70-200mm with two teleconverters!

70-200mm with two teleconverters!, a photo by ggyy@mitbbs on Flickr.

I gave another try to this combo:
70-200mm VR II + TC-20E III + Kenko Teleplus Pro 300

It seems it works!

70-200mm VR II is the only telephoto lens I have right now, so I don't know how does this compare to a real super telephoto lens, but the image quality looks OK to me.

I still don't know why and when it will work. A few possible things:

1. The light might be different.
2. Whether the VR on 70-200mm is on or off.
3. Shutter speed. A fast shutter is needed, e.g., 1/2000s or so.
4. Focus accuracy.

One day I may try this combo on a solid tripod and using contrast AF.

Nikon D600 photos leaked

Nikon rumors posted some leaked Nikon D600 photos:

http://nikonrumors.com/2012/06/14/first-leaked-nikon-d600-images.aspx/

The D600 looks a lot like the D7000. The MSRP of D7000 is around $1200. So the earlier rumored price of D600, $1500, is actually quite possible.

There are also rumors about the D400. If D600 is priced at $1500, it will make sense for Nikon to release a body priced between $2000-2500. The D400 might be it. But D300s is not that expensive. D400 might be priced at $1700.

Nikon will then maintain two complete lines: on the DX side, D3200, D5200, D400 (I guess D7000 will be replaced by D400); on the FX side, D600, D800, D4.

Of course, all of these are just my guesses.

Nikon launches AF-S Nikkor 24-85mm F3.5-4.5G ED VR and AF-S DX Nikkor 18-300mm F3.5-5.6G ED VR lenses

http://www.nikonusa.com/Nikon-Products/Product/Camera-Lenses/2196/AF-S-DX-NIKKOR-18-300mm-f%252F3.5-5.6G-ED-VR.html
http://www.nikonusa.com/Nikon-Products/Product/Camera-Lenses/2204/AF-S-NIKKOR-24-85mm-f%252F3.5-4.5G-ED-VR.html

In my opinion, both lenses should be very useful.

Studio Photography w. setup & lighting diagram

Studio Photography w. setup & lighting diagram, a set by Stefan Tell on Flickr.

Stefan has a wonderful flickr collection on lighting setup for studio photography.

Olympus E-PL1

I have used this camera for a couple of weeks now, with the newer version of the M.Zuiko14-42mm II R lens and some Nikon manual focus lenses. The camera is capable of producing very sharp pictures, especially at the low ISO (e.g., 200). The JPEG engine is very good. The default white balance setting gives very warm colors, pleasing to the eye (but may not be faithful to reality).

But there are a few things that make this camera really difficult to use:

1. The camera has terrible shutter lag. This makes it extremely difficult to capture moving target (such as a baby). It is hopeless to focus on a child on a swing.

2. Focus is hard. It takes many presses of the buttons to choose the correct focus point. If I let camera chooses the focus point, often it will choose the wrong subject. I am still learning. It has face-detection, but that is very confusing. Sometimes, the camera detects a face, but when I press the shutter release button, the camera will focus on something else.

3. LCD is almost not usable under sun light. I bought a VF-2 electronic viewfinder (price new is $225?! I bought it used). I bought the camera relatively cheap ($150), but with the lens and VF-2, the entire package is close to $500. That is no longer cheap. VF-2 works, but in general, electronic viewfinder does not look as good as the viewfinder on a DSLR.

4. Flare under strong sun light (could be due to the lens, the camera, or both). I bought a lens hood. Which is optional and sells for $25 separately?! I bought a third-party one from eBay. What Olympus is thinking? Anyway, the lens hood cannot eliminate the flare, it could also be focus issue. Hard to pinpoint the cause of this.

5. Not good for indoor when the light is not good (high iso performance is OK, but not as good as DSLRs).

So basically, if everything is right (the weather is greater, sunny, but not too sunny; the subject is not moving; etc.), the camera can produce very sharp and warm colored pictures. But it is very challenging. It might be good for scenic.

