Home / Nikon Reviews

Nikon D700 Review

Aug
20
2011
August 20, 2011
By 133 Comments

Overview

While the photography community is impatiently waiting for a Nikon D700 replacement announcement, I decided to write a review of the Nikon D700 DSLR that I have been shooting with for the past three years. Not sure why it took me so long to write a review of my favorite camera…I guess I focused so much on reviewing new lenses and cameras, that the gear I use every day for my photography has been just sitting at the end of my long “to-do” list. Within the next few weeks I am planning to temporarily reverse the list, start from the bottom and write about other gear that I currently use and used in the past and share my subjective opinion about it.

Nikon D700

As you might have already seen on “Our Gear” page, I call the Nikon D700 “the best camera in the world”. Now before rotten tomatoes start flying my way from Canon, Sony, Pentax, Fuji, Leica, Phase One, Hasselblad, Mamiya and other brand fans out there, let me state that this is my opinion that is solely based on my needs. Let me explain. Yes, there are superb Nikon cameras with many more pixels and speed, and there are $40K cameras out there that can shoot 200 Megapixel frames. But when I look at a camera, I weigh in what is important for me first, then pay close attention to the overall price to performance ratio, instead of focusing on a particular feature. The Nikon D700 does not have many megapixels, or high speed, or high dynamic range or movie recording capabilities. In fact, if you look at its bare specs and compare it to all other cameras on the market today, it would probably fall into the “average” category.

Sunrise

Click here to download the above photograph in a large wallpaper format (2560×1600).

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Nikon D5100 Review

Aug
12
2011
August 12, 2011
By 95 Comments

Overview

This is an in-depth review of the Nikon D5100 DSLR, based on my two month experience with the camera. Marketed as an upper-entry-level DSLR, the Nikon D5100 is a major upgrade to the older Nikon D5000. It has a larger and a more enhanced swivel LCD screen and the same remarkable sensor as the semi-professional Nikon D7000. In addition to the above changes, the Nikon D5100 also lost some weight, making it lighter and more compact than the Nikon D5000. In this review, I will provide a detailed analysis of the Nikon D5100 and compare it against the Nikon D3100, D5000, D90 and the current Nikon D7000 DSLRs.

Nikon D5100

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Nikon 50mm f/1.8G Review

Jul
31
2011
July 31, 2011
By 225 Comments

Overview

This is an in-depth review of the new, much anticipated Nikon 50mm f/1.8G prime lens that was announced in April of 2011. The lens was kindly provided by B&H – the largest photo reseller in the world that I use more than any other to buy my photography gear.

Nikon 50mm f/1.8G

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Our Gear Page

Jun
30
2011
June 30, 2011
By 5 Comments

You might have noticed that the secondary navigation menu of our site now contains “Our Gear” page. I created it for four reasons: a) our readers constantly ask both Lola and I about what camera gear we use, b) I want to centralize all questions regarding camera gear to one single page, because replying to comments in many different articles is becoming unmanageable, c) some readers just want to see a quick review of a product rather than reading my long full camera and lens reviews and d) I can receive and test more gear when you buy through affiliate links on our site and “Our Gear” page contains links to our affiliates. Please bear in mind that the amount of money we receive from our affiliate program is very little – we typically give it back to our readers through our giveaways and various contests. That’s because we do not run any advertising and post very few links to external websites to not annoy our readers. Perhaps in the future, if the revenue from the links on our site grows, we might be able to use that money to pay for hosting and other expenses. As for now, I am just asking you guys to buy from our links to be able to keep the partnership with our affiliates and sponsors like B&H.

As for “Our Gear” page, while it has been there for several months now, I only had some text links to what we use, without much info on the gear. Today I updated the page with some short reviews of the camera gear we are using and finished the “Cameras”, “Camera Accessories”, “Lenses” and “Teleconverters” sections. I will soon update the page with a lot more content and provide more information and links to other tools we use, so please check back the page later.

If you have any questions about camera or computer gear, please ask them in the gear page rather than other articles. I will be checking this page more often and replying to your comments as soon as I can. Also, if you have been sending some case studies to me, please be patient, as I just have not had much time to work on them.

I am currently finishing up with the Nikon 24mm f/3.5D PC-E lens review and will soon start working on reviewing the new Nikon 50mm f/1.8G lens, along with the Nikon D5100 DSLR. Stay tuned!

