Aloof on the Lamp: NIKON D3200 Test Shot--No tripod, no processing

Suburban landscape shot--yes, I know that I didn't give the birdenough headroom, but this one is really about the camera, not my lackof skill, which has already been well documented. Commentswelcome.

--Lannie

Here is the original hand-held shot, with no processing beyond resizing.

 

--Lannie

Here is a 100 percent crop of the upper portion of the photo, without any processing or resizing.

 

--Lannie

This is a 100 percent crop of the lower part of the bird, again without any processing or resizing.

 

The camera was hand-held.  No sharpening or any other manipulation of any kind has been applied.

 

--Lannie

My own tentative judgment of the camera at this point, still having made NO shots with a tripod, is that the camera is not too bad for casual shooting without a tripod.  I really want to see what it can do with a tripod and timed release.

 

All of the test shots were made at ISO 800.  For some reason, the shot was made at f/13, or else the EXIF data are not accurate.  The shutter speed was shown by the EXIF data to be 1/320 sec.  The lens was at full extension, 105mm, on a 1.5x crop sensor Nikon camera.

 

I presume that, if the f/13 figure is accurate, I simply accidentally touched the wheel governing aperture.  The shot was made on aperture priority, and I am quite sure that I thought that I was shooting at f/8.  As with the other bird shot posted to date, however, both show that the f-stop was 13.  I guess it could have happened, but I am surprised that I did not check the aperture.  Then again, this bird was buzzing my head, only alighting occasionally, and so I probably was not thinking about any exposure except for my eyes.  These are mean little critters if their young are threatened.  I never was able to locate a nest or a young bird out of the nest.  Two days later, this bird and its mate were stil going crazy when I came out the door.  They sit in a tree on the opposite side of the street, and then they come at me whenever I so much as appear out of my breezeway to go to a car or to the mailbox.

 

--Lannie

I agree that sharpness is just fine. Here is an idea for a different crop that also involves a perspective distortion adjustment to square up the lamp box. FWIW

Very nice crop, Jim.  I like it much better than mine.

 

I had to take these while the bird was buzzing me--and only occasionally alighting.   I would like to get a shot like this with a tripod, but with such a short lens that would not likely ever happen.

 

--Lannie

Here is the bottom half with unsharp mask set at 85.

 

The ISO 800 and the f/stop of 13 prevent this from being as crisp and detailed as it might be.

 

--Lannie

Here is the corresponding 100 percent crop of the top part with unsharp mask at 85 applied.

 

Again the ISO of 800 and f-stop of 13 make it impossible to know from this shot what degree of resolution might have been achieved.  And, of course, it was shot hand-held. . . .

 

The bokeh does not look very good with the USM applied on top of the moderately high ISO and f-stop.

 

More test shots are needed.

 

--Lannie

How do you like the camera overall, Lannie? Does it handle well compared to your other cameras? Looks pretty good to me although I imagine ones computer needs to be up to snuff to handle large files too. 

 

Although it is small in the hand, Michael, I was able to get a battery grip from China which helps a lot.  Overall, I am very pleased with the results and the handling.  I do not have any good Nikon lenses that are not AF-D lenses at present, and, since it will not AF with AF-D lenses, I don't think that I have really put it through its paces yet.

 

Look for some shots on the tripod with the 18-105 in a few days.  I will post them here.

 

--Lannie