Photo-A-Day

donaldejose

dissent. Welcome back. Glad to see you posting again.

Capt_Spaulding

First. Welcome back dissent.

Now. From the first set of images from the Z8.

donaldejose

Very nice body and lens combo. You can see the hairs on the back and the bokeh is smooth at f8.

Capt_Spaulding

Thanks. I'm pleased with it. Now I just need to get back in shape and get out and take some pictures. ;-)

donaldejose

Here is one I just did this morning to test the 105 f1.4 for bokeh and sharpness. Shot with the old "outdated" 12mp D700 sensor and then processed and upscaled through NX Studio. The non-upscaled file created a 7.55 mb jpeg containing 2815x4099 pixels. The NX Studio upscaled file creates a 22 mb jpeg containing 5991x8256 pixels. I am amazed how NX Studio can upscale old "outdated" 12 mp sensor files. The attached image is the upscaled file. Click image to go to flcker and examine the image larger. A statute bust makes a convenient, non-complaining, always available test model!

gene_mcgill

Capt_Spaulding

Another of my very late season backyard butterfly. This guy has been through a lot and is pretty beat-up from it.

donaldejose

This is the same image I posted yesterday run through Topaz Photo AI in order to upscale it two times from 5,991 x 8,256 pixels to 11,982 x 16,512 pixels. Remember this image was taken with a 12 megapixel "outdated" D700 with the 105mm lens at f1.4, ISO 500. You can see how modern software can significantly "update" files from old low megapixel sensors. Click through to flckr and examine the 4k size on your computer looking for noise at ISO 500. To me what modern software can do is amazing.

FreezeAction

donaldejose

Topaz Photo AI has a new version out, version 2.4.0. A new feature I like is the ability to apply sharpening to the subject only and leave the background alone. This helps when you have an image with lots of bokeh as you don't want to sharpen bokeh. The photograph below is the same image I posted two days ago but this time it is run trough the new version 2.4.0. You can click through to flickr. If you open all three images and look to the right of the bust at hair and at base level where the dark red wall transitions into a more pink color you can see grain in the NX Studio version, some color banding in the old Topaz Photo AI version and better transition between colors in the new Topaz Photo AI 2.4.0. Non-photographers probably won't see the differences or care if they do.

gene_mcgill

Capt_Spaulding

Larry and Gene: very nice work.

Donald, that’s impressive. Two reactions. First. Did I misspend buying the Z8? I don’t think so but the current and developing generations of software offer a lot of life for old sensors. Second, now I have to stop myself from getting caught up in the urge to keep up with the latest trends in the tech.

donaldejose

You didn't misspend on the Z8. It gives you 45 mp images all day long no matter the subject, moving or not. It gives you great cropping ability. It allows you to print your normal images large whether cropped or not. You can take the few great images you love the most and spend the time to upsize and denoise and sharpen them through the new software. You can use pixel shift on still subjects to create 180 mb images and then run those through Topaz Photo AI to upscale them even more. Starting with a Z8 allows you to produce full body portraits which can be printed life size. You can simulate Richard Avedon's "In the American West" photo project he did with an 8x10 view camera. Instead of buying a Hasselblad medium format camera and lenses you can just get a few Nikon f1.2 optics and have the medium format look. Or you can even spend far less money on a Chinese manual focus f0.95 lens or old f1.4 manual focus lenses and use the Z8 focus peaking feature for "medium format look" with less sharpness (but sharpness can be increased with Topaz Photo AI). Just keep your portrait subject in the center of the frame and use 1 to 1 or square image area for the old Hasselblad square look (it also cuts off the less sharp extreme corners). Process the file through NX Studio to upscale it (5,991 x 5,991 pixels) and perhaps leave the noise in for a grain simulation effect. Maybe I will take the time to produce some portraits like this to see how well it can be done. My thinking is that Z8 is an extremely, extremely versatile body. No one can go wrong owning one. Buy an old body, like the D700 or the D2x, just for fun to see what you can do with it. But use a Z8 for things that are more important to you.

