The
First Days with the Nikon D70: Turning on the Heat
by Andreas Voigt
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TURNING
ON THE HEAT
On
that morning in Death Valley I managed to take some "nice"
pictures with the 17-35mm wide angle zoom showing my hand holding
the remote in front of the camera. It would be convenient to
have an additional sensor on the back of the body.
The
sun is rising above the horizon and starts illuminating the
mountains far across the valley to the west.
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Death
Valley |
The
subdued paste like colors of the landscape before dawn are being
replaced by more intense vibrant colors. It is always a marvelous
experience when the light of the golden hour is working its
magic. Actually, "golden hour" is a vast overstatement
at that time of the year in Death Valley.
In
early May, the sun rises fast above the horizon and the
golden glow last merely minutes. I have to work quickly
to capture those special moments of the early morning
desert landscape. Especially the strong side lighting
which created long and deep shadows and enhances the three
dimensional texture of the landscape surrounding Manly
Beacon at Zabriskie Point.
The
right gear is essential to keep up with the fast changing
light conditions. A quick release system is a must. I
use a Markins M10 ballhead with quick release shoe. In
combination with the Kirk L-bracket I can quickly change
between horizontal and vertical composition. The M10 has
a drop notch for tilting the camera to a vertical position,
but that would shift the center of gravity to a less stable
setup. With the L-bracket the center of gravity remains
in the center.
Before
I could use the Nikkor 70-200mm AF-S VR in my system,
I had to make its quick release ready and I replaced the
original Nikon tripod foot with the Kirk LP-45 foot/quick
release lens plate.
The
short morning and the great distances in Death Valley
allow me to capture only one location at sunrise. Nevertheless
I head south to Badwater -the lowest point in the United
States. 282 feet below sea level. The light will not be
perfect anymore but still more pleasing than the harsh
light later in the day. |
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To
my surprise the location has changed dramatically since I have
been there a few years ago. The National Park management has
built a pier to protect the fragile salt crust. In addition,
the small 'lake' has turned into nothing more than a puddle.
No more shots with the reflections of the mountains in the water
-the pier would be in the way anyhow.
I
decide to take a couple of panorama shots.
That is the situation where I first notice the D70's incredible
speed. For panorama pictures I rotate and capture several
frames within a few seconds.
I shoot compressed raw format and the D70 is always ready
to take the next picture. In similar situations with my
D100 using uncompressed raw file format I had to wait
for a few seconds once in a while. I tried compressed
raw format on the D100 only once and avoided it like the
plague from that moment on. It takes forever to write
the buffer to the card.
Talking
about writing pictures from the buffer to the card. In
my first weeks with the D100 I lost several pictures becasue
the D100 is switched off, only the current picture being
written to the card will be completed. All remaining pictures
in the buffer will be lost. The D70's write speed is so
fast that I have not lost a single picture so far. |
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A
few days later: The D70 has replaced the D100 as main body.
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