Shooters.

Wer meine unterschiedlichen Testberichte in meinem Blog gelesen hat, weiß, dass ich das Konzept spiegelloser, kleiner Systemkameras toll finde. Ich war seit dem Umstieg auf Digitalkameras mit keiner einzigen digitalen Kompaktkamera wirklich glücklich. Die Erlösung kam erst, als Olympus seine E-P1 vorstellte. Der verhältnismäßig große Micro Four Thirds Sensor lieferte eine im Vergleich zu Kompaktkameras hervorragende Bildqualität. Weiter gesteigert wurde das spiegellose Fotovergnügen mit Sensoren im APS-C-Format, die in Sony, Samsung, Ricoh und Leica-Modellen zu finden waren.

Gespannt warteten viele Menschen auf etwaige Modelle von Canon oder Nikon. Im September 2011 stellte Nikon schließlich sien erstes spiegelloses Kamerasystem vor: Nikon 1. Zwei Kameras kamen simultan auf den Markt, die günstige J1 und die etwas teurere V1 mit elektronischem Sucher, Magnesiumgehäuse und einigen anderen Verbesserungen gegenüber der J1.

Ganz ehrlich: ich war enttäuscht. Die Kameras waren und sind zwar vollgepackt mit technologischen Raffinessen. Aber im Inneren arbeitet ein Sensor, der kleiner ist, als Micro Four Thirds und dadurch kein gutes Rauschverhalten versprach. Zudem ist die Tiefenschärfe bei kleinen Sensoren größer. So kann – insbesondere mit den vorgestellten Objektiven – kaum freigestellt werden.

Es brauchte einige Zeit, bis ich den Schock überwunden hatte, dass sich Nikon mit einer solchen Klein-Sensorkamera die spiegellose Blöße gibt, dass ich erst im Jänner dieses Jahres erstmals zu einer Testkamera griff.

Ich erspare euch den wissenschaftliche Test und zeige lieber, was aus Nikons 1en rauszuholen ist.

Wer schnell wissen will, was die Kameras gut und schlecht machen – hier meine persönlichen Ergebnisse aus einem normalen Fotografen-Alltag auf einen Blick:

Super ist:

• Ich habe sowohl die J1 wie auch die V1 getestet und beide haben fotografisch Spaß gemacht, das heißt, ich habe sie gerne in die Hand genommen und abgedrückt.
• Die J1 hatte ich in silber und nach ca. 650 Aufnahmen hatte der Lack schon einige Schönheitsfehler durch Fingernagelkratzer. Ich empfehle hier also entweder auf dunkle Modelle oder auf die viel wertigere V1 zurückzugreifen.
• Der Autofokus der beiden Kameras ist ein riesen Spaß. Er ist schnell und arbeitet sehr exakt.
• Die Belichtungsmessung arbeitet ausgezeichnet, teilweise besser, als ich es von DSLR-Kameras gewohnt bin.
• Die JPG-Qualität ist hervorragend mit tollen Farben.
• Das Rauschen bei höheren ISO-Werten ist geringer als gedacht.
• Mit Nikons FT1 Objektivadapter für herkömmliche Nikon DSLR-Objektive erschließt sich mit den 1en eine ungeahnte Tele-Welt.

Nicht so super ist:

• Der kleine Sensor, da kaum freigestellt werden kann. Da bräuchte es hochlichtstarke Objektive, um für ausreichend Unschärfe im Vorder- oder Hintergrund zu sorgen. Wriklich funktionieren tut dies nur im Tele-Bereich mit lichtstarken AF-Objektiven.
• Es fehlt ein klassischer Blitzschuh, um herkömmliche Blitze an den 1en verwenden zu können (die J1 hat zwar einen eingebauten Blitz, verzichtet dafür aber gänzlich auf einen Blitzschuh für externe Blitze).
• Auch wenn das Rauschen bei höheren ISO-Werten nicht so schlimm ist, wie gedacht, so geht doch der Dynamikumfang zurück. Die 1en sind (insbesondere auch mit den im Moment erhältlichen Objektiven) keine wirklichen Available Light Kameras.

