Wednesday (21-December-2011) — South Carolina to Florida

Gone to See America. December 2011 Florida Road Trip. Day 2:  South Carolina to Florida.

I set up a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens on a tripod rigged into the passenger seat, and started driving south. The camera was set to take images every 10 seconds, auto ISO, f/2.8, focus manual (infinity), auto shutter speed. I would have to stop and change the battery every hour or so. The images were then used to produce the following time-lapse video of the road trip.

Tuesday (20-December-2011) — New Jersey to South Carolina

Gone to See America. December 2011 Florida Road Trip. Day 1:  New Jersey to South Carolina.

I set up a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens on a tripod rigged into the passenger seat, and started driving south. The camera was set to take images every 10 seconds, auto ISO, f/2.8, focus manual (infinity), auto shutter speed. I would have to stop and change the battery every hour or so. The images were then used to produce the following time-lapse video of the road trip.

Sunday (11-December-2011) — New Jersey

Gone to See New Jersey: Aerial View.

A friend took me on a flight in his single-engine Cessna Scout airplane. We took off at the nearby Princeton Airfield (which is closer to Rocky Hill than Princeton). I was able to see the local high school, the J&J site, my backyard, and the local mine. The mine used to be owned by 3M, but is now owned by Gibraltar Rock. We also saw the Merck Corporate headquarters at Whitehouse station (large hexagon building).  During the flight I took images with my new Nikon 1 V1 camera using the 10-100 mm VR lens. I also took video images of take-off and landings as viewed from the back seat. I made a movie using both time-lapsed images and the video clips.

Midair Shadow while Landing in a Small Airplane at Vansant Airport. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 and 10-100 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 14.4 mm, f/4.8, 1/320 sec). (David J Mathre)
Midair Shadow while Landing in a Small Airplane at Vansant Airport. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 and 10-100 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 14.4 mm, f/4.8, 1/320 sec). (David J Mathre)

Saturday (26-November-2011) — Pennsylvania

Autumn Dawn over the Delaware River.

After being up all night for some night sky images, it looked like there could be some color at dawn. I took the chance and drove to the bridge over the Delaware river between Lambertville, NJ and New Hope, PA. The first image is a panorama of 5 images taken with the Nikon 1 V1 and 10 mm f/2.8 lens using Kolor AutoPano Giga Pro. The next two images are HDR composites using Nik HDR Efex Pro from images taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens. Bottom line, the Nikon 1 V1 may be good, but I am not giving up my Nikon D3x anytime soon.

alt_title. (David J Mathre)
Pano of the Delaware River from the Lambertville – New Hope Bridge at Dawn. Composite of 5 images taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens using Kolor AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)
alt_title. (David J Mathre)
Dawn from the Lambertville – New Hope Bridge over the Delaware River. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/16). HDR composite from 5 images using Nik HDR Efex Pro. (David J Mathre)
alt_title. (David J Mathre)
Dawn from the Lambertville – New Hope Bridge over the Delaware River. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens. (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/16). HDR composite from 5 images using Nik HDR Efex Pro. (David J Mathre)

Thursday (24-November-2011) — Pennsylvania

Autumn in Pennsylvania: New Mirrorless Camera (Nikon 1 V1).

I got up early this morning to see how the new Nikon 1 V1 mirrorless digital camera performs. I spent the night reading the manual to get an idea of how to use the camera. As with anything new, you have to use it to really understand its capabilities. I drove to the Lambertville – New Hope bridge for some early dawn images. The Delaware river was up a little over 4 feet in the last day due to all of the rain we got on Tuesday and Wednesday. Still below flood stage but up more than usual. The following image is an old building in New Hope along the Delaware river, taken from across the river in the Lambertville Station parking lot. The Raw image was converted to jpg using Adobe Lightroom 3.6 RC with no additional processing. Note that I had to upgrade from Lightroom 3.5 to the 3.6 Release Candidate in order to be able to see and process the image with Lightroom. More images to follow, and I need to check out if my other Raw image processing programs are able to handle images from this new camera.

Later in the afternoon, I had a great Thanksgiving dinner with neighbors across the street. (Images next post). Right now the camera is outside to see how it performs capturing Night Sky images.

New Hope from Lambertville across the Delaware River. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 and 10-100 mm Lens (ISO 110, 100 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec) (David J Mathre)
New Hope from Lambertville across the Delaware River. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 and 10-100 mm Lens (ISO 110, 100 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec) (David J Mathre)