Nikon D3s is out - ISO 100 000 !!!! video and cleaning

Nikon has blown through the Iso barrier with the D3s, so I guess Sony has those back-thinned Exmor sensors running off the fab. This bodes well for the miniature in-camera stabilised Sony Alpha 900 series, whose only bad to date was noise at higher ISO. We can also expect some interesting video features in the next Sony.

Which leaves us with three questions:

- How will the existing Nikon AF work in low light? Maybe people are expected to use liveview to focus manually in really low light?

- When is the new D3x coming? I want one!

- What will Canon do? They seem to be on the way down ...

Edmund

Capture NX2 Overview

Chris Morton has posted a slideshow overview of Nikon's Capture NX2. I recommend it as this software has a weird workflow; ayone who knows how to speed up NX2 on a Mac should also leave me a comment, it's unusably slow on my 15" Macbook Pro.

DIY Focus Adjustment for Nikon Bodies

If you are getting images that aren't quite sharp, you might profit from the camera's micro-adjustment. Typically, focus behavior can vary from lens to lens and from body to body.

For each AF lens, the latest Nikon cameras, like the Canons can memorize a slight front or back focus offset, which will be consistently applied to that lens whenever it's mounted Checking focus, and eventually changing the focus offset carries no risk; you can always revert to a zero offset.

There's a special contraption called LensAlign designed to help with focus adjustment, but I like the Moiré trick described by Komar's interference autofocus FAQ and or Derek Cooper's page which consists of locking your camera down on a tripod, aimed at an LCD display of a test image (linked from his site). Just remember that focus will be best when Moiré is maximal. You want a really ugly, angry LiveView display, not a smooth one. To make the focus even more accurate move the camera back a bit or zoom to wide while shooting the screen.

Nikon's most beautiful models

Nikon's D3/D3x site displays some exquisitely fetishistic renderings of the bodies of Nikon's most beautiful models. Including some naked ones as above. But of course, you're going to go there for the very informative articles I'm linking to below.

• Nomenclature. The names and functions of every control on these cameras.
  
• D3/D3x feature comparison. See samples imagery at various ISO, Listen to the motor drives.
• Nikon D3 and D3x brochures and wallpapers for your own computer.
  

Polaroid Pogo: The Tiniest Printer

I've put up a review of the Polaroid Pogo pocket printer on a companion blog. I tried it on the D3x and it works fine, except one cannot crop images, and one needs to supply one's own cable. Dumbing down those huge D3x pictures to the 3x2 inch size provides an entertaining reflection on how images retain so much information even when most of the content is thrown away by resizing.

Camera checklist and setup for snapshot use

Following these steps will make sure your camera is ready to fire when you get wherever you're going. If you're getting middle-aged like me you might want to tape a card with points 1-4 inside the lid of your kit-bag. To make step (2) work you also need a card to which you've saved your own settings. Of course, you're free to import this text into a text editor and alter it. Do send me your suggestions.

1. Check there is a memory card in the camera, check it is already backed up, and erase it.
2. OPTIONAL: If the state of the camera is unknown, reset it. Load in your own settings from a card.
3. Set exposure to P mode, and ISO to 1600 (800 on D300) so you get good shots in all normal lighting conditions. You can also elect to set a lower base ISO, provided you activate the AutoIso feature. Set Raw+Jpeg quality if you use Raw.
4. Check the front autofocus lever is set to Continuous mode (C), and the back AF selector area is the Big Blob.

1. Check the images on the memory card. and make sure the images are already on your computer. Then erase it. You want to do that before you go out and shoot, because later if you run out of space after starting on half-full card you'd have to erase the old images one by one. If in doubt about the battery, take the charger along. It's usually easier to get some more memory cards than a charger.

2. Reset the camera to its default factory state, and load a card with your own best settings. That way, you won't get have trouble with strange messed-up settings.

3. Setting up ISO to 1600 and Exposure to P mode is a good catch all which will provide action and shake-stopping shutter speed and some depth of filed in most light conditions. Jpeg image quality is very good on the Pro Nikons, but Raw is the best.

4. Continuous AF on the Big Blob setting should take care of snapshot focus, even if you need to hand the camera to someone else. You'll probably change the camera to something more specific when you start shooting carefully.

Kick Off!

Hi Folks! This is my new site for Pro Nikon D-series digital camera users. I started a D3x blog, but then noticed that due to the shared controls between models, most of what I'm writing equally well covers the D3, D3x, D700, and D300.