I’m back in Canada after 4 days of shooting with my New Nikon D4 in Maui. I put it through a gruelling few days of shooting anything and everything in sight. It performed beautifully on all accounts, most notably I was impressed with the new autofocus system, image detail, speed and feel. I only had one battery to use and I was shooting stills and video all day and the battery performed exceptionally as well. The video capabilities with AF-F, full-time autofocus and time-lapse features also performed better than I could have imagined. Below are some images from Day 2. Click each image to enlarge and see the camera settings and information. Enjoy!
Slowing Down the Action with Amazing Detail on the D4 at 100 ISO with a 30 second exposure
I saw the subtle colours of the algae on the detailed almost monochromatic rocks and thought I would test the Nikon D4′s low ISO detail with a long exposure time shot from a tripod. By slowing down the action with this technique, the contrast between the detail of a rocks at the softness of the water over a 30 second duration provided a wonderful, almost surreal image.
Amazing Detail at 100 ISO on the Nikon D4 – Click to Enlarge and View Camera Info
NIKON D4 | f/8 at 30 sec | Focal Length: 50mm | 100 ISO | Lens: AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1.4G – by Kristian Bogner © 2012
Freezing the Moment with Flash and the Nikon D4
I set up a small light stand to the left of the model with one SB-900 flash and a small softbox on the shore and put a few large rocks on the stand to keep it from falling in the wind. I used a pocket wizard radio slave to trigger my flash which was set to 1/2 power to minimize my recycle time. I used 1250 ISO on the D4 to give the SB-900 plenty of power and enable me to keep the light stand far enough away from the subject that it wouldn’t get knocked over by a rogue wave. (It has happened to me before) I shot with my super sharp Nikon 85mm at f/4.5 to give me enough depth of field to keep the model and frozen water in focus but have some softer areas as contrast to make the details pop. I shot at 1/40sec to record some of the ambient light and get a slight bit of movement in the waves while the flash froze most of the important action.
This is the most effective autofocus system I have used on any camera…ever. The new MultiCAM 3500FX autofocus on the D4 was able to autofocus in almost no light at all. Even with the waves crashing I was able to get amazing sharp images.
Freezing the Action with Flash at 1250 ISO on the Nikon D4 – Click to Enlarge and View Camera Info
NIKON D4 | f/4.5 at 1/40 sec | Focal Length: 85mm | 1250 ISO | Lens: AF-S Nikkor 85mm 1.4G – by Kristian Bogner © 2012
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