Nikon D600?

nikonrumors.com just started a rumor about the next full frame Nikon DSLR--Nikon D600. The speculation are that it will use a 24MP sensor, but it probably will not have an internal focus motor. If this turns out to be true, and the price is around $1500. That will be an instant hit.

My feeling is that the speculations about the sensor and other specs are reasonable, but I doubt it will be that cheap. My guess is that the price will be around $2000. With D600, Nikon's FF line will be complete, D4 ($6000), D800 ($3000), D600 ($1500-2000).

Of course, it will be great if it turns out to be $1500 or less. It is not totally impossible, given there is rumor that the sensor will be made by another supplier (not Sony). If you think about it, D5100's price is only $700, if Nikon put a FF sensor into D5100's body, $1500 is a reasonable price. It is just we have never seen FF body that cheap before. That will be a game changer.

On the DX side, Nikon just released the entry level D3200 ($700 with kit lens). Nikon will update at least one of D5100 or D7000, maybe both (then the D5200 and D7100 will be priced at $900 and $1200?). Or better, Nikon can replace D7000 with a D400. Then the DX line will also be very appealing.

The only problem is whether Nikon can actually keep up with producing 6 DSLRs as well as the DCs and J1/V1.

I am not a real photographer, but I like to read camera reviews/tests. Comparing specs on paper is a lot of fun :).

70-200mm VR II + TC-20E III + Kenko Teleplus Pro 300

70-200mm VR II + TC-20E III + Kenko Teleplus Pro 300, a photo by ggyy@mitbbs on Flickr.

It seems that even with TC-20E III and on a DX crop sensor, the 70-200mm VR II is not long enough for shooting birds in the tree. (I've heard you actually don't want to shoot birds in trees. You want to bait them (?) so that you can get closer.)

Anyway, I thought how to further increase the "reach". I cannot mount 70-300mm VR on TC-20E III and I don't have other telephoto lenses. Then I remembered that I had a Kenko Teleplus Pro 300. So I stacked the TC-20E III  on it, with 70-200mm VR II on TC-20E III.

It worked! Sure, the focus hunted, but eventually it locked. If you click the above image and go to flickr, you can see the original picture. I think it is quite impressive. I turned off CA correction in Capture NX 2, only adjusted the exposure (+2) and curve, since the photo was much underexposed.

I was only able to try it indoor after dark today. Tomorrow, I can test it outside. But the above photo was pretty decent. I shot it handheld at 1/25s and F/5.6 (effetively, F/8?, Kenko 1.4 does not do the conversion, TC-20E III does).

(I'd since tried a couple of times during day time, but has not got a decent picture with this combination.)

Mirrorless cameras? Not there yet.

A Grandma, a photo by ggyy@mitbbs on Flickr. Taken with Panasonic DMC G3 with Nikon Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 lens.

I owned a Panasonic G3 briefly. At that time, I was looking for a camera that can take good videos. I had a Panasonic LX3 and a Nikon D700. The D700 does not do video and LX3's video file size is huge (though the image quality of the video is not too bad). After some research, I bought the G3, but I was not satisfied with the IQ of either the photos or the videos. The 14-42mm lens is quite decent (the camera does a lot of automatic corrections to remove CA and distortion), but the dynamic range of the sensor is poor (as compared to DSLR), I could only get good results during a bright day, but the scene cannot be too contrasty. If you think about it, there are not many situations where it will work well.

When I bought it, the G3 was quite expensive. With the lens, it's almost as expensive as or more expensive than a Nikon D5100 body (I don't remember the exact prices). I had a 18-70mm lens, and  other Nikon full frame lenses. After some further research, I decided to give D5100 a try. In short, I liked the D5100 much more than the G3. I then sold my G3. That was my first encounter of the mirrorless camera.

