…so here, have a picture of my cat instead of a post:
Actually, I spent part of the day fooling with a new Nikon lens. And I’m pretty freakin’ happy with it too.
This shot of ShopKat was taken from about 75ft away with the camera and lens in automatic mode, overcast light, handheld with auto-stabilization enabled. Even in this resized and JPEG’d (it’s a word, look it up) image you can still see individual hairs on the cat. In the original NEF image, the resolution is damned near incredible.
I really, really like this camera.
What did you do with your weekend?
Hm, I helped a friend with their computer problems. Yay for being the go-to person in my family for computer trouble. After my uncle that is, except he's in the UK so he's not as convenient. And other than that I lazed around, now I actually need to do university work this week, except it's drawing. Does that count as real work?
ReplyDeleteDrawing only counts as work if you wear clothes while doing it.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you do with your weekend?
ReplyDeletePainting the inside of my new house. Err, my 150+ yr old house!
Yes, I will have many chores in my retired life...
SP
BTW -- heck of a photo!
ReplyDeleteSP
Mostly I lazed around and read. I practiced weightlifting with the collected short stories of Cordwainer Smith, with a couple of mysteries to mix things up.
ReplyDeleteStayed inside where it was cool... as opposed to outside where it was 93F with a heat index of 100F.
ReplyDeleteSaturday - sat in a park knitting with a bunch of other people for World Wide Knit In Public Day; had a tasty dinner at an Irish pub
ReplyDeleteSunday - yoga class; watched the rest of "The Last Airbender" series; had a tasty dinner at a steak restaurant
My filmmaker friend Nate says that Nikon bodies aren't necessarily best, but Nikon glass is second-to-none. I've heard that elsewhere, I think. Glad you're getting some good use out of the lens!
ReplyDeleteWhat did you do with your weekend?
ReplyDeleteI spent waaaay too much of it on I-freaking-95.
Okay, looks like my first post got et by a b'ar.
ReplyDeleteLet's try this again:
Wow, 75 ft? That's some narrow depth of field, given that the ground right behind ShopKat is out of focus. Which makes the sharp focus on the fur even more impressive. Does the RAW file contain any info about what f-stop the camera was using?
@Eric: "...Nikon glass is second-to-none."
True enough. If you're an amateur astronomer, do yourself a favor and check out Nikon eyepieces.
Mensley, I just went and paced it off, I'm a bit over in the post - it's a little under 60 feet (best guess without getting out the measuring tape). Additionally, the picture is something of an illusion, Both the cat and I are on separate rises, me higher than the cat, so that I'm actually shooting down at her and the background behind her is further away than it appears in the photo. Also, the picture is cropped - but other than that un-shopped. The F-stop was 5.6.
ReplyDeleteOne other thing to note, I took about fifteen shots right in a row, by holding my finger down on the shutter release in simulated motor drive. The cat was moving, listening for mice in the weeds. Out of that series of 15 or 20 shots, this is the only one that came out reasonably decent.
ReplyDeleteDamn, didn't mean for you to go to so much effort, Jim. But thank you for your commitment to technical photo geekery.
ReplyDeleteThat said, ah, I can see why it looks like the background is *just* behind ShopKat but is actually not so from your description. I knew there was a reason I was puzzled about the depth of field. Just for the sake of adding data to this conversation, any chance of seeing the original shot?
Sure, I'll update the post with the original shot when I get a minute (I don't have the originals uploaded to the server - they're still on the camera). Later tonight.
ReplyDeleteSunday I drove to DC from NY to discuss work with suits on Monday.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't wear suits, I did, it was in the 90s and made one understand why the Brits considered DC 'tropical' up until WWII.
It paid very well and it looks like a couple of hundred of hours of billable time.
ShopKat is world famous but I don't see any evidence that it has gone to his head. Not really sure what that means for a feline since they are already pretty full of themselves.
ReplyDelete