1/125 sec at f/4.0; iso 640; 24mm
So I sold my D7000 and three of my lenses the 18-200 VR, the 35mm 1.8G and the 50mm 1.8 D to my friend David for a really good deal so he could get into photography. To replace the gear I sold I purchased a D800 and a 50mm 1.8G. I already had the 24-120mm f/4 VR and the 85mm F1.8G.
I was anxious to try out my new camera and to teach David some things so we met sunday afternoon at Lythia Park in Ashland, OR.
It was a rainy overcast day. In fact it rained on us for most of the afternoon lightly. The rain actually added to the photos with rain drops on leaves and the muted lighting.
1/80 sec at f/ 6.3; iso 640; 120mm
One of the things I noticed right away with the D800, being a Fx camera, is how much narrower the depth of field is at a given aperture over a cropped sensor camera. I haven’t done any scientific measurements, but it felt about 4 stops narrower. What I mean is that with the D7000 I would get a certain depth of field with f/4.0 and with the D800 I felt I got the same look from f/ 6.3. Today I took some shots to show the effect of aperture for some teaching opportunity.
1/1000 sec at f /1.8 iso 200 50mm 1/250 sec at f/3.5 iso 200 50mm
1/100 sec at f /5.6 iso 200 50mm
As you look at this series of photographs with each increase in the aperture more of the flower came into focus and we gained detail in the leaves in the background.
The other thing that is instructive is to pay attention to the shutter speed. As the aperture increased the shutter speed has to slow down to keep the same exposure.
The iso performance of the D800 is amazing also. Taking shots at iso 640 had as much detail and color as I’m use to at iso 100.
One thing I noticed with shooting with my 24-120mm lens is that it was back focusing slightly. I needed to dial in some AF fine tune adjustment. Unfortunately I don’t have a lens align so I had to eyeball it and it seemed to get pretty accurate focus with -3 dialed in. My 50mm and my 85mm seemed to be spot on with focusing and needed no AF fine tuning.
Because of this I have been considering buying a lens align system to check my lenses.
So needless to say I am enjoying my D800 very much. I plan on doing a full review on the camera in the near future to give you my take on the camera with the features I like etc.
Here are some of the photos I took at Lythia Park for you to enjoy!