There are a lot to like about D5100, the focus speed (for shooting photos), image quality, the high-resolution swirl screen, the battery life, and the fact that I already had many Nikon lenses and didn't have to invest another set of lenses (I did buy a 70-300mm VR with the D5100). The reason that I did not choose D5100 the first time was because I read that the focus speed during video shooting is slow and D5100 does not track moving subject very well. These are true, but the G3 is not much better. I had realized that refocusing during video is not a good idea. The focus will go back and force (that is how contrast-detection autofocus works). Many say GH2 is very good, but it's too pricey. Besides, I need a good camera that shoots videos not a video camera that takes pictures. D5100 with 18-70mm is bigger and heavier than G3 with a 14-42mm. But when I cannot put either one in a pocket, does it matter? D5100 feels much more comfortable in my hand. One thing I really like about D5100 is the video file size. The file size is roughly 1MB per second. So a minute of video is about 60MB. I haven't seen much discussion of this point, but that to me is an ideal file size.

There are a few things that the mirrorless cameras do better than a DSLR. One of them is focusing manual focus lenses. It allows very precise focus, the above photo was taken with the G3 and a Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 manual focus lens. But it was hard to stabilize the camera due to the higher pixel counts (effectively higher magnification factor). I don't quite remember, but I might have put the camera on a table when taking the above picture.

Another tempting idea is that the Olympus mirrorless cameras have shake reduction build into the camera body which supposedly will help any lens mounted on them. I have recently bought a Olympus E-PL1, but the same limitations (noise level, dynamic range, lens choice, etc.) of the G3 still apply (but E-PL1 is not as expensive). If all I want to do is using manual focus lenses, probably, a full frame mirrorless camera (with shake reduction) will be the best choice. But that will not happen anytime soon.

With the introduction of Nikon V1 and the FT1 adaptor. at least I don't have to worry too much about lens choice. It is also tempting to think that we can use mirrorless camera as a way to increase "reach". I read that some people use a V1 with a 70-300mm VR lens for birding. It's tempting, but I have my doubt. I will wait for V1 to drop price or for V2 to come out.

Quick Thoughts about Nikon J1/V1

They are interesting cameras and have many innovative features: phase-detection AF, unprecedented high data throughput. Most importantly, it can take regular sized Nikon lenses through an adaptor.

However, there are a few things that I don't like:

Both cameras are pricey. V1 is more expensive than Nikon D5100, which I believe takes much better pictures. (I don't own a Nikon V1, but the difference in the sensor sizes is obvious.)

The J1 does not have a viewfinder. That will limit its usability in outdoor situations.

The V1 does not have swirl screen. That is a significant drawback. I currently have a Nikon D5100. One of the reasons that I bought it instead of the D7000 is because it has a swirl (articulated) screen. (The other reason is the price.)

Rainbow Bridge

Rainbow Bridge, a photo by ggyy@mitbbs on Flickr.

Taken with Nikon D700 and 25-50mm F/4 AI at (~30mm?) and F/8.

Processed in Capture NX, exposure +0.5, contrast +20, shadow protection +30.

There seems to be some interest in this old lens. I will try to post some photos to show what it is capable of. If you click the image and follow the link to flickr, you can view the original sized version of this photo. (If you use ie, make sure to set the zoom to 100%, other the image may appear blurry.)

I have noticed that Nikon D700 is not picky on lenses. It takes very sharp images with almost any lens I put on it---at least at F/8. In this sense, D700 is not particularly good at exposing flaws of lenses.

Olympus E-PL1 + Nikon 70-300mm VR @ 300mm

Olympus E-PL1 + Nikon 70-300mm @ 300mm, a photo by ggyy@mitbbs on Flickr.

One reason I bought the Olympus E-PL1 is that it has shake reduction. To see how effective the shake reduction is, I mounted an Nikon 70-300mm VR lens on it and shoot at 300mm (that is the only 300mm I have)--handheld. I guess the shake reduction is working, otherwise the result would have been more blurred.

