Day: July 26, 2012

Thursday (26-July-2012) — New Jersey

Summertime Nature in New Jersey. Sourland Mountain Preserve.

Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Recently there have been a lot of messages on the internet regarding some users of the New Nikon D800/D800e camera having issues with autofocusing. Specifically, that the left autofocus sensors are not focusing accurately. I tested my D800 camera with a test chart — comparing the CAM3500FX contrast based autofocus system with the Live View phase based autofocus system. I did not find any significant difference between right, left, and center contrast based autofocus, all being equivalent to the Live View based focus.

Rather than spending a lot of time testing each lens, I took the camera out to the local Sourland Mountain Preserve and took the following images of a Bullfrog. The images were taken with the D800 camera  and a 500 mm f/4 VRII lens. The lens was mounted on a tripod, and the images taken in “Mirror up” mode to minimize vibration. I was approximately 20 feet away from the bullfrog, which is near the minimum focus distance for this lens. The lens was wide open (f/4) which means a very narrow depth of field in sharp focus. I did the same shot with the head of the frog in the left, center, or right most autofocus sensor, each time re-focusing from infinity. If anything the image from the left sensor was the sharpest. I think the softness for the image from the right sensor is due to vibration.

Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 500 mm f/4 VRII lens (ISO 800, 500 mm, f/4, 1/800 sec). Crop of image taken with the left focus sensor. (David J Mathre)

Focused Using Left Sensor.

Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 500 mm f/4 VRII lens (ISO 800, 500 mm, f/4, 1/800 sec). Crop of image taken with the left focus sensor. (David J Mathre)

Focused Using Left Sensor (100% Crop)

Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 500 mm f/4 VRII lens (ISO 800, 500 mm, f/4, 1/800 sec). Center focus sensor. (David J Mathre)

Focused Using Center Sensor

Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 500 mm f/4 VRII lens (ISO 800, 500 mm, f/4, 1/800 sec). Crop of image taken with the center focus sensor. (David J Mathre)

Focused Using Center Sensor (100% Crop)

Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 500 mm f/4 VRII lens (ISO 800, 500 mm, f/4, 1/800 sec). Right focus sensor. (David J Mathre)

Focused Using Right Sensor

Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 500 mm f/4 VRII lens (ISO 800, 500 mm, f/4, 1/800 sec). Crop of image taken with the Right focus sensor. (David J Mathre)

Focused Using Right Sensor (100% Crop)

Thursday (26-July-2012) — New Jersey

Summertime Nature in New Jersey. Sourland Mountain Preserve.

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly on a Queen Anne’s Lace Bloom at the Sourland Mountain Preserve.

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly on a Queen Anne's Lace Bloom at the Sourland Mountain Preserve in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 500 mm f/4 VRII lens (ISO 800, 500 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec). (David J Mathre)
Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly on a Queen Anne’s Lace Bloom at the Sourland Mountain Preserve in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 500 mm f/4 VRII lens (ISO 800, 500 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec). (David J Mathre)

Ever since I had a third party GPS unit attached to my D3x camera cause an electrical fault within the camera, I have been afraid to use a connected GPS device. However, I did like having the GPS location included with the image metadata. Both Lightroom 4 and View NX2 now have options where GPS data collected by a separate GPS unit can be added to the metadata. This requires that the GPS unit can export the data (via a *.gpx file), and that the time in the camera be set relatively accurately. The programs then compare the time that the image was taken with the location from the GPS file at the same time. This location is then added to the image metadata. I do like the MAP feature within Lightroom 4. One issue with Lightroom 4 is that it will not add the data to RAW image files, but rather create a sidecar file with the location metadata. It will add the data to jpg and DNG image files. View NX2 (since it is a Nikon product) will add the data to the RAW image file. One problem with the View NX2 process is that the Google Map that is connected during the process is in Japanese. Both products require that you are connected to the internet since they use Google Maps.

[bingMap width=600 location=”N40 28.3401 W74 41.6544″ maptype=”AerialWithLabels” zoom=”11″ pp1=”N40 28.3401 W74 41.6544″]

GPS: N40 28.3401 W74 41.6544

Four-Years Ago (26-July-2008) — Colorado

Summertime in Colorado.

Summer Panorama — Cloud and Sky Reflections at a Lake in Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. The air was clear in northern Colorado, and the sky very blue.

Summer Panorama Cloud and Sky Reflections at a Lake in Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. Composite of 3 images taken with a Nikon D3 and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/16, 1/100 sec). (David J Mathre)
Summer Panorama Cloud and Sky Reflections at a Lake in Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. Composite of 3 images taken with a Nikon D3 and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/16, 1/100 sec). (David J Mathre)