Is The New 5D MK2 Really A D300 Killer?

I hadn’t really taken much interest in the new Canon 5D MkII. even after hearing that it had something ridiculous like 23MP and HD Video Capture capabilities, but a close friend of mine (a Nikon user) started raving about it last night so I thought that I should take a closer look.

First of all I watched this video, which granted is YouTube so doesn’t express an accurate representation of quality but you still get a fair (and impressive) idea from it.

Well it seems that a lot of people think that there is no question about it, the D300 is superior and at a better price to boot.

by Steve Keys

But is photography really what the 5D Mk2 is really aiming for? Personally I don’t think so, it seems to be trying to be a video camera every bit as much as a DSLR, not that I particularly have any problem with that – it’s just that I don’t think the two can necassarily be compared very effectively. They’re in a different league completely, the D300 is trying (and succeeding) to be a really cutting edge DSLR that does photography really well, while the 5D Mk2 is really treading new ground and trying to combine a high quality video camera with a really good DSLR.

My personal opinion is that things that are ’squished into one package’ is that they’re never as good, anything stuffed into a mobile phone for example is NEVER as good as it could be on it’s own. I think that the same holds true here and rather than Canon prividing  ‘the best of both worlds’ they’re providing the best of neither.

What do you think? Drop me a line below!

My Ultimate D300 Setup

Well, I say ‘my ultimate’ but I am actually hoping to purchase this setup bit by bit over the coming months and put the old Olympus E500 to bed. Nikon have really started to shine through as the clear market leader over the last couple of years and the D300 just blows everything else out of the water completely. Unfortunately though, switching manufacturers means switching glass too, so I’m going to need at least 2 lenses and a couple of accessories to get going with. (and then a little time for my overdraft to recuperate.)

But what sets of glass are we going to match up to this stunning piece of machinery? Well, we want a couple of lenses that are sharp (very sharp) not too pricey, and are great for a wide range of shooting. IE, no crazy f-stops, and no big telephotos, but really good for shooting women’s spa promotional shots. So, the obvious first purchase for the list is the camera body

Nikon D300 DSLR – £978.70 Enough has been said about his bad boy in the previous post so I won’t ramble on about it any further. In short, it’s the daddy.

Nikon 18-200MM F3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX – £423.23 Superb all round lens really great focal range and a seriously sharp end result to boot, probably one of the the best ’starter’ day to day lenses that you can get for/with the D300.

Nikon 50mm F/1.4D Af Nikkor Lens – £179.95 Cheap and cheerful (relatively) it’s younger brother the 1.8 is really just as capable as this one, but the 1.4 just has that added level of sharpness that I crave.

Nikon 10.5MM F2.8G AF DX IF-ED FISHEYE-NIKKOR – £373.60 Fishy fishy! I LOVE the fisheye effect, though it is arguable one of the most overused effects around, used subtly and used WELL it can really produce some suPERB results.

Nikon SB-800 Speedlight Kit – £233.61 Not much to say here, other than after the first time I used an external flash I swore never to use a built in one ever again. The difference is insane, a speedlight actually makes it look like the room is lit up, not like your subject is being shone in the face with 200watts of white light.

Nikon MB-D10 Multi-Power Battery Pack – £162.00 A must have for the D300 if you want to shoot at 8FPS, the vertical grip allows you to take portrait photographs while holding the camera in a natural position, gives you twice the battery life, and, as  mentioned, lets you get in an extra 2 frames for every second the shutter button is held down.

Lowepro Slingshot 100 – £37.60 And finally… something to carry it all around in! Awsome sling bag, swivels round and gives you side access so that you can get the camera out quicky and easily.

What Camera? Canon, Nikon? Beginner or Advanced?

First thing’s first

Canon or Nikon?

Having used both I can tell you that my preference (easily) is Nikon. As well as being half the price of almost all their Canon counterparts, I’ve also found them to perform better in almost all aspects. Even if the Canon’s were significantly better, their price still just does not justify what you actually get.

Nikon have gone from strength to strength in recent years and the latest range of cameras (D80, D300, D3) is seriously hard to beat.

So let’s take a closer look.

Nikon D80

This is by no means at all a beginner’s camera or an amateur camera in terms of what it’s capable of, however it is most suited to the photography enthusiast who is just learning and getting into it.

The D80 is the oldest of the 3 models that we’ll examine today but it still boasts 10.2MP, 3FPS, and 11 Point AF. It doesn’t have any advanced features like sensor cleaning or (good) noise reduction, but its a really really good all round package.

The Canon equivalent is the 400D, which is regarded by most to be significantly inferior to theD80, which operates far more smoothly and is far easier to operate straight out of the box, as well as for advanced shots.

Nikon D300

This is a ’semi-pro’ camera, and generally the highest spec camera that you will find people using who aren’t professional photographers. The camera has almost all the advanced features of its older brother the D3, but its packed into a smaller package and isn’t quite as refined. For the price tag its the absolute best camera in its class.