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Nikon TC-20E III Review

Jun
20
2011
June 20, 2011
By 86 Comments

Overview

This is an in-depth review of the new Nikon TC-20E III teleconverter that was released in December of 2009, along with an updated version of the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II lens. The Nikon TC-20E III is a major update to the existing Nikon TC-20E II teleconverter, sporting a brand new optical design with an aspherical element, which delivers better performance with many specialty telephoto lenses. The purpose of teleconverters is to increase the focal length of lenses, in other words to get closer to subjects, and the TC-20E III is the biggest and the longest teleconverter manufactured by Nikon – it doubles the focal length of a lens. While this teleconverter works with any professional Nikon lens that can take teleconverters, it is specifically designed to work with fast prime lenses with an aperture of f/2.8 and larger. The Nikon TC-20E III is targeted at sports, wildlife and other types of telephoto photography where the photographer cannot physically approach subjects.

Nikon TC-20E III

It was not easy to obtain the Nikon TC-20E III because of high demand/short supply and after waiting for a few weeks, I decided to just rent it for a couple of weeks instead. My objective was to try the Nikon TC-20E III specifically with the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II and with the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II to see how it truly performs in an outdoor environment when photographing nature. It is one thing to shoot test charts with a lens sitting on a tripod, and another to get out and do some real shooting. Some lenses look great on paper and on test charts, but cannot perform equally well when used in an outdoor environment, especially with fast-moving subjects like birds. The primary reason is autofocus, the performance of which depends on many different factors. Teleconverters generally negatively impact autofocus performance, due to a considerable loss of light and contrast and the 2x TC is the worst in this regard. Adding a teleconverter slows down lenses and the Nikon TC-20E III slows down by two full stops. What this means, is that when the teleconverter is mounted on an f/2.8 lens, it slows down to f/5.6 and as you may know, autofocus performance on small apertures beyond f/5.6 is unreliable even in broad daylight conditions. Nikon clearly points out that autofocus does not work beyond f/5.6, so if you have an f/4.0 lens, forget about autofocus – you will have to resort to manual focus.

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Nikon 35mm f/1.4G Review

Apr
26
2011
April 26, 2011
By 66 Comments

Overview

This is an in-depth review of the new professional Nikon 35mm f/1.4G prime lens that was announced in September of 2010. The lens was kindly provided by B&H – the largest photo reseller in the world that I use more than any other to buy my photography gear.

Nikon 35mm f/1.4G

The Nikon 35mm f/1.4G is a professional-grade lens for enthusiasts and professionals that need the highest quality optics of a fixed wide-angle lens with a large aperture of f/1.4 for low-light situations and shallow depth of field to isolate subjects from the background, making it an ideal candidate for many types of photography, including portrait, wedding, landscape and astrophotography. The lens incorporates the latest optical technology destined for both FX and DX sensors (equivalent of approx 52.5mm on DX), yielding amazing clarity and contrast in most challenging lighting conditions. The Nikon 35mm f/1.4G follows the release of the excellent Nikon 24mm f/1.4G lens, having similar lens characteristics. Although the lens exterior and construction seem to be almost identical, the Nikon 35mm f/1.4G has a simpler optical design when compared to the Nikon 24mm f/1.4G (more on this below). The focal length of 35mm is a good compromise between ultra-wide angle lenses and standard lenses – it is not too wide or too long. As for the lens interior and optics, Nikon integrated the latest technology into this lens, including AF-S silent-wave focus motor and Rear Focus (to eliminate front barrel rotation and lens length changes) and enhanced the optical formula of the lens by incorporating Nano crystal coating and Super Integrated Coating (SIC) to reduce ghosting and flares. The lens is of high quality build, similar to other AF-S Nikon primes and is sealed against dust and tough weather conditions. Thanks to the 9-blade diaphragm, the Nikon 35mm f/1.4G renders background highlights in a round, circular shape and the maximum aperture of f/1.4 makes this lens a great portrait lens for both images and video, especially in low-light conditions.

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Nikon 35mm f/1.4G Image Samples

Mar
28
2011
March 28, 2011
By 9 Comments

Lola and I just got back from a trip to Utah, where I had a chance to test the Nikon 35mm f/1.4G lens, along with other 35mm lenses from Zeiss and Nikon. The last 3-4 weeks have been super busy for both of us and on top of that, our whole family has been sick for the last two weeks. Out of everyone in the family, I got a special present – a really nasty virus that put me to bed for two weeks! I don’t remember the last time I had anything like this. High fever with a really bad back pain. If it wasn’t for Lola, who kept on making me eat and drink plenty of fluids (including hot tea/milk with honey), I would have been in bed for a month!

Due to the above, I have not been able to post much on the blog lately. And the number of comments that I need to respond to have been piling up, don’t even know how I will be able manage several hundred comments. My apologies to all those who are waiting for my response!

