jens_krause

I usually print at 300 dpi Exquisite detail is extremely important to me. For the D800E to get to exactly 300 dpi, I would need to print at 62,3 cm x 41,6 cm. Thus, my usual print size is 60 x 40 cm, allowing for a little room to crop. For the D850, to get to exactly 300 dpi, I would need to print at 69,9 cm x 46,6 cm. As Shun suggested, the resolution advantage is not that significant in actual use.

Higher frame rate, better autofocus, backlit buttons, a one-stop advantage, less battery consumption, a bigger viewfinder, and a higher resolution monitor are the other main selling points to me, also in nice-to-have territory. I cannot say I am limited in any way by the D800E. AF works generally very well with the D800E after the adjustment for the left focus issues. This serves as a reminder for me to wait with a possible purchase until possible kinks are corrected.

Fortunately, I do own the MH-26a battery charger and two EN-EL18a batteries already to use with the battery pack.

Still, the D850 requires its own MB-D18 battery pack (approx. 440 Euros). I would probably also need a new L-bracket (approx. 190 Euros). To take advantage of the high speed, I would also need XQD-infrastructure: A 64 GB XQD-card with a USB 3.0 reader is currently available at a big internet retailer for 110 Euros. That is 730 Euros in addition to the 3800 Euros of the D850. That would be about 4500 Euros to get to a shooting style similar to what I currently use with the D800E.

My D800E is well over 5 years old which is hard for me to believe considering how current it still feels. I do not think I would ever trade it in. It is worth far more to me than what I would get on the used market.

Still, the D850 looks very tempting. However, with prime nature photography season not starting until April 2018 again around here, I will have a few months to make up my mind (and to wait for the price of the D850 to come down).

My D200 is converted for UV/IR photography, so is anything but obsolete.

I use a 32 GB SanDisk Extreme Pro CF Card (UDMA 7, 90 MB/s) in mine. When I shoot IR panos, smaller cards can be limiting. As they say on the internets: Size does matter :)

David,

I have been using a G2227 Explorer for almost 4 years now. While I can highly recommend carbon-fiber Gitzos in general, I would not buy the Explorer again. When you shoot insects and flowers, you are very close to the ground almost all the time. A center column only gets in the way, then. Sure, you can reverse the Explorer's column 180 degrees to get super-close to the ground, but your camera will be upside-down. That can be very awkward. The G1325 does not have a center column and is an excellent general-purpose tripod that I would buy instead.

I recently bought a Really Right Stuff Groundpod TP-243 that I use with an RRS BH-55 ballhead. It is beautiful, expensive, sturdy, and fits even inside my Computrekker Plus. As long as I don't do panorama landscapes on the same hike, that is all I usually need.

Hope this helps --Jens

Do not forget that Adobe Photoshop CS2 has a noise-reduction filter built-in (Filter/Noise/Reduce Noise). That is what you may want to try first. I have been very pleased with the results---so much that I do not use any external noise reduction filters anymore. Also, since I do not use film anymore, I do not routinely reduce noise, but the built-in filter does a very good job both with film grain and digital noise.

<p><a href="http://www.jckrause.com/">Jens</a>

My favorite Photoshop book is: "Photoshop CS2 for Advertising and Marketing: Secrets from an Entertainment Advertising Insider (Paperback)" by Daniel O. Sorenson, ISBN: 0321350286.

Mr. Sorenson is an excellent teacher. The five project he discusses are real world examples that are highly practical and professional. While I am neither an advertising nor a marketing guy, I have learned a lot of nondestructive techniques from this book that I use everyday. His masking techniques are particularly useful.

Jens

A 180mm macro lens will give the same depth of field (DOF) as a 100mm macro ? reproduction ratio, aperture, and sensor/film size being constant. For example, if you use a Canon 20D with both lenses at 1:1 reproduction ratio, and an f/8 aperture, depth of field is identical.

<p><a href="http://www.jckrause.com/">Jens</a>

>> Most Leica M users operate their camera handheld: that is the best recipe for image degradation.

One can make a case that the M is meant to be hand-held. With its low profile, one can take images that would be difficult to achieve with bigger setups. Then again, put the M on a tripod and that advantage is gone. One may just as well use an SLR.

NPH (aka 400H) is a beautiful film especially for portraiture. A friend of mine used it with apparently good success for outdoor night shots thanks to its fourth color layer. I have always rated it as ISO 400 and was quite pleased with the color palette. My Nikon Coolscan IV has sometimes given me cyan or magenta casts on NPH as there is no color standard for negative film and Nikon Scan does not adjust for different negative films, but nevertheless NPH generally scans well.

<p><a href="http://www.jckrause.com/">Jens</a>

Admittedly, I have not taken any HDR images of portfolio quality, but played around a little bit with Photoshop CS2's HDR function. The main application for HDR seems to be for images that previously required neutral density filters to compress the high dynamic range. This may be more effectively done with HDR. Evaluating the HDR feature, however, my final pictures turned out to be less sharp than the single pictures. Also, they often looked artificial.

<p><a href="http://www.jckrause.com/">Jens</a>

I use a custom-designed template in JAlbum for my personal website: <a href="http://www.jckrause.com/Photo/index.html">http://www.jckrause.com</a>

<p>It works like a charm and blends well with the rest of my site.

Some of my best images were taken with a Nikon F75/N75, hardly a professional camera. I just needed a replacement for my F90X/N90X that I broke at the time. The F75/N75 fit the bill beautifully and cost less than $200 back when I bought it new in 2004. Except for the slow shutter, it never got in the way. When I then got the F90X/N90X back from repair, I still used the F75/N75 occassionally.

<p>If you know the limitations of a camera, you'll be able to enjoy even a point & shoot camera or a low-range SLR/DSLR. At the end of the day, I won't need mirror-lock-up, interval timer, 5-frame-per-second capabilities etc. for 95% of my shots.

<p><a href="http://www.jckrause.com/" >Jens</a>