michael_radika

Thank you very much for all of your guys replies didn't know anything about the firmware update with Sigma lens problem that's interesting I just spoke with Sigma today on the phone and they said you can basically buy any of their art lenses and send them in for free to Sigma and they will calibrate them to your camera for free. I'll have to call Sigma back and ask him about that 1.13 firmware update problem see if they have an answer for that thank you for all of your replies keep them coming I'm very interested in this camera.

Hi my name is Michael I'm thinking of buying a Nikon D810. I've read some reading some reviews it seems like a very good camera great image quality I'm wondering how the auto focus is compared to today's cameras just cameras what 3 or4 years old what are and how good the auto focus is?. I'm also wondering is far as portraits go I know Sony has eye detection and face detection what does Nikon use to lock in on the eyes of someone you want to take a portrait of do they have this type of thing on the camera or not? if not what do you do is there something else that Nikon has that will track the eye or the face to get it in the focus ? I have a Nikon d7200 I'm using Sigma art lens is on it and they focus really well so I'm how they're going to work on the D810. Thank you in advance for all of your answers.

Well you won't be doing any high speed sync and the sync speed on the Pentax is extremely slow. It does take very very beautiful pictures but you might want to consider something else if you're going to focus on portraits. Mamiya RZ Pro 2 or Bronica gs1 both excellent cameras and they both use Leaf shutters in their lenses which means you can sync all the way up to the fastest shutter speed on the camera which is about 1/500 of a second it makes a big difference. I would say both of those cameras take just as good a pictures as a Pentax. Both can be had on eBay for very good prices. Another good Japanese site to go and buy camera equipment is called buyee.com have every camera ever made it's a site in Japan and you can find really hard to get stuff there good luck.

What kind of Photography do you do? The Pentax 6 X 7 only has a sync speed of 1/30 very slow. Depends on what type of Photography you're doing. He pretty much have to shoot it on a tripod because it has a lot mirror flap which causes vibrations you have to mount it on a hefty tripod.

Yeah well I ditched the film idea wasn't able to get a dark room too much hassle too much trouble don't have the space like others have said anywhere from $50 to $100 to get a good high res drum scan of something that you like another thousand to $1, 500 scanner constantly buying film in the long run digital way cheaper, even though the initial investment and digital is more to start out not in the long run you count up all the five the $8 rolls of film you're burning how many times you sit there and pay $75 to have a drum scan. I say it again love film love medium format film cameras love the look of wet Prints do not like the look of scanned images. They do retain some of the film look not a whole lot of it but some of it. I can shoot a Fuji xt2 in Arcos mode simulated black and white mode and put it up against anybody scanning film. it's very realistic looking there are some very good presets or some very good software out there that helps you simulate film it's not perfect but it looks pretty darn good and while you sit there and try to roll film around your 120 canisters to process them I'll just push my little 32 gig card into my camera and I'm good. I don't regret leaving film at all in fact it's the smartest thing I probably could have done it's i just too much of a process to shoot to shoot it to develop it to have it scanned. Now if scan film look like a wet print I'll drop my digital gear in 5 seconds and go back to a film camera. I'm very happy with the switch to digital No Doubt I'm still learning how to process my images better and print them but that's all part of photography. and I'm not knocking film you guys that shoot film and scan it and are happy more power to you. Exactly like the previous poster said it's whatever floats your boat.

Looks very nice nice shot.

Are we talkin jpeg or we talkin Raw? What kind of Photography are you doing you can't tell me you're taking portraits of people and you don't have to retouch the skin and remove blemishes on the face it comes out perfect I'd love to see that.

So what you're trying to tell me is you don't use Lightroom you're so good at exposure that your stuff just comes out darn near perfect in the camera I don't buy it, I would have to see that to believe it.

I'm going to be moving up to the prograf 1000 from Canon which will print 17 by 22 images with pigmented ink. I agree things can happen inside the computer and leaving stuff on memory cards it's nice to take the image from the computer and bring it to life in a print there's something special about when that print is slowly coming out of that printer in your digital image is coming to life.

With my Sony a7r II and my 85 mm Batis lens stuff looks pretty damn impressive loads and loads of detail I love it. I take my images I run them through Nik software and Adobe Lightroom andand then on to my Canon Pixma pro-100. I'm using ilford galerie prestige mono silk paper it's made for black and white prints, they look pretty damn amazing couldn't be happier.

my point exactly most desktop scanners are not worth a crap there for you have to get things drum scanned or whatever that Hasselblad scanner is. I'm not going to Fork out 30 or $40 every time I take a good picture to have it scanned so I can make a print. I can achieve damn close to the same look using Nik software and Adobe Lightroom and the prints look good on my Canon Pixma pro-100. I don't see the point in spending money on film and scanning to achieve what I can achieve in other means for much less money. I'm over the Nostalgia that I'm a film shooter and I shoot medium format film I'm over it.

