DSLR to Mirrorless 2022

[MDM]

20 hours ago, sb photos said:

 

My D750's are fine in normal to dusk light, and just about cope with noise from poor lighting in some venues and under street lighting at night at slower shutter speeds. I've been researching to see how I can cut down the weight I sometimes carry as I'm not getting any younger. I now regret using a shoulder bag instead of a backpack on Saturday afternoon, especially as the light would have been good enough for my tiny RX100 M7.  I recently came to the same conclusion as you re the Nikon z6ii, but with the 24-120 f4. That lens would likely cover 90% of what I usually shoot. All I need to do now is to finally draw my last pension and use some of the lump sum for new kit.

 

That sounds like a nice lens. I've not seen any reviews but, if it is anything like the other S lenses, it should be excellent. It could work out expensive though unless Nikon start selling it as part of a kit as they do with the 24-70 f4 (also an S lens). The latter can be between 1/3 and 1/2 the list price of the lens on its own when bought as part of a kit. As I said above it is probably a very good candidate for best kit lens in the world.  

Edited September 20, 2022 by MDM

[frankbiganski]

On 18/09/2022 at 10:36, MDM said:

 

 

The image with Luminance Noise set to default (0) has an extraordinary amount of luminance noise for a D810 at ISO320. Perhaps it has been severely underexposed which would effectively mean that the ISO is much higher than 320. The pattern of the noise is strange as well. It is pointless trying to diagnose what is wrong without seeing the original raw image (Dropbox). The OP says that this is a raw image but it is a compressed JPEG.

 

I have a few noise presets which I apply based on the camera, the ISO and whether the image is underexposed or not. I will tweak further if necessary but that is usually only the case at high ISO. I don't get bogged down in all the various LR settings - a few will do fine. As you know I don't like Topaz Denoise as it is too slow for my workflow, it does not work on raw files and it can produce some weird artefacts.

 

With the D810, I use default Lightroom noise settings from ISO 64 to about ISO 320 or so. From ISO 400-800 I would probably use L 25-50-50 C 25-50-50. At higher ISO my preset is L 50-50-50 C 25-50-50. The D810 is effectively noise free at ISO64-100 (with proper exposure). Different people have different perceptions or tolerance of noise. Mine is very low. I can see noise at ISO 200 on the D810 and similar Nikon sensors. The monitor used is also important. Noise is much more visible on a matte monitor than on a shiny reflective one. 

 

 

Looking again at my original RAW file MDM, perhaps the image was slightly underexposed (or severely?) and the dark green wall was absorbing most of the light, both ambient and flash. In hindsight, maybe I should've used my 360 Ws Godox over my Nikon 150 Ws. Here's the original RAW file.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvUdNKllJ7ttn98QUSX8bn1ox3Yltw?e=teZqin

 

I know I started this post with a different image but I've been working through several issues along the way, most of which I'm finally sorting out with a lot of help from this forum.

 

Cheers!

 

[MDM]

1 hour ago, frankbiganski said:

Looking again at my original RAW file MDM, perhaps the image was slightly underexposed (or severely?) and the dark green wall was absorbing most of the light, both ambient and flash. In hindsight, maybe I should've used my 360 Ws Godox over my Nikon 150 Ws. Here's the original RAW file.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvUdNKllJ7ttn98QUSX8bn1ox3Yltw?e=teZqin

 

I know I started this post with a different image but I've been working through several issues along the way, most of which I'm finally sorting out with a lot of help from this forum.

 

Cheers!

 

 

That image is fine in terms of exposure. You can tell by the histogram even if you are not confident about your monitor brightness. You can even recover highlights from outside the window by pulling back the highlight slider in LR. That is how good the D810 and similar cameras are in terms of dynamic range. The balance between the flash and the daylight is good so no problem with that. 

 

Noise shows up in bland areas of images and is most evident in the green wall. I'm not sure if it is a bit more noisy than I would expect with a D810 at ISO320 but it is easy to deal with using NR in Lightroom. I've given it my standard presets for luminance and colour noise 25-50-50-25-50-50 for mid range ISOs with LR default sharpening of 40-1-25 and it looks fine.

