These were with the DMR, but it was at ISO 800, f/1.4, 1/30th of a second, and still underexposed. I had to bring it up and then do some fairly severe noise reduction. The results are soft and mushy. The red areas in the images clipped really badly (the light was VERY VERY red, and it was very dark). I did not get many usable shots. The D3 would have been SO much better.
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I agree that I prefer a film M for concerts. To give you an idea, here is an 800 ISO film shot, same band, different venue (significantly bigger and brighter).
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Stuart, thank you for the samples! Indeed the D3 is great for low light, while the DMR seems to suffer a bit under those lights - film is now (and I imagine if not always at least for quite some time) holding its ground in B&W, IMHO, while I feel that color film (for low light) is now surpassed by the last generation digital Nikons (and probably Canons, I don't use them so I can't speak for them). Of course, color film still has a look of its own, unmatched by digital - the same way that digital's look is unmatched by film, in reverse
Vieri,
When you look at the full sized images at what sizes do you still think they look good in print?
Hello Terry, I am not sure where the limit is, I printed some of these (and some D2x shots too) up to 11x14" for my portfolio and they look great at that size, even examining them from close. Being "look good" a matter of subjectivity, though, maybe it would help me if you'd give me some more info on what you would or wouldn't want to see in a pic - say, for me some noise is ok (not an extreme amount of it, of course
), color saturation and vividness is a must for which I'd sacrifice some noise, sharpness is important but not the end of the world (these look very sharp in print, however), and so on - under my own parameters, they look pretty good at 11x14. I never printed any concert pics larger, so I can't say anything about going up with the size, but looking at them at 11x14 I think they have quite some margin for enlargement left.
Vieri,
excellent series; I like particularly this one:
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All musicians are absorbed by their making music, and there is an impression of naturalness about everybody's doing. They don't look at each other, but this doesn't come out as a split-up, rather they appear to be – together with their instruments and their gear – cogs in a wheel, parts of a new organism: the band.
This time I'd like to greet you with a photo from your home country I took some weeks ago:
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(Arena di Verona, Aida – alas no D3 but Sony R1 with remote control, 1/5 sec, f 5.6, ISO 200)
Hans, thank you very much for your comment to the group shot of the band, very much to the point - and many many thanks for the splendid photo of the splendid Arena!
I really appreciated it, thanks again!