TMHO D800 is a game changing tool for macro photography for following reasons:
- Shooting distance. You don't have to go close to the subject anymore to capture huge detail.
A sample:
Please notic that: The underneath pictures were all taken handhold. If I would have been able to use a tripod, IQ and sharpness would even have been significantly better.
The scene:
Image taken handhold with D800 and nikkor 105 AF-S at iso 640, 1/1600 sec, F5.6, AF-C
In this sample I chose a rather big aperture with relative small DOF as a result for 1) The picture itself, 2) For AF-accuracy check and 3) because I needed a fast shutter speed on behalf of sharpness because there was quite a lot of wind...
And a 55% crop of the above image. Take care, the full size 55% crop is much bigger than this but I have to resize to 1024px longest size to fit on this forum.
And a "real" 100% crop:
And one more sample:
The scene:
And a 55% crop of the above image. Take care, the full size 50% crop is much bigger than this but I have to resize to 1024px longest size to fit on this forum.
x
x - Macro at higher iso. In case you shoot macro at high iso for reasons like not enough light to make the combination of shutter speed and a small aperture to get decent DOF, the impossibility to use a flash or because you hate the reflections a flash gives on the eyes of the insects, the D800' enormous resolution masks noise while you need less magnification. A 45% crop of a D800 file shows a bigger image than a 100% crop of a D3 or D700 file taken at the same distance...
Here below I posted some samples of the same scene shot at resp. iso 1600, iso3200, iso 6400, iso 12800, iso25600
Please notice that:- All these image have been taken handhold with D800 and 105AF-S VR
- These images have been captured while using spot metering on the white flower, which is basically the same as underexposing at least 1 stop.
For this kind of shots I like to separate the subject from the background with exposure.
While shooting low iso there would be no necessity to use spot metering while the D800 has a fantastic DR at low iso which enables correction of highlights and shadows in post processing. Shooting high iso obliges much more care about exposure in the way you want the final image to look like. - All images have been captured in NEF with picture control set to vivid and saturation a little pushed while I like that.
- The images are resized without additional sharpening or post processing.
x - Depending on the shooting circumstances and lighting conditions I always try to use the lowest iso possible and I would prefer using a macro flash system rather than to raise sensivity. With D700 and D3 I got good results for macro until iso 1600, with D800 -for macro- I probably might go up to iso 3200...
and a 33% crop resized to 1024 px longest side to fit on this forum
iso 3200
and a 33% crop resized to 1024 px longest side to fit on this forum
iso 6400
and a 33% crop resized to 1024 px longest side to fit on this forum
iso 12800
and a 33% crop resized to 1024 px longest side to fit on this forum
iso 25600
and a 33% crop resized to 1024 px longest side to fit on this forum
x
x - Using AF for macro shooting. For quite long time I am using AF for 80-90% of my pictures because -since D700-, the camera simply does AF mostly better and much faster than what I can do with manual focusing.
About AF precision, AF speed and AF with a lens TC/combo or lens/extention tube combo D800(and D4) even work significantly better than their repectiverly predecessors D700 and D3s.
During the D4 and D800 demo days at Art & Craft back in February I tested D4 AF precision with an extreme application:
I mounted my 3 kenko extension rings between the D4 and my 105AF-S and of course with a very limited DOF but handhold the D4 was autofocusing without problems.
The setup of that I describe here above:
And a result in a picture:
Take care: F14 handhold and iso 12800!!!
Since D700 and 105 AF-S VR exists I changed manual focusing for macro to AF for about 80%-90 of my macro shots. With my D800 this will probably go to 100%...
Stany
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