Nikon has officially announced its new professional DSLR, the Nikon D4. A competitor to the Canon 1Dx (which presumably will hit the market about a month later than the Nikon D4), the biggest change here if compared to Nikon’s old D3 line of cameras are its new video capabilities. However, there are quite a number of new and improved features to drool about:

• Nikon FX-format CMOS sensor with 16.2 effective megapixels
• 91K-pixel RGB sensor for metering, white balance, flash exposure, face detection and active d-lighting
• ISO Range 100-12,800 (50 – 204,800 with boost)
• Multi-area mode Full HD D-Movie 1080p(24/25/30 fps), 720p (up to 60 fps)
• Improved high-speed image-processing engine EXPEED 3
• 51-point AF system with better performance in low-light situations and with smaller apertures (f8)
• Dual card slots for CF card compatible with UDMA 7 and the new XQD memory card (just announced by Sony).
• High-speed continuous shooting at approx. 11 fps in FX format without AE/AF and approx. 10 fps with AE/AF
• Glass pentaprism viewfinder with approx. 100% frame coverage (FX format) and approx. 0.7x magnification
• Approx. 921k-dot, wide-viewing angle, 8-cm (3.2-in.) LCD monitor with reinforced glass
• "Sub-selector" for horizontal shooting and "Multi selector for vertical shooting" joysticks/buttons
• Button illumination for better handling in low-light situations
• Virtual horizon that detects both "pitching" and "rolling" directions.
• New shutter unit tested for 400,000 cycles; shutter speed up to 1/8,000 s and flash synchronization up to 1/250 s
• Build-in Ethernet port allow to hook up to your network
• New optional Wireless Transmitter with a/b/g/n Wi-Fi support
• HTTP mode to remotely control the camera with any Internet enabled device (iPhone/iPad optimized)

Joe McNally has hands-on experience already, visit his blog for more!

The announced price is about U.S. $6000. Now, let's wait what the still unannounced Nikon D800 is going to offer…

Tags: Nikon, D4

With the release of new versions of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, both including Adobes 6th version of their RAW engine, automated and profile-based lens correction has become “mainstream”. This is a relatively old technique, though, with several commercial offerings specializing on this task (e.g., DxO Optics Pro).

The very fist application to automate this process was PTLens, released in 2002. Its developer Tom Niemann was searching for a tool analyzing a JPEGs EXIF data, matching the photographies properties to a database of lens profiles and automatically correct for distortions. There was none, so he developed one himself. PTLens became a shareware add-on for Panorama Tools — these days it is available as stand alone program, command-line utility and as plug-in for a variety of image editing applications. PTLens has received lots of very favorable reviews over the years, and has always kept pace with more expensive commercial products.

Its price is very reasonable, the PTLens database of lens profiles is huge, and it is available as 64-bit plugin for Aperture 3. The results one can achieve with PTLens are great, and smoothly integrated as it is with Aperture, it has become a vital part of my digital editing workflow. I mentioned PTLens before, and I got a few emails asking about my experience with this tool.

One should carefully consider the application of lens correction. It is always better, of course, to use a superior lens distorting a photography as little as possible, than to rely on “tricks” after the “damage” has been done. Unfortunately, one can spend a fortune on lenses and often you just want to travel light, not carrying a wide collection of lenses each optimized for a very narrow range of use cases.

That’s where lens correction can help. My travel lens is a Nikon AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED. I am very happy with it, it has an extremely fast and silent autofocus and its VR system really works well. Image quality is very good overall — with such a wide zoom range you have to live with trade-offs, though. At its low end this lens is very sharp. However, there is noticeable distortion of the image at that range. At its long end, distortion is much better, but then this lens becomes somewhat soft. With this lens, distortion correction for images taken at its low end really improves things. The source image is sharp enough to “survive” the rather radical image transformation and the end result is still sufficiently sharp.

The following example illustrates the effects of lens correction with PTLens. Mouse over the thumbnails to view a larger image, moving back and forth between the thumbnails allows to compare the photo with and without lens correction. The left thumbnail represents the photo with lens correction. I have marked a few prominent lines in this example, taken from the distortion corrected image.

Figure 1: Mouse over to compare images

With PTLens available as plugin for Aperture, usage is as simple as one can hope for. Select one or multiple images to correct, and select the plugin menu entry from the main “Image” menu. The modal dialog of PTLens opens, already presenting a preview on the end result of the correction. Typically, your lens is automatically recognized, and the correction is applied taking into account the focal length the photo was shot at. Click-and-hold the preview image with your mouse pointer, and the image temporarily switches back to its unmodified state — so it is easy to compare the “before” and “after” images. PTLens has a number of parameters you can play around with, but I won’t go into the details…



One last word of caution on using PTLens — in fact, on using any plugin in Aperture 3… The great benefit of Aperture 3 is that any image modification in Aperture 3 does not actually alter the original image. Any change you make becomes an instruction how to change the image upon “publishing”. If you view images in Aperture 3, these change instructions are applied on the fly. If you export images, their change instructions are applied on the exported image, the original photography actually remains untouched. If you duplicate a working copy of an image, you just create a copy of the instructions set, which still refers to the unchanged original image.

