In
the sequence at right, I was trying to keep the driver's
helmet centered, but obviously failed. The camera, in
continuous dynamic AF and with almost nothing on which
to focus by the end of the sequence, was nevertheless
able to keep the wing of the car in focus right up to
the end.
I
didn't have sufficient time to fully evaluate the relative
strengths of the four different modes (Single-area AF,
Dynamic-area AF, Group-dynamic AF, and Dynamic-area
AF with closest-subject priority). I stayed with the
two modes that I use most often with the Nikon D1 or
Nikon D100: Single-area and Dynamic-area. I'm not sure
how anything could work much better than these anyway.
Hunting is minimal and lock-on is quick.
At
the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, the performance was just
as good. Under mostly gloomy and rainy conditions, the
Nikon D2H was reliable and accurate. The Nikon D2H has
an improved auto white balance system, with three sensors:
real-time off-imaging, reflected, and a new external
sensor on top of the prism housing. I found this to
work very well as conditions changed from sunny to cloudy
to rainy and back, as well as under mixed artificial
lighting, throughout the course of the weekend.
In
general, I have found the auto WB to work very
well.
According to the manual, its range is from 8000 to
3500K. 3500 is still too high for typical indoor
household
incandescent lighting. The "Incandescent"
mode or "Kelvin" mode should be used in
this case.
The
Nikon D2H performed much better than anything I had
ever experienced with the D1 in terms of AF ability.
With or without the 2x converter on my 400mm lens
(always on a monopod) I could track cars coming straight
at me at nearly 100 mph until the car more than filled
the frame. I'm sure higher closing speeds would not
have been a problem. |