Not even a year old, this bad boy boasts some of the most amazing features to ever come out of Nikon, including 12.3MP, 8FPS, and 51 Point AF. It also has full sensor cleaning, and excellent noise reduction, along with a whole host of rave reviews all over the internet.

The Canon equivalent would be the new(ish) 40D which although very good in its own regard, doesn’t really come anywhere close to the D300 in terms of features.

Nikon D3

Well, the chances are that if you’re reading this blog then you’re not planning on buying a D3 – because the D3 is the Nikon flagship pro-model, and the Pro’s don’t read miniscule little publications like this one, they read the magazines for the countless ‘camera of the year’ awards that this body has won. At over £2,800 in price just for the body you’d really need to make a living of photography to be able to justify the cost of owning.

The features of the D3 are incredible, the most notable of which is its full-frame sensor. Which is to say that the digital sensor which captures the images is the same size as a traditional frame on a 35mm strip of film – providing (as you might have guessed) far far higher image quality. Then obviously there’s the addition of 12.1MP, 9FPS, and 51 Point AF.

The Canon equivalent.. well.. there isn’t one really – the closes equivalent (The Canon Flagship model) would be the 1D MKIII, which is sadly, about twice the price and has notoriously buggy AF.

Conclusion

If you’re a beginner, grab the D80. If you’ve been photographing for a while then definitely grab the D300, which is my personal choice of the 3, and on the off chance that you’re a professional, or just rich enough to own half of the available west sussex land for sale then grab the GOD of a camera that is the D3.

Pick A Strange Subject

Photography is an abused art. Its an abused art because everyone thinks that they can do it, I mean, you don’t see 100 Japanese tourists walking around london with paint brushes that they bought duty free on the way over, claiming to be ‘artists’.. do you? And you don’t see everyone and their grandmother pick up a guitar, start strumming really bad sounds, and claim to be a musician..

Yet thousands upon thousands of people buy a new camera each year (duty free or otherwise) and a week later, claim to be photographers.

As a result there are pictures of amateurs trying to be quirky all over the net,

Like this under exposed shot of…. electrical connectors?

Then, when you look a little harder, (lets be honest, a lot harder) on rare occasion you might find a stunning shot of the strange compositions that amatuers fail to capture adequately. When that does happen, it really is a moment of beauty, as in the shots below.

The contrast in this picture is stunning

Same photographer, again, amazing use of colour and contrast

Again, the same photographer, great use of texture this time.

6 More Stunning HDR Shots

The rain clouds are really rolling in this picture, a storm is coming right at the photographer but he stands his ground. Or not, that was probably a little over the top, but an awsome shot all the same.

The sun is what really gets me in this shot, I’m inside working on inventory tracking software, when I could be out there with those stunning rays of yellow streaked across a deep purple sky.

You can imagine that a normal shot of this skyscraper would come pretty close to the dictionary definition of boredom, but in HDR a whole new world is opened up. Colours pop, edges jump, and skies grow restless.

No redneck jokes, this shot of an old broken truck is truly stunning. The composition is perfect and the skyline in the background with the desert in the foreground suits the photograph perfectly.

Another gorgeous picture, the sky, boat, and water all compliment eachother perfectly with the photographer and the land in the foreground offering a very nice overall contrast. Excellent composition in this shot.

This is yet another shot that would be less entertaining to look at than a dead squirrel, but for the fact that its in HDR. The composition here really isnt great, but the sky behind the clock tower really really is.

Tall Ships

Browsing flickr today I came across some great shots of various tall ships, these monsterous beauties really are just that, beautiful, and the various photographers who captured the images below have done a stunning job to portray these floating beasts so amazingly.

Of course the tall ships race 2008 isn’t too far off, so if you’re in Liverpool or London you’ll have the opportunity to actually see these things in person – maybe even take a few of your very own pictures, who knows. I’d love to see a couple of HDR shots of some really big tall ships. I have a bit of a soft spot for HDR stuff at the moment and I think these ships really fit the whole grungy HDR feel perfectly.

HDR Photography

HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography is a relatively new technique brought on by the digital age (isn’t everything these days?). The intention of the technique, which captures three seperate shots at varying exposure levels and combines them into one frame, is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in images from shadows through to highlights.

The way this is achieved is by using a setting found on most modern digital SLR cameras called ‘auto bracketing’ – which enables the user to take three successive frames while the camera automatically adjusts the exposure level between shots.

A program is then used (most famously ‘photomatix’ for mac or pc) to combine the three shots into one picture, displaying all the dynamic ranges in a way so beautiful it can only be compared to a fine swimming pool enclosure on a warm summer’s day.

The results, as I’m sure you’ll agree, are breathtaking

Photo’s courtesy of http://www.smashingmagazine.com