However, once you process an image with any plugin, Aperture 3 writes a 16-bit TIFF with all currently existing change instructions applied. The plugin then modifies the 16-bit TIFF. You can continue to edit the image with build-in Aperture 3 tools, but they will become “change instructions” on the plugin-processed 16-bit TIFF, not on the original RAW file. Therefore, my recommendation is to apply plugins at the end of any image editing process. If you correct lens distortion, make sure to recover highlights and retouch the image before going into PTLens or other plugins. That way, you make sure the Aperture 3 tools have the biggest leverage — use them on the original RAW file, not on a 16-bit TIFF copy already missing some information otherwise available with the RAW file.

Tags: PTLens, Aperture, DxO Optics Pro, Lens Correction, Panorama Tools, RAW

Visiting Siena was the first real opportunity for me to put my new geotagger to the test. In the past, I have used my iPhone’s GPS using the Trails App to record my location during day trips. For the subsequent photo tagging, I was initially using HoudahGeo, then later I switched to the nicely integrated Aperture plugin Maperture Pro. This was with Aperture 2, with Aperture 3 no additional software is needed any more... However, I got tired of the hassle of importing and synchronizing tracks, so I decided to get a GPS receiver for the hot shoe of my camera.

Though the Nikon GP-1 unit looked quite promising at first, I decided to go for the Solmeta Geotagger N2 — even though I had to import the unit from China. Almost half the price of the Nikon product (considering the exchange rate at that time, not including import duty), the Geotagger N2 has the additional benefit of an electronic compass recording the heading of the camera. The Nikon D300 supports GPS heading data and the Solmeta GPS unit comes with all the right cables for the D300. In addition, the Geotagger N2 has a build-in rechargeable battery, delaying depletion of the cameras battery-pack quite a bit. If you want to use a flash, you can clip the geotagger to your camera strap. Then, of course, the heading will be off…



The Geotagger N2 is a rather plain plastic box, as you can see in the photo above. In the hot shoe, it is a very tight fit. But, because it’s all plastic, I am confident that gets less and less of a problem over time… The unit has a socket for a cable remote and Solmeta adds a reasonably functional one. The 10-pin socket of the Nikon D300 itself is occupied by the Geotagger N2 wiring.

Using the geotagger is simple. Turn it on — or put it on “auto” and turn your camera on — and wait for a more or less short time for the unit to acquire its position. The chip used for the Geotagger N3 is a SiRF Star III, and the time it needs to get a lock is comparable to other systems using this chip. It takes longer, if you haven’t used the unit for a while or if you have traveled a great distance with the geotagger turned off. Personally, once I use the tagger I actually leave it on the whole time I carry the camera. I don’t use its “auto” position. With the build-in rechargeable battery of the Geotagger N2, a fully charged Nikon EN EL3e and an Eneloop-loaded MB-D10 battery grip you keep on shooting for at least one, two days or more…

The accuracy of the tagger seems OK. I have done a few tests comparing the location of the geotagger with the one reported by my iPhone. Those two match quite well. In addition, the location reported on the same geographical spot at different times and different weather conditions are pretty close and match my actual location pretty good. Unfortunately, I have not yet tested the recorded heading with any supporting software - Aperture 3 does not visualize heading (that would be a feature request for Apple...), and I had not time yet to test any other software.



Overall, I am quite happy with the Solmeta Geotagger N2. Its price is reasonable and the feature/function set is superior if you compare it with the Nikon GP-1. There are few negative points: its design is plain and the plastic material feels a bit cheap. Though where it matters most, actually recording an accurate geographical location, this gadget performs admirably.

Tags: Geotagging, Nikon, D300, Aperture, Siena, Solmeta, Geotagger N2

This is it. My first blog post!

I want to keep it simple, and short… Though my first website went online in 1998, I have not used it for any other purpose as some sort of electronic CV or “business card”. Well, I want to change that…

Photography is a long-time hobby of mine. Shooting film for 25+ years, I finally went all digital just last year. Actually, a long time ago I started to postpone any further investment into my now 17 years old analog Minolta Dynax/Maxxum 9xi-based system. That was in 2001, when I bought my first digital snapshot camera. I quickly realized it wasn’t just a toy, but “the future”. In 2009, I finally bought a Nikon D300. The time in between was essentially waiting for digital getting mature, and waiting for the heirs of Minolta Photography getting their act together. Reluctantly, I realized I don’t trust Sony with anything going beyond “consumer” — eventually I switched to Nikon (maybe I underestimated Sony, their current DSLR lineup doesn’t look too bad).

I read a number of blogs. I regularly read, e.g., John Grubers “Daring Fireball” (I am an Apple enthusiast, you guessed correctly), a number of photography-related blogs and, of course, those blogs put online by friends. In general, I quite enjoy blogs voicing an opinion, engaging in some kind of discussion. In addition, blogs sharing tips & tricks, tutorials and problem solutions have become an important resource I turn to for first level support if I need help with, e.g., specific software.

So, that’s what I want my blog to become. Mostly, I want to share my photos — those I deem worthy, anyway — and, sometimes, my opinion on more or less relevant topics. Maybe I can contribute help every once in a while by providing tips and trick on software and IT related issues.

That is it. Enjoy!

Tags: Minolta, Dynax 9xi, Maxxum 9xi, Sony, Nikon, D300