Ron Martinsen's Photography Blog: 10/1/14

Thursday, October 30, 2014

REVIEW: Nikon D750–Yeah, it’s better than my 5D Mark III (Part II of II)

In the first part of my review, I expressed how impressed I was with this camera. Despite being crippled by a mediocre kit lens for this review, I’ve been very pleased with image quality and dynamic range for the shots I’ve taken with it.

In this final installment of my review, I’ll focus more on some of the technical aspects of this camera and discuss how I feel it compares to some of the other cameras I’ve tested.

Mug Shot Test

f/8 @ 120 mm, 1/200, ISO 100
Unedited in-camera JPEG – click for the full size

Knowing that this camera has great dynamic range, I decided to put it to the torture test using a model with dark eyes and a black background just to see how many tones it could capture. As you can clearly see from above, the D750 knocked this one out of the park.

I can clearly distinguish the pupil from the iris in the eye as well as all the shades in the models hair. Even the black background shows a buttery smooth series of tones.

While this is certainly no Otus 85mm lens, I was plenty satisfied with the detail captured on the skin (sorry Julia!) and the eyelashes.

In short, this camera nailed the mugs shot test, so one could only hope the DMV will start using these – or maybe not!

Bookshelf Test

f/5.6 @ 50 mm, 1/13, ISO 12800, No Flash
Click for the original to fully appreciate the high ISO performance

Overall my testing revealed that image quality and tonal range are fantastic in the ISO 100-12,800 range. When you go into the high modes of 25,600 and 51,200 the dynamic range begins to suffer, but even with in-camera noise reduction results in a usable image.

f/5.6 @ 50 mm, 13s, ISO 100, No Flash
This is the sweet spot of the lens that I tested,
so click for the original to see the best image I could get with the kit lens

Unlike a lot of Nikon’s I’ve tested which tend to have either overly bright or dark metering, I found this camera to have a nice happy medium. With that said, I did get some unexplainable shifts in brightness and color when using auto white balance and matrix metering during my bookshelf testing. This is really my only complaint with this camera, and hopefully this is something that will sort itself out with a future firmware update.

Compared to the 5D Mark III

I own and love the Canon 5D Mark III, and without question it’s definitely one of the best Canon’s ever made. However, it is not without flaws. Do I think the Nikon has leapfrogged the 5D Mark III? YES! The overall dynamic range offered by this camera creates a wide spectrum of natural tones that is more true to life straight out of the camera than what I get out of my 5DM3. While I still prefer many features and characteristics of the Canon, for now this is the new defacto standard for parents, event and travel photographers who really want the best image quality possible.

While personally I don’t give a hoot about video from a DSLR, I still think the movie industry support around Canon probably gives it an advantage. However, I can’t imagine any D750 user being disappointed with the video performance with a sensor that is this good.

What should a 5D Mark III owner do? My advice is to save your money. Inevitably Canon will have a response and for now you have a great camera that’s not worth taking a big loss on – especially if you’ve got a good investment in lenses. Think of it a bit like you are driving the 2013 version of your dream car and your neighbor gets the 2014 model which has some nice new bells and whistles. While it sucks not to have the best product possible, you probably wouldn’t sell your car just to upgrade. I think the same philosophy applies here, so enjoy what you have and spend your money elsewhere – God knows there’s a lot of other ways to spend your money on photography gear and software, so don’t waste your money trying to keep up with the latest camera.

Skip the Kit Lens

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR Lens
My favorite “cheap” zoom lens for starter kits

I wasn’t a big fan of the kit lens, so I’d advise to go body only and get something else. I definitely liked the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR Lens that I tested with the D600 – it was surprisingly good (and cheap). The AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED is the lens to have if you can afford it, so if you are just starting out I’d consider either of those as better choices over the 24-120mm.

Conclusion

If you have an investment in Nikon lenses and are wondering if it is time to upgrade your camera body, I’d say it depends. While I personally wouldn’t take a loss on a perfectly good D600/D610, I’d certainly upgrade any other Nikon besides the D800/D810 and D4/D4s up to this one – if you’ve already bought all of the high quality lenses you are ever going to buy. Great lenses make the most of any camera body, so I always recommend spending extra funds on glass before camera bodies.