Capt_Spaulding

Thanks Donald. I was being a bit facetious about the Z8. I love mine. But I am really impressed by the results you’ve achieved with upscaling. I’m hanging on to my D750 for now and a D2 or the like has possibilities. I’m not selling off my f mount glass just yet.

donaldejose

Just a hint here as to old cameras to buy for fun. The D2x is the oldest I would go. It has 12 mp and if you shoot it in RAW at base, or near base, ISO you can achieve very good results. But it has to old style picture controls and a weak LCD. You can get them for about $150.00 - $175.00 on mpb.com and that gives you all the great full pro body controls with built in vertical grip. If you have not had one of those bodies I recommend experiencing one. The 12 mp D300 is a pro style body without the vertical grip (like the difference between the Z8 and Z9). It has the "new" Nikon picture controls and a better LCD which makes it a much better "chimping" experience and JPEG shooter. They can be obtained for about $150.00 on mpb.com. It also has better high ISO but that shouldn't matter much since you should be shooting both of these bodies below ISO 400 in good light anyway. The reason to pick up a D700 is to obtain cleaner higher ISO, say shooting at 800 to 1,600 ISO. Mpb.com has these for about $400.00. The one I used for the images I recently posted was from ebay with more than 124,000 shutter actuations. It cost me $250.00 ($272.00 with shipping), but that is rare. NX Studio is free and easy to use. When you save (export in NX Studio language) a file it offers you the option of saving it upscaled about 2x to 8256 x 5494 pixels which is about 45 megapixels. Below is a NX Studio processed and upscaled file from the D2x. ISO 100, 50mm f1.8 lens shot at f4. Focus is on the eye of the bust of David. You can see grain in the maroon wall. I could use software to reduce or remove this grain but did not in this image. This is just NX Studio alone processing with its default noise reduction (which can be increased). Because this image is the same setting as the D700 images above which you found impressive it can serve as a good comparison with what you could do with a D2x or D300 (about the same sensor in both bodies) for a total cost of less than $200.00. Personally, I think it is well worth that cost for the entertainment value alone. Click through to flickr to evaluate at 100%.

gene_mcgill

Capt_Spaulding said:

Larry and Gene: very nice work.

Thanks Capt.

Coincidentally these past few photos I posted here are old D700 photos. With a good lens, it produced quite fine images. I sold the D700 when I got the D800e because the D800e did better at just about everything vs. the D700. I still have the D800e and a D7200 - cameras I held onto after buying a Z 7 because the Z 7, while a fantastic landscape camera, had a number of limitations that the older cameras didn't (principally, the DSLRs are more resilient in cold & stormy weather & the D7200 AF was better for action). My DSLRs sit on the shelf much more now. For me, the Z 8 really does do it all. I do enjoy occasionally using my old Ai-(S) glass with the DSLRs, and the D800e is a fine slide copying device with the 55mm micro + ES-1 + PK-13.

gene_mcgill

Another old D700 snap that looks better on Flickr:

donaldejose

Nice. I have always wanted to take sand dune shots but have never been a place where I could do it.

gene_mcgill

donaldejose said:

Nice. I have always wanted to take sand dune shots but have never been a place where I could do it.

Thanks Donald!

donaldejose

This is the same D2x photo I posted yesterday, except it has now been run through the New Topaz Photo AI 2.4.0 to eliminate noise so you can compare the difference. This photo has not been upscaled in Photo AI so it remains at the same pixel size it was coming out of Nikon NX Studio. Basically, this is an example of using Photo AI 2.4.0 for the purpose of reducing noise only. I think it gives a very clean result. I don't know why I have some small white spots on the wall in the image. Of course, they can be removed but I did not do so. I don't know if they are an artifact of processing or some pixel issue in the sensor or dust on the lens/sensor. I just cleaned the sensor and lens so will see if they show up again.

donaldejose

Here is the same D2x photo processed and upscaled in NX Studio and then again upscaled in Topaz Photo AI. It started as a 12mp file containing 4288x2848 pixels as captured by the lens and sensor. Then NX Studio upsized it to a 45mp file containing 8256x5483 pixels. Thus, NX Studio created 33 megapixels which WERE NOT captured by the lens and sensor. Consider them FAKE pixels. Then Topaz Photo AI upsized it to a 181mp file containing 16,512 x 10,966 pixels. So when you click through to flikr and look at the image below you will be looking at an image containing 169 FAKE megapixels which WERE NOT captured by the lens or sensor and instead were created by the software. Can you identify those FAKE created pixels? Can you see the tremendous number of FAKE pixels which were created by the software? I can't. Maybe you can.

dissent

another repost from 2017

donaldejose

Another test using a self-portrait. Can a Z8 be used in square format mode to convincingly emulate the Hasselblad 500c square "medium format look?" What do you think? Processed in NX Studio.



https://www.jeremymuddphoto.com/blog/2022/2/2/life-in-squares-the-hasselblad-500cm

dissent

composite from a lunar eclipse in September 2015.
Solar eclipse next month!

donaldejose

Old camera's and lenses. This cat portrait was taken today with a 16 year old Nikon D700 which had taken over 122,000 photos and a 22 year old Nikon 35-105D lens at f4.5. Notice how sharp it still is. You can clearly see the whiskers and the ear hairs. Click on the photo so you can see it larger on your computer monitor.