Category Archives: Reviews

Testing the Nikon D4: Wildlife and Teleconverters

Posted on by
10

Goose chase (Nikon D4 with 600mm VR & TC-14E)

When Nikon first announced the D4, I’ll admit that there weren’t a ton of features in the spec sheet that really made me jump up out of my chair. Most of the new features are subtle, unless you are a professional videographer (the D4 video options are top-notch). In my original post reacting to the D4 announcement, I mentioned several items that were of potentially great use to outdoor/wildlife photographers, and two of these made me want to upgrade over the D3s:

  • Better AF, and  the ability to autofocus with teleconverters up to at least f/8
  • More pixels for using 1.2x crop mode (or just cropping)

Continue reading →

ShareShare on Twitter
Submit to StumbleUpon
Twitt

Testing the Nikon D4: Metering comparison with D700

Posted on by
6

How does the meter in the Nikon D4 compare to its predecessor?

Anytime you get a new camera, it’s always a good idea to put it through its paces before taking it out on a critical shot. In this post, I’ll compare the Nikon D4 light meter with that of the D700.

The Nikon D4 and D800 DSLRs use Nikon’s 3D Color Matrix Metering III, an upgrade from the previous 3D Color Matrix Metering II found in the D3/D700/D300 DSLRs. While the MkII version of Nikon’s 3D Color Matrix meter uses a 1,005 pixel RGB sensor, the new meter uses an RGB sensor with 91,000 pixels.

What does all this mean in terms of image quality? Hard to say, but in theory the new meter should be more accurate, all things being equal. I did a very simple backyard test, comparing different subjects with the same lens. Continue reading →

ShareShare on Twitter
Submit to StumbleUpon
Twitt

Nikon D4 Autofocus Test

Posted on by
10

He's coming right for us! (click to enlarge)

Here’s a quick AF test with the Nikon D4. This is a continuous 39-shot burst at 10fps using the 70-200mm f/2.8 AFS G VRII zoom Nikkor. Out of 39 shots, only two seemed too soft to really use. That’s good enough for me!

See the full image sequence here

Test conditions:

  • Servo Mode: AF-C (continuous)
  • Area Mode: 9-point dynamic
  • Tracking (Custom a4): Normal (3)
  • Exposure mode: Manual 1/1000s @f/4.0
  • ISO: Auto
  • VR: On (normal)
ShareShare on Twitter
Submit to StumbleUpon
Twitt