BUT it is extremely difficult to focus, since unlike Nikon's lens VR, the body shake reduction does not seem tostablize the image when focusing.

Nikon 700 and 70-200mm VR II

DSC_3141, a photo by ggyy@mitbbs on Flickr.

Taken with Nikon 700 and 70-200mm VR II. F/8, ISO 400, 1/1000s.

Taken with Nikon D700 and AF-S 28-300mm VR lens

DSC_2166, a photo by ggyy@mitbbs on Flickr.

Testing blogging flickr photos.

Nikon Announced Mirrorless Interchangable Lens Camers Nikon 1 J1/V1

Advanced Camera with Interchangeable Lens Nikon 1 J1 / V1:
http://www.nikon.com/news/2011/0921_digital_01.htm

Line up:

http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/acil/index.htm

http://chsvimg.nikon.com/lineup/acil/pdf/Nikon1_Lineup.pdf

Mount Adapter FT1:

http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/acil/accessories/mount_adapter_ft1/

You can use DX and FX lenses on these new cameras!

Bad experience with cancelling AT&T's iPad data plan

(This post has nothing to do with photo gear)

The short version: I called AT&T to cancel the data plan last month, and today when I checked my credit card bill and the $25 charge was still there. I called AT&T again today, talked to 4 customer supports, and was told that I cannot get the refund because there was data usage on my account (many days after I called to cancel the plan).

The long version

I ordered AT&T’s data plan for my ipad 2 in July (on the 10^th). On August 9^th, I received an email at work saying that the data plan has been automatically renewed. After reading the fine prints,

“…SHOULD YOU CANCEL AUTOMATIC RENEWAL AFTER WE HAVE CHARGED YOUR CARD BUT BEFORE THE AUTOMATIC RENEWAL PERIOD IS SET TO BEGIN (E.G. WE CHARGED YOUR CREDIT CARD FOR THE RENEWAL AT 7 AM ET FOR A 9 AM ET AUTO RENEWAL AND YOU NOTIFIED US TO CANCEL THE AUTOMATIC RENEWAL AT 8 AM ET), PLEASE CONTACT AT&T CUSTOMER SERVICE TO PROCESS A CREDIT FOR THE AUTOMATIC RENEWAL.”

I realized that AT&T has already charged me. If I cancel my plan, I need to contact customer service to get a refund (that is how I understood it). I have wifi at home and work and did not see the data plan too useful, so I canceled the plan when I got home and called AT&T’s customer service right away.  A guy helped me over the phone. He didn’t seem to know stuff. I had to explain to him what’s going on. Finally, he said he has cancelled the data plan and I will get the refund (I don’t remember what he said exactly, but those were what I asked, he seemed to understand and said he has done those). The same day, I received a confirmation email saying that “AT&T Plan Automatic Renewal Cancelled”.

That’s a month ago. Today I received another email from AT&T saying that AT&T plan expires soon. I was puzzled, since I had asked to cancel the plan and shouldn’t still have a plan expiring. I went online to check my credit card statement and found no refund. So I was unhappy and called AT&T again. That started a frustrating experience.

The first CS doesn’t seem to know stuff. After a long while, he said there was a 25 dollar credit on my account and I have a new bill yesterday (to my surprise!). I asked them why AT&T cannot refund me 25 dollars and he just said because there is a bill on my account. I asked him why there is a new bill and he couldn’t explain. After a long while, he gave up and transferred me to another department.

This time the CS explained to me, they cannot gave me refund because there is data usage (after I called to cancel the plan). I said how could there be more data usage if I called to cancel the plan. Then he said I canceled the “Automatic Renewal” but not the data plan. This is like a trap! I said I stopped the plan on my ipad and called AT&T to cancel the data plan, what more can I do to cancel a plan. If I did all those and the plan was not canceled, it is obviously AT&T’s fault! He just kept repeating the same thing “we cannot refund you because there was data usage” and was not interested in my complaints.

