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| Tuxedo Thunder - The only way to dress for a bike race. |
I recently picked up a Nikon D2X a few weeks ago. A Nikon D2X you might ask, what the hell is that? Well, click the link and you can read all about it or check the review on DP Review.
Basically this thing sold for around $5,000 in 2005 and you can pick one up for between $600 and $800 depending on where you look. I have been pretty happy with the group at www.fredmiranda.com and purchased one from a seller.
This thing is built like a brick you know what. I think I could easily drop it off a building, throw it from my car or hit it with a sledgehammer and it would still function perfectly.
I have had this thought about older technology and digital and am beginning to think that staying behind one generation is not a bad thing. Yes I have the D700 and the D7000 and am REALLY happy with those images. But for some reason I thought I would like to try something a bit old school, okay maybe 6 years old isn't really old school, but in digital it is.
You have to live within the constraints of the technology and that is fine for me. The reviews state that the images from this get a bit noisy above ISO 800 but I intend to use this as an outdoor camera. It is perfect for that purpose. It is weatherproof and at 5 frames per second is adequate for the bicycle racing images I had in mind for this past weekend.
The Chicago Cyclocross was held by Montrose Beach this past Sunday and I brought out the D2X and a Nikkor 180mm F2.8D. Yep, another older school lens. The 180mm is light, sharp and fast. I think I had one of my higher hit rates with this combination of camera and lens than anything I have shot with. I even committed the sin of not reading up on the various focusing options the camera provides yet I still had a great capture rate.
When I arrived at the event I pulled out my trusty Sekonic L-398A Studio Deluxe III and took an incident light reading of 1/250 at F4. Since the day was overcast and the light so consistent it made sense to get a standard exposure reading. And the light never changed so I was assured of a consistent exposure regardless of where I pointed the camera. Additionally, the camera's auto-exposure meter won't be thrown off by changes in clothing color or strong backlighting.
After a few test shots I modified my shutter speed and F-Step a bit based on the histograms I was seeing in the camera and opened it up to 1/200 at F2.8. You are reviewing your histograms and not trusting the image you see in the LCD, right?! Remember that you want to expose to the right with digital, meaning that you want to be more over-exposed than under-exposed as digital is more sensitive to hightlights than shadows.
I was a little concerned about shooting at F2.8 in a sporting event as I was shooting straight ahead at the cyclists who were coming right at me. This is very challenging for auto-focus cameras as the focus is measured before I press the button and the riders are still in motion. I thought about dropping shutter speed to 1/100 but then I was concerned about stopping the action and I had that old rule of shooting a shutter speed no less than your focal length. Since I was shooting a 180mm lens, I wanted to stay close to 1/200. Nonetheless, although some images were not razor sharp and F4 would probably have been better, my results were more than satisfactory:
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| Straight ahead auto-focus is not easy, especially at F2.8. |
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| This is the reason to take an incident meter reading. The cameras exposure meter and the scene's strong backlight would completely underexposed the riders. |
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| Even off center Nikon's autofocus captured a nice sharp image. |
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| Had to add this one. Anyone this brave deserves all the attention they can get. |
Thanks for reading,
Arn
