The Nikon D4 owners thread =) (1 Viewer)

[Scott Merryfield]

I experienced a "found item" situation last autumn on an airplane that disturbed me a little. I was sitting in an aisle seat when a gentleman a few rows behind me nudged me and pointed to a credit card sitting on the floor in the aisle next to me, asking if it was mine. It was not, but I immediately picked up the credit card and pressed the button for the stewardess to turn it in. She found the rightful owner, who was grateful.
The disturbing part was when we were disembarking from the plane. A woman behind me started praising me way too much for the simple act of turning it in, and actually said the card owner "has a lot of money and you could have bought a lot of expensive things". Now, something like that would never even cross my mind, but it disturbed me that she thought that way. I wonder what would have happened if she had picked up the card instead?
Anyway, back on topic. We want to see some photos with the new camera soon, Sam!

 

[Cees Alons]

Well, we're only filling the time until Sam gets his D4.

I wonder what would have happened if she had picked up the card instead?

Hopefully.... get arrested when trying to use to buy "a lot of expensive things" - after the owner already reported it missing or stolen.

Which brings me to this idea: even if you think you merely lost or mislaid your CC yourself, always report it as probably stolen (e.g. by a pick-pocket)! They will handle it more heavily.

(And, morally, it is stolen if a finder keeps it and illegally tries to use it.)


Cees

 

[Sam Posten]

Yeah, just ask Gizmodo
Still says shipping soon, and either way I won't have it in hand till Friday....

 

[Sam Posten]

The good: my d4 is in NJ waiting for me at my parents house!
The bad: I moved to MD!
The worse: I'm actually in DC.
Making it worth waiting for: luxury box seats for tonight's Caps Rangers Stanley Cup game

 

[Scott Merryfield]

It sure would be nice to have that new camera at the game, Sam.

 

[Sam Posten]

Too late. I'll have it in hand tomorrow I hope!

 

[dmiller68]

I just read this over on Engadget want to give you heads up.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/04/nikon-confirms-woes-with-d4-and-d800/

Appears there are some lockup issues.

 

[Sam Posten]

In my grubby little hands now:
http://thebestcamera.com/uGmp
Put about 500 shots on it so far, will post a few from my non-color corrected Air in a bit.
Loving it so far, machine gun responsive, eats dusk baseball for breakfast

 

[Sam Posten]

Could have used a little more light going into my neice's eyes but other than that I'm pretty happy with the cermonial first shot =)

 

[Cees Alons]

Congrats, Sam.
Very film-like first shot.
Promising.

Keep us informed, please!


Cees

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Have fun learning your new camera, Sam. My new 5D3 showed up yesterday -- earlier than I expected. I plan to spend some time this weekend setting it up and trying it out, too.

 

[Cees Alons]

Scott,

We can't wait!




Cees

 

[Sam Posten]

Awesome Scott, have fun!
Thanks for the kind words guys, it's a keeper!

 

[Sam Posten]

Dusk shots just blow me away. Shots come back in crystal focus with more light in them than my eye is capable of seeing with manageable noise. Will post a few tonight if I can.
Know why the XQD cards are expensive? Because they are worth it. Just bought a second 16GB (the first one from the pusher, er Nikon, was free!) for $128. Blee, but oh man it clears the buffer fast.
Two things struck me:
- On my D300 whenever VR engaged it was very obvious that the frame would suddenly snap steady, which I found satisfying and assuring. On my new D4 I can barely tell its working. The first few frames I had to keep checking that I actually had it turn on. Confirmed that this is normal, and not surprising since the lenses actually are not snapping as tightly as they have to for DX.
-I miss the AF point selector from my D300. If I was shooting a baseball game with specific area AF engaged and spotted a raptor or buzzard in the sky I could quickly hit tat lever two spots and the 51point system would have a better shot of locking in on th birds contrast than area alone. Without this switch I now have to hold down the button on the top of the AF/Manual switch and rotate one of the wheels. Problem is I'm sure I will forget which wheel is which and fumble with toggling between AF-S and AF-C on one wheel and then figure out its the OTHER wheel. On the plus side that wheel does let you roll through: Single, 9, 21, 51 and 51 3D plus a few other modes. All I need is the 1 or 51 tho =)

 

[Scott Merryfield]

AF point selection does sound a little clunky, Sam. That is one of the things I've liked about my last three Canon bodies (40D, 7D and 5D3) -- the joystick can be configured to select AF points without pressing any other buttons. You can also configure which "modes" are present when you scroll through them -- I eliminated the "all AF points" from the scroll list for now on the 5D3, and I think I also eliminated the zone option on my 7D, so I may delete that on the 5D eventually.
Looking forward to seeing some of your low light shots. I was amazed at what I got shooting ISO 12,800 on the 5D3 this weekend.

 

[Sam Posten]

Somehow when one of my coworkers was trying out my D4 it got swapped to 5:4 shooting. Going to have to figure out how that happened, could ruin shots for me in the future if I'm not careful!
Sorry I haven't posted more, shot a ton but haven't had much time to edit.
Here's an iso 6400 shot with no flash, there is some grain but it is very smooth and (to me at least) pleasing.

full (flickr reduced) size image here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kadath/7176472724/sizes/o/in/photostream/
I've actually decided to not keep my NEX-7. The NEX-5 is now my glovebox cam, the D300 is going to get shipped to Melville LI for cleaning and repairs and will be my walkabout paired almost permanently with the 18-200 (which is the only DX lens I will keep) and the D4 will be my workhorse for just about everything serious.
I did pick up a nearly new 70-200 VR2 and a used CF monopod to hold it on, that just came in this morning so no significant time to shoot with it yet but it's pretty fast and sharp =)

 

[Sam Posten]

Found a kickass Eagle's Nest about a mile from the Conowingo Dam thanks to a heads up from a local there as I was shooting a juvey preening herself in the trees. I spent about an hour watching the nest and got to see Momma bring back a fish for her two chicks (both of which have got to be close to learning to fly soon).
Survivor Finale screwed up my plans to edit the pics and video tho, sorry! This will have to tide ya all over until I can get to em tomorrow! This is a frame grab from the video, the DSLR shots will be a lot cleaner and closer:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kadath/7193509608/in/photostream
This was using the 2.7x crop mode on the D4 my new 70-200, so roughly equivalent to a 540mm which gives you an idea how far back we were. I swapped over to the 70-300 and it was even tighter, at about 810mm equiv.

 

[Sam Posten]

Been slammed, no time to edit (damn diablo 3 =) hehe) but will be doing so this weekend.
If you haven't seen this, more confirmation that the full frame video on the D4 is pretty unusable, but the 2.7 mode is pretty great:
http://philipbloom.net/2012/05/13/fullframeshootout/

 

[Ed Moxley]

Found a kickass Eagle's Nest about a mile from the Conowingo Dam thanks to a heads up from a local there as I was shooting a juvey preening herself in the trees. I spent about an hour watching the nest and got to see Momma bring back a fish for her two chicks (both of which have got to be close to learning to fly soon).
Survivor Finale screwed up my plans to edit the pics and video tho, sorry! This will have to tide ya all over until I can get to em tomorrow! This is a frame grab from the video, the DSLR shots will be a lot cleaner and closer:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kadath/7193509608/in/photostream
This was using the 2.7x crop mode on the D4 my new 70-200, so roughly equivalent to a 540mm which gives you an idea how far back we were. I swapped over to the 70-300 and it was even tighter, at about 810mm equiv.

If you like eagles, you might enjoy this site: http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles
The three eaglets should learn to fly soon...........

 

[Sam Posten]

Cool Ed, will check that out when I get home thanks!