Nikon
D2X Review:
First Look
by Jerry Burnell
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Nikon
D2x: Before Dawn
The
next morning I was up before dawn to shoot some street scenes
without people. Our hotel was right behind this church and I
had scouted out places I wanted to be. At this point I decided
not to even put film in my Nikon F6 for now. One camera body,
one lens, a tripod, an extra battery and a spare disk, I almost
felt naked without the extra bodies for different films, a stack
of color balancing filters, etc. that I usually carry. A block
and a half down from our hotel I set up my Gitzo G1328 with
Arca Swiss B2 head again and Click:
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Nikon
D2X with 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom Nikkor
Hand
held @ 32mm, f/3.8, 1/2.5 second, ISO 200, available light
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It
was before dawn and, with the signage and mixed lighting,
I was amazed at how well the new Nikon D2X came out, set on
Auto White balance. It held, quite well, the subtle colors
and texture of the paints.
Then,
back to Jackson Square, I set it on bracket, 3 exposures
+ & - 1 EV and mirror lock up. The first release
locks up the mirror and the second one releases the
shutter. A very quick and wonderful new feature when
one needs the extra stability without mirror slap vibration.
(The new Mirror Lock Up is now so easy that it is useful
for almost all static shots) Click:
42mm 1.5 sec f/4.5
Mercury
vapor lights in the foreground, high intensity incandescents
on the church, blue and magenta lighting from the just
emerging sunrise clouds, and…the church came out white.
Six minuets before six, the original NEF was crisp enough
to read the clock a block away. It was hard to believe
again. When I went back and checked this was the +1
EV shot. The direct meter reading without bracketing
would have been preferred by some. |
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We
went on to another Plantation. They allowed tripods so I took
mine. I had no problems with “locking on” with the nine new
cross-focusing centers in any of the interior, exterior, daytime
or night pictures.
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simply de-saturated it and upped the contrast very slightly
in Photoshop. The full frame NEF has grain in the wood
of the piano and detail in every thing but the windows
outside.
The
dynamic range of even this crude B&W is quite nice.
(The slight square vignette is software created; an
old trick from one of Ansel’s books) |
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Product
Photography with the Nikon D2x
After
arriving back home, I decided today to see if the camera
would actually do what I bought it for and pay for it’s
self. I am a jeweler by trade and I do all my own advertising
shots so here it is: electronic flash, tented light
box, 1/60 sec. @ f29, 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED AF Zoom
Micro Nikkor.
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This image has been “massaged” in Photoshop and Corel PhotoPaint.
Pictures from any digital camera, most of the time, can be
slightly tweaked to make them even better. The Nikon D2X produced
the soft subtle gradation of yellows and browns in the gold
of this picture that were very difficult to fully achieve
in the past. To be able to get the saturation without harsh
contrast and yet hold the wide gamut of vivid colors needed
to correctly portray a piece of jewelry like this one is now
easy. In the past it required very large pieces of film and
hours of set up to achieve these nuances. This was a twenty-minute
shot from start to printed-paper. I sold my Sinar P2 4X5 to
get the Nikon D2X. I think it works. Hours saved, are “money
in the bank” for most photographers.
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