 

The only real problem with the image is that the foreground is not in focus which is a depth of field issue. I would use f11 for more depth of field, focusing more carefully to make sure I am getting the foreground as well as the background sharp. I would still use a tripod and an even longer exposure for ambient light and to balance the daylight outside. Even if you are using flash you can get motion blur at longer shutter speeds.

 

This image is usable and should pass Alamy QC if you downsized to 2000x3000 as that would sharpen it up in the foreground and further reduce noise.

 

[Steve F]

3 hours ago, frankbiganski said:

I could use for a week holiday in the Cali beaches for sure Steve!  I just noticed that I was in your neck of the woods (in Basingstoke that is) for my drone operational exam last week.

Cheers!

 

Hope you passed your exam, seems you're branching out!

Anyone's always welcome to meet up for a drink in Basingstoke 🙂

[M.Chapman]

On 20/09/2022 at 10:27, MDM said:

Noise shows up in bland areas of images and is most evident in the green wall. I'm not sure if it is a bit more noisy than I would expect with a D810 at ISO320 but it is easy to deal with using NR in Lightroom. I've given it my standard presets for luminance and colour noise 25-50-50-25-50-50 for mid range ISOs with LR default sharpening of 40-1-25 and it looks fine.

 

 

+1 I agree it looks fine with those settings. The green wall paint probably has some texture anyway.

 

Another LR/ACR setting that it would be important to make on this image (if submitting to Alamy) is Auto CA removal to remove the small amount of colour fringing around inner edge of picture frame and black seal on double glazing.

 

On 20/09/2022 at 08:50, frankbiganski said:

Here's the original RAW file.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvUdNKllJ7ttn98QUSX8bn1ox3Yltw?e=teZqin

 

Thanks for posting the RAW, always interesting to see how other cameras perform.

 

Mark

[MDM]

43 minutes ago, M.Chapman said:

 

Another LR/ACR setting that it would be important to make on this image (if submitting to Alamy) is Auto CA removal to remove the small amount of colour fringing around inner edge of picture frame and black seal on double glazing.

 

 

Yes I forgot to mention Remove CA. I have that turned on for all of my Lightroom camera specific import presets so tend to think of it as a Lightroom default which it should be really I guess. I also have Enable Profile Corrections on with all my camera presets.

 

Adobe changed the way camera specific import presets are created a few years ago. It used to be extremely simple, now it takes a bit more effort. I have import presets for most camera types that I ever shot raw with, even though I no longer have the cameras, as I occasionally go back and re-process raws.

 

[M.Chapman]

7 hours ago, MDM said:

 

Yes I forgot to mention Remove CA. I have that turned on for all of my Lightroom camera specific import presets so tend to think of it as a Lightroom default which it should be really I guess. I also have Enable Profile Corrections on with all my camera presets.

 

Adobe changed the way camera specific import presets are created a few years ago. It used to be extremely simple, now it takes a bit more effort. I have import presets for most camera types that I ever shot raw with, even though I no longer have the cameras, as I occasionally go back and re-process raws.

 

 

Yes I have import presets for all my cameras (old and new) too, it's great that these are shared between PS ACR and LR.

I don't really understand why Adobe don't turn CA removal on by default, it works so well and I've never noticed it cause a problem.

 

Mark

[MDM]

 

Deleted. 

 

Edited November 2, 2022 by MDM

[MDM]

Just thought I would let people know that for anyone wanting to go Nikon DSLR to mirrorless, Nikon have some genuinely unbelievable Black Friday prices on Z6 and Z7 mirrorless cameras. They are selling the Z6 24-70 f/4 kit for £1499 and the Z7 24-70 f/4 kit for £1,749. The lens alone retails at a sale price of £869 (>£!,000 list price) and is a stupendously good lens - I call it the best kit lens in the world - possibly the best kit lens ever sold. It is one of their professional S designated lenses - razor sharp among other things.

 

The cameras are the original Nikon mirrorless bodies from late 2018 and the image quality is world class - the sensors still fall near the top of the DxO list - incredible dynamic range. These cameras are ideal for every type of photography except for fast action as the AF systems are not fast enough  (these were upgraded in the Z6II and Z7II). They are  ideal for landscape, architecture, portraiture and so on, just not great for fast action. The body-lens combo weighs just over 1kg so is ultra-light for carrying around. These are genuinely incredible deals - close to £1000 off the previous list price. I've still got my Z7 kit from late 2018 and all is still working perfectly.