Sky High Flowers

ISO 200, 100mm, f/5.6, 1/160 sec

I’ve been using the D800 for a month or two now and one thing I have enjoyed is the full image size of 7360×4912. Because the native image size is so large you can crop and still end up with an image with enough pixels for a decent print/jpeg. There is so much detail in the images it is possible to crop around a small detail and effectively enlarge it. This allows you to get macro detail from a normal lens. All of these images were taken with my 24-120mm f/4 zoom lens.

I didn’t even see this spider on the above dogwood flower until I took the photo and looked at it at 100% crop to check for sharpness! In case you are thinking now that I cropped the above image tightly, it is actually 4457×3303 pixels. Amazing, just amazing.

ISO 200, 58mm, f/6.3, 1/1600, 1144×1112

ISO 400, 120mm, f/6.3, 1/400 sec, 720×733

This above flower is almost a 100% crop and the detail at this level is impressive. The difficulty I had with taking “macro” shots with my 24-120mm zoom lens was dealing with getting the focus plane exactly where I wanted it. When you are trying to focus on a small flower of less than an inch, it is difficult for the AF system to stay focused on that little area.

ISO 800, 120mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, 4004×3951

I love the play of light and shadow of this next flower image. It shows off the dynamic range of the D800 sensor.

ISO 400, 85mm, f/6.3, 1/1250 sec, 1986×1598

This shot of the mushrooms was difficult for me to tell if they were in focus on the lcd screen. The smooth rounded edges along with the smooth surface made contrast detection difficult for the AF system.