order.

HDR image of a train from the Western Railway Museum

Residence at Black Diamond Mine regional park

Old Oak at Sycamore Valley regional park

Round Valley regional park

Vasco Caves regional park. Access by guided tour only

Contra Loma regional park

Sunset over the Green

My best editing work of 2012- "Tiny Farm"

Mt. Diablo seen over Marsh Creek

Brushy Peak regional park

Rusty tanker in Brentwood CA. Love the flat tire.

This tree at Black Diamond Regional Park was a finalist for the 2012 calendar

Macro shot at Los Vaqueros Reservoir

Brushy Peak Regional Park

Old building at Black Diamond Regional Park

All washed out

Since upgrading to the D600 I have noticed that many of my landscape shots are super over exposed and washed out. Almost everything involving sky requires me to change the exposure compensation to make strong adjustments to prevent the image from being totally washed out.

Over exposed at f8 in Aperture Priority Mode (unedited raw). Circular Polarizer

Same location but with adjusted exposure at f8. Circular Polarizer (edited)

When using the D5100 I never experienced a single over exposed image. Yes, I am using a totally difference lens but the problem has been pretty crazy.  I do not know if it is because the full frame is more sensitive to different types of light or if something is going on with the D600.  When I have done shooting in low light environments, the exposure has been really great. It's bright light or mixed light that is causing trouble.

I went ahead and ordered a B+W graduated ND filter that will give me a 2 stop difference. Looking forward to seeing if it helps correct the problem. 

That didn't last long

Less then a week ago I created a webstore at Photoshelter and I have already deleted the page.

I spent a long time setting it up but closed the page for a few reasons.

1) After about a week I basically had Zero visitors, even after advertising the page to current followers.
2) I already have 500px to sell large canvas prints
3) I got a call from my credit card company that someone was using my credit card number without authorization to shop at Starbucks. That credit card has only been used in a couple of places in the past month and one of them was at Photoshelter.  I am not saying that Photoshelter was hacked, but with the bank sending me a new credit card, I decided to minimize my risk by not leaving the new number on the site for re-billing each month. So to avoid the hassle, I just closed the page.  Maybe I will open it again one day in the future.

Photo Store

I spent some time trying to decide if I wanted to open up an online store. I looked at SmugMug and Photoshelter and after testing both sites, I found that Photoshelter had a better interface and just seemed easier to setup.

So after a few hours I have created a new online store to sell prints.  I will continue to make changes to the layout and see what kind of traffic it generates.

Stop by and make a purchase.

http://store.rhmimages.com

Going Full

I made that great leap to a full frame camera this week with the purchase of a Nikon D600. Combining that with a Tokina 17-35mm F/4 has been a great mixture for landscape work.

With the jump from the D5100 to D600 I was a little worried that the larger RAW file sizes would slow down my post processing workflow, but my iMac has handled things really well. I don't think I have noticed any difference in file load times or the time it takes to apply file changes.

Overall I was really impressed with how much faster the camera is and how much more detail comes out of each image I was taking.

I haven't had a lot of time to shoot, but I pulled together a few shots with the Tokina and a Nikon 70-300mm.

One of my fav. images of the day. Love the water reflections

Wide Angle Circular Polarizers

I have been doing some research info Circular Polarizers for an 82mm filter thread. I have been trying to decide between a B+W XS-Pro Kaesemann at over $250 and the Marumi DHG at under $100.

I have been using a 77mm Marumi with my Tamron lens for over a year and I have always been happy with the results. The build quality is great and at only 5mm thick it is thinner then the B+W, it has been great at wide angles.

At this point I do not see any advantage to spending the extra money on a B+W when Marumi has great reviews, is reliable and produces great quality images.

Time for an upgrade

I think I have finally made the decision. Time to upgrade to a Nikon D600.  I don't see a D7100 coming any time soon and I don't want to wait. 

One of my challenges was how to deal with a full frame camera and an Ultra Wide Angle lens on a budget. With some more research I found the Tokina 17-35MM F4 FX AF for Nikon which appears to really well liked.

So for now I am looking for a buyer for my D5100 and waiting to see if any special deals come along for the Xmas holiday which could give me a lower D600 price or some type of bundle. 

Why Flickr?

I have seen a few stories over the last few days about how the CEO of Yahoo is not really showing much interest in Flickr. It seems that even the Yahoo homepage redesign may be missing a Flickr button.

I keep using flickr mostly because of the existing community of not only photographers but local groups in my Area. As an example, the East Bay Regional Park District uses Flickr as a way for park visitors to share images. My local city has a flickr group as well.

I find it to be an easy place to share images with the non-photography world in a way that is recognized by many as a "safe" photo site. Name recognition goes a long way. Flickr really has helped me to get exposure as I build my photography portfolio. I also like the basic stats they provide to help me track views.

I have thought about opening an account at smugmug.com but I do not see a "community" the way I do on Flickr to help get exposure for my images.

Do I think Flickr is going to go away? No I don't, but I also don't see it changing any time soon.

For now I will keep using Flickr and 500px.

My new HF Triple Unboxing

I have always been a big fan of the products over at Holdfast Gear. They are hand made in America using some of the best quality materials available.  I previously bought the Ruck Strap and I have loved using it every day.  Today my "Triple in Kodiak Leather" arrived. The size is a little smaller then a typical shoebox.

As always the packing shouts quality.

The straps are well made and the rope is a very nice touch. Fully loaded I have packed it with 9 filters (some 77mm), Nikon charger, 18-55 Nikon lens, air blower and I have room for some more odds and ends.

Overall I love this little bag. Honestly I would love it if Holdfast offered the same bag in an even larger size so I could also fit my Macro tripod slide. Maybe Matthew will offer one in the future (hint). Two of these would fit well on my shelf.

Vanguard Monopod Roundup

I was getting pretty tired of dragging around a bulky tripod or skipping the tripod all together, so I ordered a new monopod and head from Vanguard.

The ballhead comes with 2 quick release mounts and the movement is smooth and responsive. It was an  outstanding purchase.

The foot of the monopod includes a rotating bottom that exposes a spike for stability in soil.  The overall size is pretty manageable and easy to hold while hiking.