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Nikon/Canon "Smack Down." And the winner is ...

fotografz

Well-known member
Well, I've had a foot in both camps for months now.

It's enough to make one schizophrenic.

I own a DSLR system for one reason ... to shoot weddings. I'm VERY particular about my tools for this work. Swapping systems is a damned serious business, because you cannot flub a "one chance" shot.

I've used Canon for years now, and they have proven to be very reliable machines and I have nothing but praise for most of the gear I've owned ... most currently a 1DMKIII (now sold), and a 1DsMKIII, which I still have.

Then came the D3.

Got one and started using it as a second camera to the 1DsMKIII.

But the 1DsMKIII was in direct conflict with my Hasselblad H3D-II/31 for really high resolution images ... an IQ conflict the Canon could never hope to win.

So on one hand there's the high ISO and AF speed of the D3 for candid work, and on the other hand the H3D for ultimate IQ with pretty good speed (ISO 800) and superb handling.

It leaves the Canon an orphan.

So at this Saturday's wedding I (nervously) left my Canon "nanny blanket" at home and only took Nikon gear along with the H3D.

Excellent IQ, flawless performance, and even a few experimental ISO 5,000, 8,000 and 10,000 shots.

Bye, Bye, Canon ... sniff, sniff, :( it served me well :thumbup:

A few from the Nikon Wedding:

2 Bridal "Portraits" and a B&W first dance shot done @ ISO 10,000 ...
 
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neils

New member
ISO 10,000. Ten Thousand. Say that again without a smile and a bit of Holy S*^t and I'll tell you to try ISO 12,800. Gotta love it right? What on earth could film look like at this point? Pretty damn bad even with "Art" as an excuse. The world has changed hasn't it Marc.

Just to be curious is this an NX conversion or another? My super hi ISO shots are so good with NX I haven't even bothered to try ACR, my only other choice.

Wanna hear something really absurd? I've added grain to ISO 8000 shots. I know. Call me crazy but it needed it for the purpose.

Neil
 

fotografz

Well-known member
ISO 10,000. Ten Thousand. Say that again without a smile and a bit of Holy S*^t and I'll tell you to try ISO 12,800. Gotta love it right? What on earth could film look like at this point? Pretty damn bad even with "Art" as an excuse. The world has changed hasn't it Marc.

Just to be curious is this an NX conversion or another? My super hi ISO shots are so good with NX I haven't even bothered to try ACR, my only other choice.

Wanna hear something really absurd? I've added grain to ISO 8000 shots. I know. Call me crazy but it needed it for the purpose.

Neil
Yeah, Holy Crap! is about right. Not that I need it very often ... it's much more important that the camera operates intuitively and ... quickly!!!!

Most Wedding shots never get printed over 8X10, but I love cropping for effect so it has to have some decent resolution and the D3 delivers enough. I like the dual CF card slots, I hate the CF/SD of the Canon.

I only use Lightroom for all my wedding shots Neil. I time code each different camera, mine and my second shooter, and dump like 1000 shots into one folder and sort by time created to keep it in order. I even convert all the H3D shots to DNG and dump them in there also.

I know I'd get even better IQ with each separate processor, but it's to slow.
 

jlm

Workshop Member
it really is about the photographer, in this case exceptional, and the camera letting him, helping him, do it. very nice work mark
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Okay Marc you know this was coming and you know what I am after. If i walked up to you and took the D3 away can you get it done with the H3/31 same situation. i know the struggle would be the high ISO stuff but like you sometimes we have no choice and need the shot. In this case at a wedding would you be screwed or being resourceful as I know you are can you get it done and still feel good about it. BTW nice shots as always. Me i am looking at everything else as the backup and seeing if I can get there with MF as primary , reason I ask. I am in conflict right now with MF Vs DSLR as far as do I really need both in full system package. My gut says no if i don't need over ISO 800 and I don't need faster than 1.5 second lag time. Now they are two biggies to a lot of folks and wedding shooters this maybe very difficult a road to bear.
 

jonoslack

Active member
Hi Marc
A very timely post - I'm doing my first wedding with the D3 tomorrow - no MF as a primary camera, so it will be doing most of the work, last one was done primarily with the M8, and it worked fine, but it WAS hard work, I'm hoping this one will be a little easier..

Lovely shots - I hope I can do half as well!

