Nikon

Sparkle.

Inspiration, Nikon, Nikon D810, Portrait, Q&A, Sigma 35mm f/1.4 ART, Teaching point

There’s something about the way the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 ART renders… photos from it just sparkle, for lack of a better word.

At this point, I think I may even prefer it over the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 ART, but I haven’t shot enough with either to draw any definite conclusions (though the fact that I might be favouring a 35 over a 50 is saying something, given I’ve traditionally been a 50 shooter).

Either way, both of these Sigma ART lenses are phenomenal.  I can’t wait until springtime to get outside in good light and really play with them.

—Peter.

Sparkle

The Nikon Df sensor.

Inspiration, Nikon, Nikon Df, Q&A, Teaching point, Voigtländer 40mm f/2 SL-II

After about a week of photographing with the Nikon Df, I am pleased to say that its CMOS sensor appears to come the closest to behaving like the CCD sensor I’ve long respected in the Leica M9.

I can actually pull more shadow detail out of the files (which came as a complete surprise) and the highlight recovery is also superior (not a surprise).

Of course, the Df is not a rangefinder (so if you’re like me, and like to manually focus, that makes things more difficult… also, I miss seeing the scene “outside of the frame” that a rangefinder offers) and the stable of lenses for the Nikon F-mount are larger and generally not as well corrected as the Leica equivalents (having said that, the Voigtländer 40mm f/2 SL-II I’m using is very competent and compact).

For micro-contrast and tonality, CCD wins every time.

On the other hand, the Df has rock-solid reliable electronic guts (with robust processing power), does not feel like a beta product, and has an external ISO dial (I love this).

More photos to follow…

—Peter.