So I said I wanted to talk to a manager. After a while, I was transferred to a manager. She just repeated what the second CS said. I asked her when I used the data, she mentioned a few dates, like August 27^th. At this point, I was very unhappy. I said I called to cancel the plan on August 9^th, why there was data usage on August 27^th. She repeated that I cancelled the “automatic renewal” but not the data plan, and my account is still not closed. I said, “No. I called to cancel the data plan and I was told the plan was cancelled by the CS and I stopped the plan on my iPad.”

To be honest, I don’t remember what that CS said exactly on the day I first called. I don’t know whether he really understood my question. But an ordinary customer has to assume the CS knows what they are doing, right? Now the AT&T CSs kept blaming me for not doing my part.

I asked the third CS “How should a customer cancel a data plan then? If I ordered the service through my iPad, I should be able to stop it from the iPad, right?” She said she can cancel my account for me. I asked her to do that, but I was not satisfied. Why I have to call to get my plan cancelled when I can order the service from the ipad.  And I insist that we still need to discuss the refund. I was very confused at this point. You have an account and a plan and automatic renewal thing, it seems you have to cancel all of these to get the plan canceled? Why AT&T wants to make things so complicated? Does it intentionally set traps for customers?

Finally, I was transferred to a 4^th CS. He tried to repeat what the 2^nd and 3^rd CS said. He said it is like you go into a restaurant, if you order some food and take a bite then you have to pay. I said no, it is like you are trying to deliver pizza (or milk) to my doorstep every day and keep sending me bills. And I cannot cancel your service because the rules are so sophisticated that they are impossible to follow. I then said, this is what spammers do, AT&T is a big company and shouldn’t do such things to make money. I said when I cancelled Comcast’s service; I don’t need to worry about this. Comcast computed the partial credit and sent it my new address. He then just said something like “I understand, but I cannot refund your money”. I said, ah, it is just like AT&T just robbed me 25 dollars and now it says I will not give it back to you, what can you do?

Finally, he suggested that I file a dispute with my bank. I probably will do that. At the end, I just asked him, “Do you use any cable services or phone services or anything? Do you ever have to cancel a service? What you will do in such situations?” To give him credit, he did ask whether I have other AT&T accounts and mentioned he probably can credit me to those accounts. But fortunately, I have no other AT&T accounts and would not like to have one.

I know it is not really worth my time to spend an hour on the phone (and more time writing this blog) for this 25 dollars, but I just couldn’t believe AT&T is so arrogant and rude to their customers. I admitted that there might things that I did not follow correctly, but I believe my understanding of the tech stuff is “above average”, if I couldn’t figure it out how to cancel the plan correctly, probably there are many more out there having the similar troubles. We customers sometimes do naughty things, such buying stuff when there is price error, but other companies (such as Dell, Amazon) handled things gracefully. I cannot image AT&T can get away with such terrible policies and support.

More generally, there are a few things that are just not right:

For example, this whole automatic renewal thing (not limited to AT&T) is simply a spam. The only reason for it to exist to give companies legal rights to spam their customers. Otherwise, a company could ask their customers whether they want to get their service renewed when they actually attempt to use it.

I guess I could also blame Apple (if I dare) for not making cancel a data plan possible or straightforward directly from the iPad.

Nikon D5100 price dropped again at Amazon.com

The body only price today is $686.85.

The price with a 18-55 kit lens is $761.92.

If you buy the camera together with the 70-300mm VR lens, you get an additional $200 off.

Where is Nikon D400?

Nikon did not announce D400 on 08/24. Sony made a few exciting announcements (see www.dpreview.com). It is reasonable to speculate that Nikon D400 will use Sony A77's 24MP sensor. Nikon may just get hold of the sensor, since understandably Sony want to keep it exclusively for A77 for a while. If so, Nikon may need at least another half year to tune this sensor. I guess the earliest time that Nikon can announce D400 is ealry next year.