Guy - surely it's horses for courses, and for candid stuff in low light it seems to me that the D3 is a complete no-brainer . . . if you don't need that stuff, then it's fine. As for the D300 - my personal opinion is that it's a poor second best (more because of the lens options than the actual image quality).
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Okay Marc you know this was coming and you know what I am after. If i walked up to you and took the D3 away can you get it done with the H3/31 same situation. i know the struggle would be the high ISO stuff but like you sometimes we have no choice and need the shot. In this case at a wedding would you be screwed or being resourceful as I know you are can you get it done and still feel good about it. BTW nice shots as always. Me i am looking at everything else as the backup and seeing if I can get there with MF as primary , reason I ask. I am in conflict right now with MF Vs DSLR as far as do I really need both in full system package. My gut says no if i don't need over ISO 800 and I don't need faster than 1.5 second lag time. Now they are two biggies to a lot of folks and wedding shooters this maybe very difficult a road to bear.
Guy, this is a good question and one that I am glad I do not have to answer in reality.

Even up to a year or so ago I would have said NO, we need a DSLR. However, that was then and this is now. Things have changed ... lower light AF has gotten better, capture rates have improved, and the MFD has definately moved out of the studio.

Exposure is less of an issue for me at weddings. I use on camera flash for 95% of what I shoot. Hasselblad's flash control is one of the best I've ever used ... more consistent than Canon, and even a touch better than Nikon in my experience. As a result, I rarely use much beyond ISO 800 on the DSLRs and that is with-in the range of my H3D-II/31.

In my experience, the limiting factor in shooting things like a wedding reception is flash recycle, not burst speed of the camera. Some of these reception halls are caves with very low light, horrible mixed lighting, or gelled lights spilling foreign color all over the subjects. Strong diffused flash is the only way to overcome this most of the time. I have a Quantum battery to speed up the recycle time, but hate using it and usually don't.

Even then, backs like the Leaf Aptus 65s cut capture time to 1 per second, or in the case of the 22 meg Aptus 54s to 0.87 sec. My H3D-II/31 captures @ 1.2 sec.

All said, I think it is possible to use a current DB for almost anything. I would not want to be forced to do so for a couple of reasons:

... do not want to shoot 800 to 1000 frames @ 31 or 39 meg for reasons of processing speed. Shooting 800 commercial images is different than 800 wedding images. ALL the wedding images have to be processed to print quality.

... do want to shoot high ISO (over 1600), use f/1.4, and drag the shutter when low ambient light is pretty ... like the bridal profile above.

A MF back kills off the Canon 1DsMKIIIs of the world, but the Nikon D3s of the world have their place IMO.

RE: wedding work: If I did not have a MF back, I would never sell the high resolution Canon 1DsMKIII. If I did not have Commercial work, or never did sweeping landscape/fine art, I probably would not need a MF back. If I did not shoot weddings I would not need any DSLR.

Horses for courses.

Guy, given the type of work you do, I predict that when you get the new AFD-III, it is likely you will NOT need anything else. Event, corporate and fashion isn't the same as shooting a "Journalistic" wedding.


Here's a typical shot done with the H3D & 28mm. Trust me, the light in this old church was so low that you could not see the roof above. It was thunder storms outside and as dark as night, so little help from the windows, and the interior lighting was a joke. The 17X22 print of this shot is beautiful ... these files have a lot you can squeeze out of them.
 
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Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Marc great answer and thanks. Honestly been thinking along the same lines. I know this was a tough question to answer as the wedding shooter it still is tough to MF only without having some of the benefits of a DSLR at hand . As a commercial shooter on the other hand as we are it becomes less of a need to have the high ISO DSLR package.
I ask myself if I bought the right back in some ways and not because of brand mind you but the 1.5 seconds and ISO 800 limits. I wonder if the P30 plus may have been a better option with 1.25 and ISO 1600 but I really think a P21 Plus at .8 seconds at ISO 800 maybe a great second back. Sometimes just sheer shooting speed helps but that need is not always there either. This was my decision block when I made my choice . i do love the P25 Plus no doubt and it works great , maybe it is the old AFD that is up my crawl space that is driving me nuts. My new one will be here soon so we will see if the new Phase/AFD III makes me happy. But I am leaning more and more everyday to just forget the Nikons in many ways. But I want more time to make that decision.

Interesting how we each get from Point A to B with how many stops along the way. But I will say after all your help along the way and advice I certainly made the right choice moving up. It really is another world and I love getting back to MF.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Hi Marc
A very timely post - I'm doing my first wedding with the D3 tomorrow - no MF as a primary camera, so it will be doing most of the work, last one was done primarily with the M8, and it worked fine, but it WAS hard work, I'm hoping this one will be a little easier..

Lovely shots - I hope I can do half as well!

