PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG

I’ll start by explaining where RAW format comes from.

All digital cameras take their original image in some kind of RAW format. RAW files are usually proprietary to the camera manufacturer and sometimes to the specific model of camera. That means, only the camera that takes the picture can understand the information collected on the camera sensors. That information is then translated by means of firmware (software) built into the camera and the usual result is a more user friendly format called JPEG. That is why most cameras produce images with an .jpg extension. JPEG is a compressed format (and has the ability of varying degrees of compression). JPEG has become a fairly universal digital standard for photo images.

What happens is that all digital cameras use firmware to apply various qualities to the RAW format before it is written to the memory card in JPEG form. The firmware in the camera will apply varying degrees of sharpening, varying degrees of saturation, varying degrees of contrast, etc. Most cameras have facilities to change these settings to the photographers liking. The only hint you have of what that photo will look like is the small LCD on your camera. This is usually too small to tell enough to make changes until it is too late. Often the photographer doesn’t want to mess with those changes on the field anyway. So you set your camera based on the last experience. Many people never experiment with changing these settings anyway…. see full article.

May I say why it was not be there earlier? Is that because of technologies barrier or Nikon did not response promptly to the market? And may I say that is the camera I have been waiting for long? That is built with a balanced set of state-of-the-art technologies and convenience design in mind, a merge of D300 body and D3 features, that really looks perfect to me.

I have been busy shooting with my Canon system (Get the Most from Your Camera & Lens Collection) in the past year and my Nikkor lenses collection (Nikon Nikkor Lens Mini-Review) were kept in an electronic dry box with humidity control for a while, now I would expect that is going to change because of the D700, my Nikkor will work in their full wide capabilities (though I already have a DX lens Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED) that is important to me as I do most in wide and ultra wide shots.

In additional to my existing Nikkor primes, I will be interested in adding a general-purpose zoom lens with the D700 into my Nikon collections, this is a native move to preserve my previous investment. The D700 calibration features for separate lens settings and high-iso capabilities means additional convenience and productivities.

I would hope the D700 comes with 16M pixels size, but I realized that Nikon would probably want to keep that cost down with an optimized 12M quality output instead of chasing up the pixel count war.

See full article.

Driving through mountain ranges the world over, you are bound to come across some sight (probably many) which you really feel must be captured on film. At this juncture you are faced with many decisions, not least “how can I do this sight justice?”.

The way I see it there are a few careful descisions which need making.

In this instance my sight was of this mountain, with the lake before it and plenty of other surrounding mountains all incredibly beautiful. Knowing I wanted to take a picture which would show it at its best I had to decide..

1. Which lens would work best
2. How much of the scenery to include
3. Portrait or landscape
4. Will my film/ file size cope?

See full article.

.