Nikon D7000 Digital-SLR Camera Recipient of EISA Award!

http://www.nikon.com/news/2011/0822_eisa_award_01.htm

The half life of DSLR price

Nikon DSLR D5100 ’s price dropped from $800 to $730 in four months, at this rate, assuming an exponential decay in price, its price will reach $400 in 20 months (this is, of course, a rough estimate).

I (gu)estimate that the price of a consumer level camera body has a half life of about two years. The prices of pro level bodies have longer half lives of three to five years.

What does this tell us? It can help us decide shall we buy the camera now or wait a little longer?

If the price has a half life of 2 years (consumer level bodies), then we expect the price to decrease by 10% approximately every 4 months, or the price will decrease 2.8% each month.

If the price has a half life of 5 years (pro bodies), then we expect the price to decrease by 10% approximately every 9 months! The price will drop just over 1% each month!

For example, the current price of D3S is approximately $5000, if I am willing to spend $2500, I may be able to afford a Nikon D3S in 5 years (it is possible that it will be discontinued long before that time or I may get it earlier if I consider second-hand market). If I just want to wait for one year, I expect the price to be around $4200 by then: if I saw that price before that time, it is probably a good deal (e.g., this may happen around Thanksgiving or Christmas)!

My Nikon gear.

I currently own

• Nikon D200 body
• Nikon FM2n body
• Nikon EL2 body
• AF Nikkor 24mm f/2.8D
• AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8
• AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED
• AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED(PDF:61KB)

the legion of Nikkor AI/AIS lenses:

• AI Zoom-Nikkor 25-50mm f/4
• AI Zoom-Nikkor 50-135mm f/3.5S
• AI Nikkor 24mm f/2.8S
• AI Nikkor 28mm f/2S
• AI Nikkor 28mm f/2.8S
• AI Nikkor 35 mm f/2S
• AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.4
• AI Nikkor 105 mm f/2.5S
• AI Nikkor 200mm f/4

accessories

• Nikon close-up NO. 4T, NO. 3T
• Canon 500D
• Kenko 1.4x
• Nikon BR-2A and BR-3
• Micro coupler
• Extension tubes
• Light meters
• Bogen Manfrotto 3021BPro Tripod

I previously owned:

• Nikon D50 body
• Nikon N80 body
• AF Zoom-Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6G
• AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G
• AI Nikkor 135mm f/2.8
• AI Nikkor 180 mm f/2.8 ED
• AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED
• AF-S VR Zooom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED

On my near-term wishlist

• Nikon D700
• Nikon 28-105mm F/3.5-4.5D
• Nikon 28-70mm F/3.5-4.5D
• Nikon 28-85mm F/3.5-4.5D (I really want to see which of these cheap lenses works best on a D700.)

and more Nikon manual focus AI AIS lenses

• AI Nikkor 20mm f/3.5S
• AI Nikkor 20mm f/2.8S

On my longer-term wishlist

• An equivalent to Canon's 24-105mm F/4L USM IS.
• An equivalent to Canon's 70-200mm F/4L USM IS.
• I guess I will just buy a FF Canon body to use the above two lenses, when I have enough money and if Nikon still does not have thest two lenses.
• Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 (I am not sure I really need a f/2.8 lenses)
• Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 (I am not sure I still like wide-angle lenses)

On my dreamlist

• Nikon D-F6 body, a full frame SLR body with exchangable digital back (Not yet available and far from affordable :) Isn't it a waste to upgrate a great camera body every few years? It will be great if I only need to upgrade the digital back (at a lower cost, of course).

Useful Nikon links (for my own benefit)

Keywords: Nikon, Nikkor, Lens, AF, AI, AIs, AI/s, AFS, AF-S, DX, zoom, 18mm, 20mm, 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 105mm, 180mm, 200m, f1.4, f1.8, f2, f2.5, f2.8, f3.5, f4, ED, IF, VR