Guy - surely it's horses for courses, and for candid stuff in low light it seems to me that the D3 is a complete no-brainer . . . if you don't need that stuff, then it's fine. As for the D300 - my personal opinion is that it's a poor second best (more because of the lens options than the actual image quality).
I agree Jono and i actually question the D300 in many ways. Nice rig but I know the D3 is better in many ways also. I have Terry's 24-70 here with me and it is boring on a D300. Now on a D3 it would be a lot different lens and better
 

jonoslack

Active member
I agree Jono and i actually question the D300 in many ways. Nice rig but I know the D3 is better in many ways also. I have Terry's 24-70 here with me and it is boring on a D300. Now on a D3 it would be a lot different lens and better
That's exactly my point - there are obvious IQ and high ISO advantages, but that 24-70 lens is a complete stonker on the D3 - wonderful (in case you don't know the expression), but 36-105? no use to me!

I'm not sure that the D3 is a camera to 'love' exactly, but with the auto ISO and the lattitude in the raw files it's just a ball to use - set it on aperture priority (one does after all want SOME control) and blast away, it just doesn't seem to be capable of getting things wrong. As for the Zeiss lenses - well, they ARE things to love, but those new Nikon zooms really are as good as many primes, and with the high ISO capabilities f2.8 is fast enough for almost anything. It's a camera to get shots fast and reliably, and autofocus is a real help under those conditions.

The files are excellent, and it seems to be possible to do huge amounts of PP to them before they start to fall apart.

Maybe it's just a tool, but right now, for stuff where you don't have time to make mistakes I think it's pretty much inevitable:ROTFL:
 

KurtKamka

Subscriber Member
I recently did a few events with my Phase back and older Mamiya camera. Like Guy, I wanted to be able to use the one system ... but, when I needed spontaneity and quick response, I found the older Mamiya to be painfully slow. I could make do, but I missed a few shots that I didn't want to miss. I'm counting on the newer Phase body to be quicker to focus and less "leaden" in feel.

So, as I had another event to shoot yesterday, I picked up another D3 to work back into the overall kit. The event went very smoothly with the D3 ... it's a camera that just feels so good in your hands. While the guys next to me had elaborate flash systems, all I brought was the D3, 85/1.4 and auto ISO. No matter if the shots were inside, outside or in mixed-light they all all ended up looking great.

Kurt
 
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Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
BTW folks there was a press release that they are starting to ship the new Phase body this morning.



Phase One Press Release

Phase One 645 Camera System now Shipping at Volume

COPENHAGEN, June 25, 2008 — Phase One has confirmed that the Phase One 645 Camera system—providing professional photographers freedom of choice—is now in volume production and shipping to customers world-wide. As promised in March 2008, system component options and full technical details are included here.

The Phase One 645 Camera body is lightweight, with a user-friendly ergonomic design. It is an open platform, designed to support pro photographers’ choice of lenses and digital backs or film operation to achieve superior image quality. The camera system comes with a warranty covering 3 years or 300,000 shutter actuations, and is backed by full support and service of a global team of Phase One dealers.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
I agree the D3 is a winner in many respects and i will continue to keep looking at that but there is some announcement from the rumors on July 1st. Let's see what next they bring to the table
 

charlesphoto

New member
I'm a little confused about this sudden mad dash to make medium format fit all.

I think Marc has a very good point when he says why would you want (or even need) 1000 30mp files for a wedding (or even a corporate meeting for that matter). And haven't some of the most timeless wedding pics been taken with an M6 and Tmax 3200? I know there are different styles (horses for courses) but the need to turn EVERYTHING into super hi-res is a bit overrated. Even in advertising. Antonin Kratochvil just shot a huge Ray Bans campaign with nothing but Tri-X and a couple of M6's. Those are just as blowup-able to billboard size as a 39mp digital back.

Marc's shot of the church above is gorgeous but IMO would be just as nice in crusty b&w. Would be a different feel and it all depends on the client/photographer.

I think there's maybe a bit of G.A.S. going on here vs realistic needs. Of course I would love a digital MF system :D but I do more fine art and so film still works best for me. I think where MFD really comes into play is fashion and high end product shooting. having both would be the best I think. Like Marc said it's that 1.4 shot and ability to shoot more spontaneous that would be missed not having a dslr. But of course you still have an M8, right?;)