With that disclaimer out of the way, owners who do upgrade are going to be delighted. Those frustrated by some of the limitations of the D600/D610 might also find it a worthwhile upgrade, despite that being an excellent camera in its own right. I can definitely say that as a fan boy of the D600/D610, I found myself very excited to see that my minor quibbles about those cameras had been addressed leaving me with a camera that I’d probably buy if I didn’t have an investment in Canon lenses.

For those who believe DXOMark sensor scores are the word of God (and I don’t), they ranked the D750 as #6 under the D800E, D800, D600 & D610. While I’m sure in their own scientific way this makes sense to them, I can say that to my eyes in real world scenarios I find the D750 to be a overall better performer at higher ISO’s than the D800’s and about the same as the D600/D610. As a result, I continue to say these sensor scores are non-sense in the real world so take them with a grain of salt. The D750 is a fantastic camera that will definitely not disappoint, so without reservation I highly recommend it.

Where to order

Click here to learn more or order the D750 on the B&H web site.

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Wednesday, October 29, 2014

REVIEW: Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4–Is it worth the money?

Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 Apo Planar T* ZE Lens

Zeiss Otus lenses are the most amazing lenses to hold in your hands. They are the lens equivalent of a high end Swiss watch where everything just screams precision and perfection. The focus ring is a work of art that makes you wish all lenses could have a focus ring like this. However, do these physical characteristics and it’s massive amount of glass translate into a product worthy of its > $4000 USD price tag? Read on to get my take.

Mug Shot Analysis

Canon EOS-1D X, f/5.6 @ 85 mm, 1/200, ISO 100, No Flash
Click for the unedited in-camera original JPEG
(NOTE: Model intentionally placed lower in the frame to get the eyelashes in the sweet spot)

As one would expect, this is a very sharp lens. In my analysis of this lens I’ve noticed that it’s sharpness really shines on the finest details like that of the pattern and texture of the shirt. If you zoom in there and around the buttons you get a real world idea of just how sharp this lens really is.

Models will certainly hate it for its sharpness on the skin, but as you can see in this image every little pore, glitter flake, hair and eyelash is super sharp.

My subjective opinion is that it is sharper than the Canon 85mm f/1.2L II wide open – especially at the edges. However as you stop down to f/4.0 and at f/5.6 things start to get pretty similar. The 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM at 85mm is nearly as sharp in all areas except around the outer third edges (the buttons and lower).

Bookshelf Analysis

Canon EOS-1D X, f/5.6 @ 85 mm, 15s, ISO 100, No Flash

The bookshelf testing really shows off just how good this lens really is. In fact, while doing the manual focusing I quickly realized that this lens out resolves the Canon Live View display making perfect manual focusing more difficult. However, with some trial and error I’m convinced I nailed it.

With that said, when you click on the original of the image above you’ll see some amazing detail throughout the image. This lens is insane sharp, no doubt, but the manual focus means that some might not get the maximum sharpness in the real world due to human error. This is an important consideration that shouldn’t be ignored.

After looking at all factors of the bookshelf images, I definitely felt like f/5.6 was the sweet spot for this lens – but it’s fantastic from f/1.4 all the way to f/16!

Canon EOS-1D X, f/1.4 @ 85 mm, 1s, ISO 100, No Flash

As I look at the image with the lens wide open I see creamy bokeh, yet crisp sharpness – both important characteristics for this focal length. Overall I was very satisfied with what I saw and felt like its use on a tripod of static subjects would result in amazing images (or video).

Click here to see the full gallery of images test images.

Depth of Field/Bokeh Test

Canon EOS-1D X, f/1.4 @ 85 mm, 1/13, ISO 100, No Flash

When reviewing a lens with f-stops smaller than f/4, it’s common for people to ask about the quality of the bokeh created by the lens. Generally speaking, the better the lens the more “creamy” the bokeh, so the question becomes – just how good is it for this mega lens.

As you can see from the shot above the depth of field is very shallow at f/1.4 resulting a excellent but somewhat dark out of focus region. As is true with nearly any lens, going to larger f-stops helps with the wide open vignetting issue. As a result, by f/2.8 you get an incredibly sharp image with a bright and very satisfying bokeh as shown below:

Canon EOS-1D X, f/2.8 @ 85 mm, 1/3, ISO 100, No Flash

Canon EOS-1D X, f/16 @ 85 mm, 10s, ISO 100, No Flash

This is a solid lens stopped all the way down to f/16, so I’d have no reservations shooting at f/16 with this lens.

Click here to see the full gallery of images test images which includes 8 different apertures of this same shot.