Im Folgenden möchte ich euch einige Fotos zeigen, die mit den 1en entstanden sind. Alle Bilder wurden in RAW aufgenommen und in Lightroom 3 bzw. 4 bearbeitet. Folgende Objektive habe ich an den 1en verwendet:

• Nikon 1, 10/2.8
• Nikon 1, 10-30/3.5-5.6 VR
• Nikon AF-D 35/2 mittels FT1 Adapter (kein Autofokus)
• Nikon Micro AF-G 40/2.8 mittels FT1 Adapter
• Nikon AF-G 50/1.8 mittels FT1 Adapter
• Nikon AF 85/1.8 mittels FT1 Adapter (kein Autofokus)
• Nikon AF-D 80-200/2.8 ED mittels FT1 Adapter (kein Autofokus)

Richtig Spaß hatte ich mit dem günstigen und exzellenten Nikon AF-G 50/1.8, das bei einem Verlängerungsfaktor von 2,7 zu einem 135mm-Objektiv mit Lichtstärke 1.8 wird. Der AF funktioniert über den FT1-Adapter ausreichend schnell und freistellen funktioniert ausgesprochen gut.

Nun aber zu den Bildern (ab dem roten Kamin-Foto sind alle mit dem Nikon FT1-Adapter gemacht):

I had a great time yesterday with the newest Nikon cameras at my local camera store! Nikon was there and showed the new Nikon D4 and D800 / D800E. We weren’t allowed to take pictures home, because the cameras were pre-production models. But I can already assure you, these two cameras are awesome in many ways (keeping image quality out of focus for now): The bodies are traditionally Nikon. They feel great in your hand.

The biggest surprise I guess was the light weight of the D800. Put some light lenses on it – like the also new Nikon AF-S 85/1.8G – and you’ll have much less weight hanging around your neck than with the D700 and the old 85/1.8. Believe me you literally can feel the 130g less of this combo.

The D4 of course is the workhorse you’re waiting for. We were allowed to shoot some sample images there and even in the preproduction model ISO 50.000 looks awesome. All the rest seems to be amazing as it already was with the D3s.

Fact is, I really want to have both: The D800 for landscape, some of the more detail challenging jobs and as a light alternative. The D4 for everything else. On the other hand, maybe I’ll just get myself a used D3s, since I don’t care for video.

When Nikon introduced their Nikon 1 cameras, I was terribly disappointed. The small sensor, the high price.

Like two weeks ago I got my hands on a Nikon J1 and I have used it ever since. The experience so far is quite enjoyable – not necessarily on an IQ-level, but in terms of having fun.

I will give you more insights in the next days. For now I’d like to direct you to my flickr Nikon J1 album.

Wolfgang

Hi folks,

I know, it’s a shame I’ve been off this blog for such a long time.
Today I’m getting back to you with some quick full size samples of the brand new Tamron 18-200/3.5-6.3 Di III VC lens for Sony’s Nex E-mount.

You can look at them here!

They are all high ISO, ’cause I didn’t have a tripod at hand and it was getting sort of dark.

Cheers and merry Christmas to everyone!

Wolfgang

I wish you all a wonderful New Year. I’d like to leave you with a sweep panorama out of the Sony Nex-3 of the last sunset 2010, just a couple of hours ago (click to enlarge). See you in 2011. Thanks for reading!

Wolfgang

Had some real fun with the Panasonic GH2 and the excellent Panasonic 20/1.7 today – unfortunately only for 5 minutes or so, since a friend of mine handed it to me. It feels great in your hand, the EVF is quite good, even if I’m no EVF-fan. It’s quick, AF is awesome, noise seems quite well controlled for a micro 4/3 camera (at least at ISO 400). I hope to get a chance to use it more extensively after Christmas. Here are four shots to give you an impression. All from RAW, processed in Lightroom 3 (click to enlarge).

