Dave Hartley

Rotating Rubber caps on the Nikon D3/D3x

The Ten-pin remote and flash sync terminals on the Nikon D3/D3x have rubber caps that are attached to the camera. This is a big improvement over the small screw caps that were on previous models. However, I found that the rubber caps would sometimes get in the way when attaching remote cords. The other day, I was attaching a remote, and had a moment of clarity. The rubber caps actually rotate, so you can move them out of the way. This is shown in the photo. It’s only taken me a 18 months of using the camera to find this neat feature!

Pelican 1550 with Nikon D3 and D2x

Sometimes when traveling via air, it’s necessary to put your equipment in checked luggage. This all depends on which airline you are traveling with and their carry on restrictions. One of the most trusted storage options are Pelican cases.   Choosing which case is suitable for your needs is often a hard choice. One of the best options is to take your equipment down to your local camera store and try them out. It’s amazing how a case which on paper seems large suddenly shrinks in size when you start putting your gear in. I find the padded dividers work best for me as it allows me to reconfigure the case as needed.

One of the key things to consider is the internal height of the case. This is especially important if you have one of the “pro” bodies that have an integrated vertical grip. A large number of cases that on paper look fine will not work when you try to put a Nikon D3/D3x in them. The reason being is their interior height is much too short, making it impossible to shut the case lid! The photo shows a Pelican 1550 case with a D3 on the left and a D2x on the right; this case has an interior height of 7.62″. You can see that this case is the minimum height that allows you to store the camera upright. Cases such as the 1450 and 1500 do not have sufficient interior height (6″ and 6.93″ respectively). You would have to lay the camera down flat with these cases, hence consuming precious space.

Launch of STS-126

On Friday November 14th, we were lucky enough to watch the night launch of the Endeavour space shuttle from the Causeway at the Kennedy Space Center. This was pretty amazing to say the least and was quite challenging to photograph. The cropped image shows the launch, just as the shuttle cleared the tower. The orginal photograph was taken in portrait orientation, with my D3, 200-400 with 1.4 teleconverter, ISO 800, 1/125 sec @ f11. The causeway is about 6.5-7 miles from the launch pad. I”ll be posting an article on my experiences photographing the night launch in the near future.

During my recent travels, I’ve been keeping a log of camera battery usage. I did this to get a better feeling on how the camera and battery combinations were working so that in the future I would have a good idea on how many batteries I would need out in the field.

The first major workout for my D3 was our trip to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the Antarctic peninsula. This was a twenty five day cruise in the Southern Ocean. I used the Nikon EN-EL4a rechargeable Li-ion battery exclusively taking a total of three on the voyage. The usage statistics for this trip are shown below (14-bit RAW capture with loss less compression). The lenses used and the approximate percentage of use were the 17-35/2.8 (~15%), 28-80/2.8 (~10%), 70-200/2.8 (~15%) and 200-400/4 (~60%). The 70-200 and 200-400 lenses have VR and this was enabled.  Weather conditions on the Falklands are similar to England (rain, wind, sleet, sun, all in about 60 minutes!). South Georgia is colder, with temperatures from just below freezing to about 5C (windchill can lower this considerably if you get Katabatic winds). The Antarctic peninsula was about the same as South Georgia. During the trip, I never had to change a battery whilst out shooting.

D3 Battery Usage for the Falkland Islands, South Georgia & Antarctica 2008

Compare these numbers with a trip to Antarctica and the Falkland Islands that we did in late November/ early December the previous year. This was early in the season and hence we had colder weather whilst in Antarctica. I was also shooting with the D2x as the D3 became available whilst we were away. The lenses used were almost identical to those mentioned before with the 12-24/4 being used instead of the 17-35/2.8. Both EN-EL4a and the lower capacity EN-EL4 were used; capture was 12-bit uncompressed RAW.

D2x Battery Usage for Antarctica and the Falkland Islands 2007

Notice that the average number of pictures increased with the D3 compared with the D2x. You can also see the higher capacity EN-EL4a performing much better than the EN-EL4.

Finally, some statistics for the D3 in hot climates. The D3 with the EN-EL4a was used for a trip to Belize for the last two weeks of May 2008. The first week was spent in the jungle whilst the second week was spent offshore on the two of the Cayes. Temperature was very hot, around 38C (100F) with humidity through the roof in the jungle; on one of the Cayes, we were photographing Red footed Boobies on a platform, in absolutely scorching sun, so temperature was around the same but humidity was lower. The same lenses were used (17-35, 28-70, 70-200, 200-400) with the 200-400 being used for about 90% of the images. All images 14-bit RAW capture with loss less compression.

