FX vs. DX compairason

Back to more interesting stuff. Since I have been a slacker, I am going to borrow a little tid-bit from the Digital Photography School blog. If you haven’t been to this site or blog make a must see on your daily surf trip. I have picked up quite a few tips. I even find myself checking the site out and searcher out techniques and how to’s.

DX, full-frame, APS-C, FX, crop factor, 24×36, image circle. Confused yet? Good. With the new Nikon D700 hitting store shelves and the Canon 5D MkII imminent, now is a good time to clear the air on the whole sensor size thing.

Back in the film days, the rectangle that captured the image on a standard SLR (the film) was one size: 24mm x 36mm. That was all there was to it, and nobody really gave it a second thought.

Every camera manufacturer is slightly different; models from the same manufacturer are even different. People usually refer to a sensor’s size by its “crop factor.” That’s the number you use to find the 35mm equivalent of a given lens. It’s just like taking the middle of an image and throwing away the outside edges. If a sensor is 24mm x 36mm, then there is no crop factor, since it covers the same area as 35mm film.

Nikon has two different sensor sizes: full frame (FX) and 1.5x (DX). Click... to read more.

Forgiveness...

Forgive me bloggers for I have sinned. It has been sixteen days since my last blog entry. I have ha really good excuse. This time frame corresponds to the time that I buckled down and seriously studying for my NASD/FINRA General Securities Principal Exam (S-24). For all Firm Managers and Firm Principals’ it is a SEC mandated test. I am neither a manager nor a principal, but the “Firm” wanted me to take the exam. I took it, I passed it, now what? I guess, I sit and wait for something to happen. Only time will tell.

Last Saturday after my Exam I took the SF MUNI to Powell St. From there I took the Bus 27B and headed into the Mission Dist. of San Francisco. I was dropped off at Bryant and 18th. The corner where Calumet Photographic store is located. I walked in looking for inexpensive studio/portrait lighting. (Blog for another day) While I was there they had one of the new Nikon D700 out for buys to play with. It was the first D700 they had taken possession of, and everyone drooling over it, including the staff.

Back in October I blogged about Nikons Double D’s. Here is the rundown. The D3 is the top of the spear for Nikon. A full frame (FX) sensor for professionals. The D300 is Nikon’s next greatest camera second only to Nikon’s D3. The D300 is not a full frame sensor, but is the DX sensor with a conversion factor of 1.5x to achieve the 35mm equivalent.

Thump… did your hear that? It was the other shoe dropping. Nikon at the end of July, to the unexpected surprise of the photographic community released the D700. It has everything the D3 has but in the D300 body. That’s right! It’s a full frame (FX) sensor in the smaller lighter weight body of the D300. The D700 even offers features that the D3 doesn’t have like the self cleaning sensor. If you have ever had a dirty dusty filter… What a pain in the patoot.

The biggest difference between the D3 and the D700 is the price tag. The D3 is an astronomical $4,999.99; the D700 is a Mountainous $2,999.99 not bad for a full frame camera. Then their is the D300. I think you can pick up a D300 for a mere $1,649.99 (body only).
Here is a list to Click… for reviews of the D700:
Click… here
1. The Nikonians
2. dpreview

3. Nikon USA
4. Scott Kelby

Next… Click… for the (FX) full frame vs. (DX) crop sensors.

Where's Matt...?

While Magellan (wife) was going through my blog she clicked the link on the front which took her to another random blog. On this blog where some very interesting items. One of which was a video that she shared with me that was called "Where in the Hell is Matt?" It was a You Tube video that had over 11 million views. Here is the latest work by Matt. As Magellan said "It makes me smile" The video and the link to Matt's page are below. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did...

To visit Matt's web page Click... Here.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Contraption...

Sometimes one stumbles upon something that is truly amazing. This (text and video) were sent to me in an email. Please read the text first then watch the video. The mechanically inclined will really enjoy this. __________________________________________________________________________________ This is just way TOO cool a video. You have to see it to believe it (but be sure to first read the text intro below).

If you thought that the people who set up a room full of dominoes to have them knocked over later was amazing, you haven't seen anything yet. There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in these images. Everything that you see happened in real time exactly as you see it.

The recording required 606 takes and in the first 605 takes there always was something, usually of minor importance, that didn't work. It was necessary for the recording team to install the set-up time after time and it took several weeks working day and night to achieve this effect.

The re cording cost 6 million dollars and it took 3 months to finish, including the engineering design of the sequence. The duration of the video is only 2 minutes, but every time that Honda shows the commercial on British television, they make enough money to support any of us for the rest of our lives. However, this commercial has turned out to be the most displayed in the history of the Internet. Honda execs think that it will pay for itself simply because of the free showings (Honda is not paying one cent for you to see it)

When Honda senior execs viewed it, they immediately approved it without hesitation-including costs. There are only six Honda Accords built by hand in the whole world, and to the horror of Honda engineers, the recording team disassembled two of them for the recording. Everything you see in the sequence (besides the walls, floor, ramp and untouched Honda Accord) is part of those two automobi les.

The voice is that of Garrison Keiller. The commercial was so well received by Honda execs when they saw it, that their first comment was how amazing the computer graphics were. They almost fell out of their chairs when told that the recording was real without any graphics manipulation.

By the way, about the wind shield wipers in the new Honda Accords, they are sensitive to water and designed to start working as soon as they get wet.

Lightroom® Too...

As everyone knows in the photography community Tuesday was the big release of Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2. I have spent the last few days poking, prodding and testing the new software. I still haven’t completed my under-the-hood check-out, but so far I like what I see.

One of the things that stand out is the layout. In the develop module is where I have seen the biggest layout change. Most of the tools i.e. crop, red eye adjustments are now in the left menu bar. Before they were positioned under the image workspace.

Also, a major new item is the ability to make adjustments to localized areas of a photograph vs. the entire photo. You can also burn a dodge your images. Previous this was not a feature of Lightroom® I, only in Adobe® Photoshop®.

Side Bar…

Tuesday, I spoke to Thomas Hawk (Flickr) of the infamous Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection. We discussed the new Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2. Thomas has been a big user of Adobe® Bridge®. Over the year he has a developed a great workflow in Bridge® that has work very well for him. In a previous conversation month back, I asked if he was using Lightroom® I? He had said he tested the software, and that Bridge was a better fit for his workflow.

However, Tuesday produced a different response from Thomas Hawk. He said he really liked the new Lightroom® 2, and was going to start using this Photo management software, now instead of Adobe® Bridge®.

Thomas Hawk has put up his own review of the new software which you can read it here. Click… Here. I will check back with him at a later date to see how he still feels about Lightroom® 2 or find out if he has gone back to Adobe® Bridge®. “The Proof is in the Pudding”.

That’s it for me. Have a nice weekend. Keep you focus sharp and you lens clean.