Another year goes by. There was hardly a day, when I didn’t take at least one picture. Looking through all the images I realise, it’s been quite a European year. Didn’t cross an ocean in the last 365 days physically and didn’t miss it.
Looking through the images I also realise, how many cameras I’ve been using this year. Some were cool (actually most of them were), some I couldn’t really relate to or get warm with and with some I fell in love as far as love for cameras can go.

I haven’t been writing a lot recently as you know. The reason is, after all that testing and reviewing I needed to take care of my photography instead of cameras and lenses. I found myself doing test-images and forgetting about the primary goal of this blog: the everyday, reallife-use of photographic equipment. I’ve been actually testing quite a few cameras and lenses in the meantime, but with an emphasis rather on their fun-factor than on their high ISO-performance or technical image quality. I’ll give you my impressions of such things as the Canon EOS 60D or the Sony SLT A55 in the next days.

For now I’d like to give you a short summary of which cameras caught my heart or mind and which ones didn’t. (Read on after the break!) weiter lesen

Some things are still best be made with a DSLR. In order to add IQ to the great mirrorless cameras on the market all using APS-C sensors or smaller (except the M9, which isn’t affordable for me), I decided to go for the Canon 5D Mark II. And after a couple of meaningless pictures I’m already a lucky man. The amount of detail has almost got forgotten after using so many APS-C cameras lately. I figured, if I take the burden to carry a DSLR, which always is big compared to the mirrorless offerings, it’s best to go for the best affordable quality. I’ve used the D3s of a friend, had a D700 of my own for quite a while and they all are stunning cameras. But during my choice making I remembered the Detail of the 5DII during a backstage shooting for FireGirls ( www.clubfiregirls.com ) in Arizona last year and I went for that camera again. I think it will be a long-time companion now.

Don’t flame me for that, I couldn’t resist! Today I had a business meeting in Southern Austria and I was driving through the village of Frantschach. I remember crossing that village quite often, when my parents and I drove to Italy before the highway was built. Frantschach is famous for one thing only: its paper factory. I remember the uttermost stink of the smoke. You could already smell it miles away and even as a child I thought, how can we do such a crime to that beautiful landscape, not to speak of the whole planet. When I thought about Frantschach, I thought about smoke and vice versa. Today the smoke is still Frantschach’s number one landmark as you can see from the picture I shot out of my car today.

It doesn’t stink anymore and I guess with the rigid environment protection laws in Austria the smoke isn’t a lot more than just clean steam nowadays. But what has all this to do with Leica?

The paper factory was once owned by the family of Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, president of Leica. He bought Leica in 2004 and basically saved it from bankruptcy presumably with the money, his family had earned with the paper factory. Mr. Kaufmann himself – as reported in the media – has been a Waldorf teacher and a left-wing supporter before he bought the German camera manufacturer. I take a bow to the achievement of saving Leica and I love Leica cameras. But sometimes it’s good to be reminded where good things like a Leica M9 come from – in this case from producing a lot of smoke. In every bad thing lies something good. Maybe the people and former workers from Frantschach can now put their minds at ease: their bearing of stink and bad air has saved Leica and has produced utterly great cameras. Thank you people from Frantschach and thank you Mr. Kaufmann for saving Leica!

The Leica has always been the dream camera for many. Even if the German manufacturer started out slowly into the digital photography era and went through hard financial times, it stands on both feet again and delivers high quality digital cameras that make some of us invest their private pension funds. I’m far away from being able to invest so much money into a camera, but am lucky enough to get them to shoot with from time to time.

This weekend has been a real bliss to me, since I had a Leica X1, a M8 and a M9 to use and enjoy. I’ll let you know a couple of my findings in the next days.

Today I’d like to start with a crazy quick comparison of the image quality of the M9 and the X1. They aren’t really comparable in other aspects. The X1 has a fixed lens, autofocus and is rather a large-sensor compact camera and not a rangefinder like the M8 or the M9. The X1 costs about 1.600,– Euros, while the M9 sells for about 5.500,– Euros. But – as the M9 – the X1 delivers digital images. So how good are they compared to the M9? (Read on after the break!) weiter lesen