D3 Battery Usage for Belize

The middle battery numbers included using the live-view feature in tripod mode; this tends to use up more batteries due to the use of the rear LCD. Normally I would expect the battery performance to be better in warmer conditions, but the numbers are slightly distorted due to the more intensive use of the 200-400 (with VR) and also the live view mode.

On our recent trip to Belize, we spent two and a half days at Half Moon Caye. This is owned by the Belize Audubon Society and is a sanctuary for Red-Footed Boobies and Frigate Birds. Each morning, the Audubon residents would check the sanctuary to see if any chicks had fallen out of their nests. The adult birds will not tend to these chicks and so the birds are rescued, raised and eventually released into the wild. When we visited, there were two chicks that had been rescued and these hung out by the resident accommodation. We went to photograph the two chicks but the photographic environment was not optimal to say the least. One chick was hanging out by the building with the other standing on the building steps. To make matters worse, the background was a mixture of wooden building and bright background caused by the fact that the building was raised. The picture below gives you an idea of what we saw when we first turned up.

At first I thought there was no decent shot in the current setting but decided to take a few shots anyway. Looking through the view finder, I originally tried to put the dark part of the background behind the chicks head but had trouble getting the right composition. Then I noticed the pleasing blue background which was the out of focus sea. I then changed my angle to put the blue background behind the chicks head and played around with various compositions. The picture at the top of the post shows the result of changing my angle and working the subject.

On our recent January trip to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island and the Antarctic Peninsula, I was able to give the Nikon D3 a good shakeout, with my trusty D2x as a backup. I was looking forward to seeing how the image quality was at higher ISO’s. This is important when traveling to places such as the Falkland Islands and South Georgia as the weather is typically overcast, resulting in plummeting shutter speeds; not so good for shooting wildlife. The camera did not disappoint; in fact it was stunning. Take a look at the table which shows the ISO speed and the number of photos that were taken (actually the number of images I still have on my disk). Most images were shot at ISO 800, with the next two ranges being ISO 500 and 640. I only have 135 images with the ISO at it’s base value of 200. The image quality was so good that I was treating ISO 800 as a starting point. You will see that I shot a few images at ISO 100 (LO 1); I was trying to get the slowest shutter to blur a glacial stream which had a King penguin standing on a rock.

Compare this to an identical trip that we took in February 2006. In this case, the Nikon D2x was my main camera. The following table shows the ISO speed and associated number of pictures that are sitting on a backup portion of one of my drives. Notice that most of the images where shot at ISO 200. Only a small number of pictures where taken at ISO 800. Was the weather better? Good light? Not really, pretty much the same. What the D3 allowed me to do was to utilize faster shutter speeds and/or add more depth of field. This is a huge benefit to wildlife photographers! Animals are always moving around and the light is not always optimal, so being able to utilize higher ISO is a huge gain!

Considering these statistics, if my D3 was my main camera and my D2x was my backup, how many pictures did you think I took on the trip with my D2x? Less than twenty and I only kept three! I’ll discuss that more in another post.

I received my Nikon D3 in early December after I returned from my November/December 2007 Antarctica trip. Wish I’d had it for the Emperor penguins and the following Falkland Islands trips but it didn’t ship till late November 2007 and of course I wasn’t in the country to pick it up! The good news was that I had it for my January trip to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula. To say the camera is sensational is an understatement. The ISO handling, autofocus, rear LCD etc have really pushed the envelope. Typically when you travel to the Falklands and South Georgia you are constantly fighting poor light due to overcast skies. Obviously, this impacts shutter speed which is always worrying when shooting wildlife. The D3 allows me to shoot at ISO ranges that I wouldn’t have dreamed about before. The photo was taken with a storm brewing, overcast skies, rain, windy; in fact shortly afterwards we were all hurried back to the ship in case it got too rough for the zodiacs. The image was taken at ISO 3200 which gave me 1/250 @ f8. Although the Elephant seals look like they are just lying there, in fact they are constantly moving around due to the hierarchy and they are also always blowing their noses, hence the need for Kleenex.