Anyway, back to Nikkor 35mm f/1.4G – I loved this lens! And darn, I loved the Zeiss f/2.0, too. Never thought I would fall in love with a manual focus lens, but more on that later – in the upcoming Nikon 35mm f/1.4G lens review. I have a pretty good feel for the Nikon 35mm and I am glad that I was able to test it for portraits/weddings (see images below) and also for landscape photography (our trip to Utah), so the review should be fairly detailed and complete (a Zeiss 35mm f/2.0 review will follow).

Here are two image samples from the wedding that Lola and I shot a couple of weeks ago. Please note that the images are simply extracted out of Lightroom without any post-processing (except sharpening). Other image samples at different apertures with some bokeh will be provided in the upcoming review.

Sample #1

Click here to download the full size version of the above image.

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Nikon D3100 Review

Mar
20
2011
March 20, 2011
By 16 Comments

Overview

This long overdue review of the Nikon D3100 is based on my 30 day experience with the camera. I get plenty of comments and emails from our readers asking about the D3100 and whether they should buy it over the older Nikon D3000 and Nikon D5000 cameras, so I decided to post a review of the camera with some sample images and comparisons with other Nikon DSLRs to hopefully make it easier for our readers to make the right choice. Please note that the sample images provided below are “test” shots that have not been heavily modified in post-processing.

Nikon D3100

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Nikon D7000 Review

Feb
8
2011
February 8, 2011
By 418 Comments

Overview

This long overdue review of the Nikon D7000 is based on my 3+ month experience with multiple samples of the camera. Due to my busy schedule and a very high demand on the D7000, I was not able to obtain a copy earlier to test. I actually thought it was a good thing to wait, because I did not want to get one from the initial production (which seemed to be rushed, resulting in lots of bad samples out there). Ever since the Nikon D7000 was released, I have been getting many questions from current and potential buyers, asking about backfocus issues, overexposed images, bad video quality, autofocus problems, image quality at low and high ISOs and hot pixels. For this review, I made a note to myself to test the camera against each of the listed potential problems and report on my findings.

Nikon D7000

1) Nikon D7000 Specifications

Main Features:

  1. High Resolution 16.2 MP DX-format CMOS sensor
  2. High Speed 6 frames per second continuous shooting up to 100 shots
  3. 2,016-pixel RGB (3D Color Matrix) sensor
  4. Pentaprism Optical Viewfinder with approx. 100% frame coverage and approx. 0.94x magnification
  5. Twin SD Card Slots with SD, SDHC and SDXC memory card compatibility
  6. Built-in Speedlight flash with i-TTL and Wireless Commander support
  7. Optional MB-D11 multi-power pack
  8. Two User Definable Settings (U1, U2) on the Mode Selector Dial
  9. Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait and Landscape Picture Controls
  10. Virtual Horizon Graphic Indicator
  11. Full 1080p HD Movie capability with Full Time Autofocus and external stereo microphone jack (up to 20 minutes of recording time)
  12. Dynamic ISO range from 100 to 6400 expandable to 25,600 (Hi2)
  13. Customizable 39 point AF System with nine center cross-type sensors
  14. Magnesium-alloy top/rear covers and weather and dust sealing
  15. 150,000 cycle-rated shutter system
  16. 3 Inch, 921,000-dot Super-Density LCD Monitor with 170 degree viewing
  17. Fast Start-Up time of 0.13 sec and 50ms Shutter Lag
  18. Compact EN-EL15 Battery (850+ shots)
  19. Built-in HDMI Connection
  20. Active D-Lighting for enhancing details in shadows and highlights
  21. Portrait, Landscape, Child, Sports, Close-up or Night Portrait Scene Modes

Mt Sneffels in Snow

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Upcoming Lens Tests and Reviews

Nov
14
2010
November 14, 2010
By 47 Comments

Despite some challenges with my schedule, I am putting plenty of effort on writing more gear reviews. In between reviews, I will be posting various howtos and guides, along with some images from this year. The shooting season is pretty much over (it has been very cold and snowy in Denver during the last few weeks) and I am not really planning on going anywhere until spring of next year. This will hopefully give me more time for writing and working on some stuff for Lola (she wants a personal blog and a separate portfolio website for her business).

In terms of upcoming product reviews, here is my current list of lenses to write about:

  1. Nikon 35mm f/1.8G
  2. Nikon 50mm f/1.4D
  3. Nikon 50mm f/1.4G
  4. Nikon 85mm f/1.4D
  5. Nikon 105mm f/2.8G VR
  6. Nikon 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G VR
  7. Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR
  8. Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G VR
  9. Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II
  10. Nikon 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G VR
  11. Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G VR
  12. Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR
  13. Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 VR
  14. Nikon TC-14E II
  15. Nikon TC-17E II
  16. Nikon TC-20E III

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