Anyway, just playing the devils advocate. I thought your question was curious Guy. What if you turned it around and asked Marc if he could get by if his H3 was taken from him? You really should try the D3, esp with some of the Zeiss lenses. The D300 is not really an option imo, esp if you are seeking MF perfection.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Well one issue is Money 15 k for Nikons and 40 K for MF than 15 K for M8's. The ROI on this sucks. Now i am not a fan of one camera fits all but I am a fan of lets see how far i can squeeze one camera into many different situations. Now i do disagree a bit about the files size. Sure they are big Raws but you can output any size you want in almost any programs and yes things can be overkill in a lot of situations. But knowing your clients and what they do to your files than a whole bunch of different thinking goes on. Besides that resolution gain which that is the first thing folks look at which is just one piece of the puzzle . 12 stops of DR you can't get anywhere but MF digital, so there is a lot involved here. I have PR shots that turn into banners and get cropped to hell. Than clients say Oh now i can get close and actually see detail. It maybe thought of as G.A>S but more driven by clients and there needs. Mf is NOT for everyone but since i am sitting on it how far i can take it and get my return on it, is important to me. Otherwise go for two D3's and call it a day and be done with it. I mean i would love to get to one system but reality is i probably can't and that is what I am trying to figure out. If anything I am trying to save money and buy less. I know, don't fit my profile, but somewhere in here is profit and feeding these kids. LOL
 

charlesphoto

New member
Guy,

I hear you! Part of me would like to just go with one body (well two for b/u) and three lenses. For everything. That's part of how one creates a style.
If I had a choice it would be M7 with 24, 35 Lux and 90 (maybe throw a 50 in there too). But as digital is a must these days that wouldn't happen.

Or I might be happy shooting everything with my Rollei TLR.

So many choices. But things will be changing for me and the days of new gear are quickly coming to an end. I'm imposing a moratorium on new gear...soon.:p
 

charlesphoto

New member
And here is the favorite photo from my recent wedding, taken by me, of my wife entering the courthouse (yes I took pics at my own wedding. Had my M7 with a 35 lux and a pocketful of NP 1600. A buddy shot with his Nikons).

More often than not it's about the moment and not the gear. I think most wedding clients could care less whether your camera cost $40K or $40 if you miss the moments (and feel).
 

neils

New member
Charles,

Love the wedding shot. I shot at my own wedding too with an M4, 35 and TX.

A friend asked me the other day about a shot I have of a bride in full gown going through a metal detector in NYC at City Hall. I'd forgotten about it. Gotta find it.

Neil
 

fotografz

Well-known member
I'm a little confused about this sudden mad dash to make medium format fit all.

I think Marc has a very good point when he says why would you want (or even need) 1000 30mp files for a wedding (or even a corporate meeting for that matter). And haven't some of the most timeless wedding pics been taken with an M6 and Tmax 3200? I know there are different styles (horses for courses) but the need to turn EVERYTHING into super hi-res is a bit overrated. Even in advertising. Antonin Kratochvil just shot a huge Ray Bans campaign with nothing but Tri-X and a couple of M6's. Those are just as blowup-able to billboard size as a 39mp digital back.

Marc's shot of the church above is gorgeous but IMO would be just as nice in crusty b&w. Would be a different feel and it all depends on the client/photographer.

I think there's maybe a bit of G.A.S. going on here vs realistic needs. Of course I would love a digital MF system :D but I do more fine art and so film still works best for me. I think where MFD really comes into play is fashion and high end product shooting. having both would be the best I think. Like Marc said it's that 1.4 shot and ability to shoot more spontaneous that would be missed not having a dslr. But of course you still have an M8, right?;)

Anyway, just playing the devils advocate. I thought your question was curious Guy. What if you turned it around and asked Marc if he could get by if his H3 was taken from him? You really should try the D3, esp with some of the Zeiss lenses. The D300 is not really an option imo, esp if you are seeking MF perfection.
As I said, I wouldn't go to a wedding without a DSLR ... I could leave behind a MFD or a Leica M, but not the DSLR. Not ever. I find the D3 just the right balance of file size, operational speed, and security with dual card capability.

Most anything else, I could do with a MFD, and a number of things ONLY with a MFD. The hands-down money maker is the MFD. Weddings are piss poor paying jobs for the effort required compared to commercial work.

Yes, certain "commercial" work is being done with odd cameras ... my friend Alan Kaplan does a lot of stuff with a P&S pocket camera ... for BIG name clients BTW. That's the exception, not the rule. Everyday shleps like me have to make images that go on the web and are made into trade show display prints 6 to 8 feet wide.

I still find the H3Ds to be the closest thing to a DSLR of all the MFD cameras I've handled. I'll be very curious to hear how the new Mamiya AFD-III handles ... especially the AF.

The idea that it's the shooter that counts is one I subscribe to. A better camera isn't going to make you more emotionally alert, or anticipate what is about to happen so you can catch the moment, or make you more sensitive to the human drama unfolding around you.

However, NOTHING is more aggravating than a slow witted camera with the reflexes of a drugged three toed sloth when you are alert and go to sieze the moment.

Sieze the moment like this:
 
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