Thank you, I wish you nothing but luck too Yeah I just hope through all of this threaded all this trial and error I do love film I do love film cameras I love medium format cameras it's the adapting it to sort of a digital world that I don't like. For me developing the film I love it put in a roll of film in the camera and whining it forwardI l and looking through that screen and focusing is a lot of fun. I spent 4 years in school studying photography and I fell in love with film developing the film and making my own prints in the dark room Black and White. I lived in that dark room hours and hours and hours on end practicing printing and I got fairly decent at it and I really enjoyed making prints. I shot 6 X 7 4 x 5 those were my two favorites I love the 4 X 5 camera I love taking it out and shooting landscape and developing the film and making prints. I think since I've come back into photography I didn't know what I wanted exactly I came back and I bought a digital camera I didn't like the look of the digital but I didn't explore it enough I didn't like the look of it so I got rid of it and bought myself a 6 X 7 film camera. And never contented printing the negatives in a dark room I don't have a dark room most of the dark rooms of closed up and getting to one is just too much trouble. I thought I would just mix film sorter with digital scanning to be exact. That's where all my troubles began I could not get scanned film to look good in my eyes I'm sure other people are completely happy with it to me it just never looked good. It was like this image that was crying out to be printed in a dark room a wet dark room. Scanned and print it out on an inkjet printer process through Lightroom it have a weird look that I can't put into words. Maybe I was so stuck on what a dark room print looks like that I thought it would basically look the same I thought scanned it printed it and out came this film looking thing that wasn't the case. Since I bought my digital camera and a I have used silver efex Pro 2I, and Nik software analog 2 among other softwares I have achieved a digital image that has a film look to it. after I process my images and I print them out on my inkjet printer in my eyes they look how I envisioned it to look it's got that subtle grain look of film it just has the look that I'm looking for then I'm happy I've been able to achieve. Some people don't like mirrorless cameras some people do this Sony a7r II is a fantasticthe So at a very good price used you can pick up one for $1, 500 and you're getting a 42 megapixel camera that shoots fantastic images. Plenty of lenses available to to me I think for 2000 bucks and you get 42 megapixels it's pretty tough to beat. I miss my Bronica camera that I sold I still have all my darkroom stuff for developing myI film I still have rolls of film sitting around. Yeah I kind of miss load in the film and shooting it. I certainly don't miss having to scan all of it and send it out to someone to scan it and then if you want really good scans they're not cheap. That was another thing trying to buy a scanner most of the Epson scanners I don't find very good I heard the Nikon one was pretty good but that's more money the whole scanning thing did not appeal to me at all. having to send it out and pay for it and then if you really want to blow up a big print and have a really nice image you need a drum scan which very pricey to have one negative that you can blow up large and it cost just $65 no thank you Yes I had to put out more money to get the digital stuff but in the end all the film I won't have to buy all the developing chemicals I won't have to buy all the scanning I won't have to pay for I'll be ahead in the end. and there is certainly something to say about taking your memory card out and popping it in the computer and Bam all your pictures are right in front of you kind of cool.

Sounds like lots of developing and scanning to me know thanks. Unless of course you are printing the prints out if you make prints in the darkroom.

Sony a7r ii

I have processed some stuff over the last few days Inn in nik software, they have an analog mode that adds film simulation to digital images it works fantastic it's the look I'm happy with and what I was trying to achieve with scanning but was unable to. To me using this software combined with Lightroom and then pointed it out on my Canon Pro 100 looks absolutely stunningly fabulous I'm happiest can be no more buying feel no more processing film no more scanning all those extra steps are eliminated.

Ok thanks

Thank you for your reply and the information on the camera. I know what you mean about getting older and carry more weightI no doubt about that. doesn't this camera have some type of pixel shift feature or something that you can actually bump up the megapixels to like 40 or 50 if it's a still image? Seems like a very interesting concept.

Yes obviously the problem was focusing having to turn the lens and get it pinpoint sharp on the object them focus on a digital camera you don't have to do that auto focus does that for you. If you read my previous post I solved the focusing problem with the different Focus screens that I purchased the problem was not focusing anymore the problem was I do not like the look of scanned filmthe differ and then print them. I like the look of film printed in a dark room a real darkroom it looks fabulous My ultimate goal is that unrealistic in my situation to go to a dark room too far away too much trouble not worth it. I have taken some digital prints and ran silver efex Pro 2 and I have achieved the look that I'm looking for I get somewhat of a film look and I can print them out on my Canon Pixma Pro 1000 printer and extremely happy with the look. Now it's just buy myself a digital camera and some lenses and I will be a happy camper.

I was hoping I can find some Sony a7r II raw files of portraits for free download I'd love to look at the files in Lightroom and do some printing on my Canon.

I do a lot of portraits so the eye auto focus is very important to me. but I don't think many of my subjects will actually be moving very much.

Everything I've read about it says that the auto focus is pretty darn good. I'm going to go down next weekend to my local camera store and I'm going to rent it for the weekend and I'm going to run it through all the tests and I'll be the judge of myself if the auto focus is good enough. I think this is the best way to come to a good conclusion and decision whether to buy the camera or not.

Depending on the autofocus you know what I may have to do is I may have to go rent the Sony a7r II for a day with some and see how the auto focus is and see if it's a deal-breaker. If it's a deal-breaker my other camera would be the Sony A7 iii. I've also heard the 90 2. 8 macro lens Sony is a pretty good portrait lens maybe something to consider.

How slow is the auto focus on the a7r II?

Yeah I think the Zeiss 85 mm batis is going to be my first lens for sure. The Sony a7r II is about $2, 000 new there's there's several of them on eBay between $1, 200 and 2000. Trying to find one somewhere in the$1, 500 range in good condition low shutter clicks.