People have asked for comparisons between the dynamic range of the D810 and its immediate predecessors. I don’t have a D800 at my disposal, but I do have access to a D800E, and I thought I’d do some testing. But first, a little discussion of dynamic range. The dynamic range of an imaging system is… [Read More]
Archives for August 2014
Mastering Leica M240 green shadows
About a year ago, I identified a problem with the Leica M240. There is a clipping of very low raw values and a non-linearity near zero for those values that leads to problems in the shadows of images pushed in post. Since, for most lighting conditions and subjects, the green channel is the brightest one,… [Read More]
Sony a7S noise reduction in-camera processing of raw files
A few weeks back, I did a series of dark-field exposures with the Sony alpha 7S (a7S) at all available ISO settings. After some processing, I produced this graph: There are two places in the curve where sudden — and unexpected, at least by me — drops occur as the ISO is increased. The first… [Read More]
Getting ready for another exhibition
Today I’m taking a break from writing about camera testing to talk about actual photography. Those of you who came here for the tech talk: don’t worry; it’ll be back tomorrow. There’s going to be a ImageMakers-produced exhibition at the Museum of Monterey starting in early September, and running ’til January. That’s an unusually long run,… [Read More]
Mirror slap and shutter shock on the Nikon D810
There are rumors that the D810’s mirror and shutter motions are less damaging to image sharpness than those of the D800. I thought it was worth running a test. I put a Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG on a D810, the camera in landscape orientation to an Arca Swiss Cube with a RRS L-bracket, and mounted the head… [Read More]